A Portrait Without Borders, Kaleider

In 2020, audiences were missing due to Covid-19 restrictions.

It is very hard for people to be physically distanced and not also feel mentally distanced. This project aimed to create a joyful sense of solidarity and togetherness at a time of physical distance.

Over the course of the project, large-scale murals of many faces were created using Artificial Intelligence and robots, as well as audience engagement. Strangers are depicted next to each other, simultaneously present, together, and yet apart.

Each drawing sits amongst all the others submitted by the public, creating large murals of physical presence, togetherness, and solidarity at a time of distance and fear, in multiple locations internationally.

For Freedom Festival 2020, Kaleider pivoted their larger scale outdoor piece to live stream from inside empty venues.

Kaleider built an online platform where the public can go and capture their selfie, see an AI drawing of it, and then submit that drawing, to be drawn by a robot.

The online platform hosts a live stream of the robotic polargraphs drawing everybody’s faces, providing a witness to the live and physical act happening in real time in deserted venues.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

A Portrait Without Borders is a Kaleider production commissioned by Freedom Festival in Hull and supported by Digital Democracies. Kaleider is an international production studio led by artist Seth Honnor. Playing on the edge of installation, live performance and digital Kaleider makes artworks for audiences all over the world and runs innovation programmes in art and creative technology for others to develop and produce work.

ABOUT THE COMMISSION

Commissioned by Freedom Festival Arts Trust. Supported by Digital Democracies and IN SITU.

Part of the Creative Europe funded IN SITU Network ‘ACT’ 2017-2020 as an international collaborative project in response to Covid-19.

Kaleider is an associated member of IN SITU, the European platform for artistic creation in public space, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.