Expanded Portrait

The construction of representations of the human figure, especially the face, is the earliest motifs of human drawing and one of the main objects of the study of art. In addition to witnessing the reality of instantaneous physical qualities, a portrait implies the body itself as a vehicle of subjectivation and a canvas for expressivity. However, our awareness of our own image and possibilities of identity constitution are confined to a set of culturally constructed and socially valued rules of appearance, and to the operation range of the human perceptual system, which in turn cripple our knowledge and imagination about ourselves.

Stemming from the analysis of the technological and aesthetic canons of the photographic human portrait, our research explores the notion of Expanded Portrait as a new mode of representation which visualizes spatiotemporal dimensions of the subject beyond the range of human visual perception, using the eyes of the machine focused on live action, registering pure performativity without post-production processes. These new configurations propose to expand current paradigms that support the construction of representations of the human figure.