Fair Tech and Virtual Fun

IMPAKT Workshop: Face and body filters

Yun Lee and Jonathan Reus, from iii, instrumentinventors.org, The Hague (NL)

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Use filters like a pro and get ready for the Bal Masqué

With the use of software like Zoom, OBS and Snap Camera, we can create our own virtual backgrounds, digital masks, video compilations and even perform live coding and VJ sets. In this workshop we delve into the colorful world of filters, guided by performing artists Yun Lee and Jonathan Reus from iii.
We will be using Snap Camera and Lens Studio. Participants will go through the basics of how to import custom images, animations and 3D models into your filter, working with face and body meshes, creating interactions, and building a performance around these elements. To make the most of your time, come prepared with sketches of specific movements and affects you would like to work with.
Spots for the workshop are limited.
You can register at: https://forms.gle/zVjT7vXQTpPcrwwL8
If you have any questions about the workshop and/or software, please email us at battle@impakt.nl
And don’t miss the chance to show off what you have learned at the Bal Masqué on Saturday 11 September!
Over the past two years, a big part of our life has moved to virtual spaces. We learned to live, meet, work and celebrate online. In the Bal Masqué, we explore these new virtual environments as spaces for creativity, shared experiences, identity building, collectivity and fun.

Requirements
Internet connection
Webcam
Windows or Mac computer with Lens Studio and Snap Camera installed
Zoom (download here: https://zoom.us/download) – we will use Zoom for presentation materials & tutorials
A Snapchat account (create one at: https://accounts.snapchat.com/accounts/signup) – you will need a Snapchat account to publish and use your filters
Discord account (create one at: https://discord.com/register) – we will use Discord as a community chat space during and after the workshop

(Optional)
An external mouse is useful for navigating the 3D editor of Lens Studio
Images, animated gifs, video files, or 3D models that you would like to use in your filters. (Note: custom media files should be no bigger than 3-4MB, 3D models should be in fbx format for the highest compatibility)

Please test that the software works on your laptop. If there are any issues, please email us at yun@instrumentinventors.org or hello@jonathanreus.com

Yun Lee: Yun Lee is an artist, performer, and curator mostly working with lecture-performances, sound, and workshops. Much of their work engages critically and playfully with recording technology to navigate shifting definitions of what being human is. In short, Yun is concerned with how our filtered ways of sensing both limit and extend the ways we understand, categorize, and compose the world. For the past few years, Yun has been delving into research on facial recognition, identification politics, masks, anonymity and avatars, resulting in lectures, performances and workshops. Along with this work, Yun will be bringing their performance experience walking and battling in online balls during lockdown.

Jonathan Reus (b. US): Jonathan Reus is a performing artist, musician, composer, and researcher based in the Netherlands. Fundamentally interdisciplinary in approach, Reus’ performance and artistic works are characterized by hands-on experimentation, hybrid thinking, and consideration for the material conditions and surroundings in which art, technologies, and communities are created. In this spirit, Reus’ music and performance work draws equally from vernacular folk music traditions as from live-coding and computational data. His interest in face filters comes out of recent projects where he has explored the role of masks at the intersection of traditional and digital ritual celebrations. Together with Italian designer Nicolo Merendino he initiated the WORTH partnership supported project PERSONA, which involved working together with traditional Venetian mask makers to imagine new digital approaches to generative mask-making for Venice Carnivale and masquerades. He has also developed workshops around traditions of death masks and burial rituals using 3D facial scanning.