For A Portrait Without Borders, Kaleider have 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. Each drawing will sit amongst all the others submitted, creating large murals of physical presence, togetherness, and solidarity at a time of distance and fear, in multiple locations internationally.
Last year due to Covid-19 we pivoted our larger scale outdoor piece to live stream from inside empty venues. Now in summer 2021 it will premier outdoors in public space for the first time.
Over the course of the project we will create large-scale murals of many faces. Strangers next to each other, simultaneously present, together, and yet apart. It is very hard for people to be physically distanced and not also feel mentally distanced. We hope this project will create a joyful sense of solidarity and togetherness at a time of physical distance.
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.
Anyone can join in, participation is free, and participants receive a digital copy of the AI’s drawing of them. Participants can pay a small fee to receive a digital or printed copy of the final mural.
Please see below for a timelapse of the indoor version of this project in September 2020. Coming soon to the outdoors on an even bigger scale.
Image credit: Tom Arran, 2020.
