Portfolio

Admixed Portrait

Admixed Portrait amalgamates faces found in its user’s Facebook photo collections to create an alternative portrayal of self.  It was used in a study exploring how new parents represent themselves and others online.

Core to the design is a computer algorithm that connects with Facebook to parse and extract photographic data as it is posted in real time.  Admixed Portrait is deployed in first-time parents’ homes as a standalone appliance, serving to invite reflection on its users’ everyday experiences of portraying self and others through social media in their transition to parenthood.

 This design-led study forms a collaboration with Diego Trujillo Pisanty as part of a two-year project called Charting the Digital Lifespan (CDL), investigating the creation and management of online, digital identities across significant life transitions.  Engaging Anthropology, Computer Vision, Cultural Studies and Machine Learning alongside Design, CDL invites perspectives from young adults, new parents and recent retirees on the subject, capturing life experiences as well as speculations about what personhood could be as we live out our digitally mediated lives.  The project aims to deliver empirical insights to inform policy making and technology innovation to support digital literacy.

Video about Admixed: https://vimeo.com/270346820.

Related Publications:

 Durrant, A. C., Kirk, D. S., Trujillo-Pisanty, D., Martindale, S. (2018) ‘Admixed Portrait: Design to Understand Facebook Portrayals in New Parenthood’. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018), ACM Press.

 Trujillo-Pisanty, D., Durrant, A., Martindale, S., James, S., Collomosse, J. (2014) ‘Admixed Portrait: Reflections on Being Online as a New Parent’. In Proceedings of Designing Interactive Systems (DIS’14), ACM Press, 503-512