FACE VALUE - Artwork of River of Light 2025

About Face Value

"Face Value" is an immersive experience where audience members unexpectedly become part of a fantasy gameshow, as an AI-powered robotic artist selects and transforms their images in real time. The experience highlights themes of technology and control, prompting participants to wonder what ultimately happens to their digital selves.

The installation combines novel technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics, to create a constantly evolving spectacle. A CCTV-style network of cameras captures images of the crowd, from which pictures of current audience members are selected at random. This ensures that every cycle of the installation is entirely unique. These images are handed over to a robotic artist, which transforms them in real time, accompanied by AI-generated speech and visuals and a bespoke soundtrack. The shifting, reimagined portraits are projected across three towering screens, surrounding viewers with a kaleidoscope of movement and sound.

The work invites reflection on how emerging technologies interact with our digital identities and shape our control over our own image. By presenting these tools as both enchanting and unsettling, Face Value provides a spectacle whilst also encouraging curiosity about their deeper, more complex implications.

We would like to thank the AI for Chemistry Hub (AIchemy) and the Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design for sponsoring this installation.

Easy read description

Face Value is a fun art show where a robot takes pictures of people in the crowd and changes them. The changed pictures and sounds are shown on big screens. It explores how people think about technology and the affect it has on our identity.

Location

Mann Island Atrium, L3 1BP.

What 3 words: skip.luck.cattle

Artist

Created by Emma Brass and Venya Krutikov, Produced by Invisible Wind Factory.

Sustainability

Face Value has been designed to have a very small ecological footprint, using LED technology to ensure it can run off mains power.

Accessibility information

A detailed description of Face Value for those who are hearing impaired

Face Value is a multi screen video and robotics installation. Consisting of a series of hanging large projection screens, the installation depicts a game show in which the contestants are selected at random and drawn by a gigantic robot arm. As audiences enter the space, their faces are captured by a bespoke CCTV system that allows the installation to be dynamically updated with a rolling selection of contenstants. The installation runs in a cycle, choosing participants for the robot to draw before joining a vast video collage of previous contestants.

Visual and Light considerations

The lighting element of this installation consists of a fantastical and ludicrous multi media installation.

Noise considerations

The audio element of this installation consists of a bespoke AI-generated voice that gives the robot its identity. The composer and musician dialect blends the voice with custom musical soundscape, creating a multi-channel audio experience that guides audiences through the game show journey.

General considerations

The approach and circulation on Mann Island are level, please note that there is a 1mm thick aluminium sheet covered with red vinyl to represent a 'red carpet environment'. There is no seating areas within Mann Island Atrium but some seating facilities on the outside Dock areas.