RASTERFAHNDUNG /SQUARE TRACE is an interactive installation exploring the pervasive nature of mass surveillance and the unsettling feeling of being constantly observed. For this project, I used an Axis IP Surveillance Camera, which I programmed to control its own 'behavior.' Connected to a custom Processing sketch, the camera continuously scans its surroundings by rotating on its axis.

The live video feed is projected nearby, tinted in a dark blue that renders the environment and its occupants barely recognizable—until the system detects a face. Using a facial recognition library, the camera immediately highlights the face with a bright square and zooms in to the maximum. Visitors, often unaware they were being watched, are suddenly confronted with their own faces—illuminated and magnified—exposed on the wall like surveillance targets.

The installation is designed for spaces where many people are present. A highly frequented public square, a gallery opening, a festival, a fair, or - like in this case - at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Programs (ITP) Spring Show. The camera is mounted on the wall overlooking the main exhibition area - a big open space with many people visiting, crossing, chatting, clustering. The video gets projected as a live stream in a narrow passage, a kind of corridor leading to the neighboring show room. The detected and enlarged faces are exposed on the wall of this corridor, visible to the audience already from far away. For the ones that are projected without even knowing that filmed, to see their own face giant-like on the wall is a moment of surprise and discomfort