Clément Lambelet, Collateral Visions (2016–ongoing)

Collateral Visions is an investigation of human singularity inside algorithmic and computer visions. New and groundbreaking technologies are able to completely change our daily lives. Could it even be possible for computers to become more intelligent than we humans are, and will we in the long run still be able to control these future technologies? Lambelet tries to address the evolution and increasingly invasive aspect of human observation technologies.

In his exhibition, Lambelet proposes a new reading of visions born from the ideology of control societies. Automatic face and body identification processes are central to the history of surveillance and have been developed significantly and rapidly since their invention around 1991. This installation shows a self-portrait created through Eigenface—the first facial recognition algorithm—as well as two portraits staged in an airport body scanner, and a series exploring emotion recognition algorithms and their failures. In the shop window, documents, data, and images create an “atlas” to show both the principles of dehumanisation that operate in algorithms and the negative social impact produced by societies of control.

In Collateral Visions, Clément Lambelet diverts contemporary processes of human observation from their common use to form visual propositions alternating between contemplation and confrontation. Therefore his work reveals a system of dehumanisation and anxiety which is at the core of current modes of observation.

Clément Lambelet (b. 1991, Geneva) is an artist whose work explores societal issues related to human visibility and technology. He uses both photographic and video forms, as well as appropriations. Lambelet received his Bachelor of Photography degree in 2016 at ECAL, Lausanne, where he currently works.

His projects have been exhibited internationally in places such as Foam Museum, C/O Berlin, Centre de la Photographie Geneva, Musée de l’Elysée and Fotomuseum Winterthur. He was nominated for the Swiss Design Award 2017 and is part of the Foam Talent 2017 selection.

His first book, Two Donkeys in a War Zone, was published by RVB Books in 2017.