Likeness and Facial Recognition Research Networking resubmission

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The representation and interpretation of facial appearance is an important area for research in both the humanities and the biomedical and life sciences. Although collaborations between the sciences and fine arts through artist-in-residence programmes have become increasingly common, there has been limited analysis of the outcomes and ideological implications of these projects by academics in the humanities and social sciences. Equally, although the emerging sub-discipline of 'neuro art history' is investigating the use of scientific models in the analysis of images there has not been a specific investigation of the potential of new scientific models of facial recognition in relation to portraiture. Researchers in the humanities have investigated how facial appearance is understood and represented culturally. In art history these investigations have been linked to historically shifting definitions of 'likeness' in portraiture, and the extent to which facial appearance reflects an inner self. The concept of likeness has been traced through philosophical and psychoanalytical enquiries into the relationship between mind and body, and in relation to 18th- and 19th-century scientific theories of physiognomy, facial expression and facial typing. Despite being seen in the academy as discredited methodologies superseded by new scientific models, these ideas still have considerable currency in popular literature and there is a pressing need to address their legacy in 21st century art and science. Current scientific research into facial recognition is concerned with the ways that it relates to perception and to neurological patterns, and how particular facial features can aid in the diagnosis of disease. Yet at the same time as facial recognition technologies use facial appearance as evidence, developments in digital facial modification technologies, and advances in plastic surgery destabilise the validity of the use of facial appearance for identification purposes. Nonetheless, these new technologies suggest creative new approaches to the analysis and production of portraits. Contemporary artists have increasingly used portraiture to question traditional assumptions about facial appearance, drawing on new technologies such as digital facial morphing to explore shifting concepts of likeness. These investigations raise the issue of what new models of likeness are being developed for the 21st century. The potential use of these new technologies for surveillance and facial typing also raises ethical questions about their use by artists and scientists, and there is a pressing need to contextualise them within histories and theories of likeness, facial analysis and facial typing.The research network will investigate the ways in which digital and surgical techniques are creating new models of 'likeness' and the synergies and dissonances of these models with historical definitions of 'likeness' in portraiture, addressing the following research questions:-What do new discoveries in facial recognition and reconstruction offer to the arts and humanities as means of understanding historical and contemporary models of 'likeness'?-In what ways can researchers in the arts and humanities help to refine research questions addressed by investigations into facial recognition in the social and bio-medical sciences through their knowledge of the historical contexts for facial image production and analysis?-How can facial recognition technologies and historical models of 'likeness' account for faces that change through facial disfigurement, ageing and facial expression?-How have historical models of 'likeness' been used to construct or support particular social and cultural models and advance specific ideological agendas?-How is 'likeness' defined in the 21st century, to what extent is our understanding of it affected by new digital and surgical technologies, and what emerged ideological agendas can be identified in new research?