Tomasz Dobiszewski

Microexpressions - ways of visual representation of sensual phenomena 2016-2020

One of man’s greatest desires is the constant need to keep in memory what was previously perceived by the senses. That is why from time immemorial mankind has been trying to fix in matter, with the help of tools available at a given time, the appearance of the surrounding world and the phenomena taking place in it. With the constantly accelerating development of electronic media, parallel systems for tracking human activity are spreading, both in virtual space and in the real world. From analysing our perception with eyes motion detectors, through recognizing emotional states from facial expressions, to tracking our movement in space. We live in a world of new technologies and whether we want it or not, they concern us and every aspect of our lives, from birthday to death, from individual differentiation to mass statistics.

Microexpressions is a title taken from scientific research based on the registration of the facial expressions of the tested persons. Using a video camera, the face of the examined person is recorded, and a computer program using algorithms reads from it the basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, etc. I treated microexpressions as a keyword, which not only includes research based on facial expressions, but also all experiments (including non-scientific ones), in which the activity of phenomena, those dependent on the human factor, as well as those that remain beyond its reach, may become the beginning of creative discourse and interesting artistic realizations.

This exhibition is an approximation and summary of the projects I created during my PhD. The strategy that I often use in my creative activity is mainly based on the artistic taming of the medium. I experiment with a new tool, not only to make works with a predictable result for this tool, but I try to shift the emphasis on the periphery of a given method and use the natural, although not fundamental, properties of devices and technologies, often more interesting and unobvious.

We live in times when we have access to an endless amount of data. It is up to us how we manage them, whether they will serve only pure fun, produce attractive art objects, or deepen our reflection on the surrounding, often overwhelming world? It should be remembered, however, that visualizing unreceivable phenomena not only broadens our knowledge of the world, but also deepens our imagination and develops our visual thinking.

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Drawing mental images
models, engraving materials, various sizes, 2018

The work is the result of an experiment in which people were asked to draw simple objects, shapes, symbols with their eyes. As a result, you can see how people remember shapes, but also how, depending on individual expression, they create them, how they visualise them. The viewer's eyesight, following successively the numbers contained in the objects, performs exactly the same movements as the examined person's eyesight made.

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Drawing mental images
video projection, 2019

The video shows the dynamics of evoking images from memory and the expression of building shapes with vision by participants in eyetracking studies. The videos depict a wandering single marker. The viewer, following this marker, repeats the process of the subject's gaze, repeating the process of extracting a given shape from the mind.

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FaceReader Painting
video, prints on archival paper, 2018

Analysis of facial expressions, but also gender, ethnicity, approximate age, the presence of facial hair or the use of glasses in figures painted in paintings belonging to the canon of fine arts.

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FaceReader Pareidolia
video, prints on archival paper, 2018

The use of FaceReader technology to search for the phenomenon of pareidolia.

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FaceReader Object
concrete, acrylic paint, prints, 2019

The work was made with FaceReader so ware used to read facial expressions. Several hundred films from both domestic and world cinematography were analysed. Thanks to this research I was able to show what emotions are most often present on actors' faces.

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Nanga Parbat
plotter on the wall 320x80 cm, 2018

This chart shows a GPS (Global Positioning System) recording of the nighttime rescue operation carried out by mountaineers Adam Bielecki and Denis Urubko on January 27, 2018 on Mount Nanga Parbat to rescue Élisabeth Revol and Tomasz Mackiewicz.

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Searching for the Sun
prints on archival paper, various sizes, 2019

The series is an analysis of the sun's angles and tracing the source of light outside the frame of existing photographic images.

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Tracking the mouse
video, computer, prints on archival paper, various sizes, 2016-2019

The graphs shown are recordings of computer mouse movements during daily activities (newspaper review, bank account payment, video editing, mailing, remote teaching, playing chess, etc.).

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Tracking Photoshop
laser engraving in archival prints, various sizes, 2017

Software for tracking computer mouse activity was used to create the series. The record that was engraved directly into the photograph is a recording of the mouse movements during the graphic processing of the given photograph in Adobe Photoshop.

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22052016
installation, 14 photograms, 210x210x350 cm, 2016

The installation presents the path which the Sun made on 22 May 2016 through a room converted into a camera obscura.
The trace of the path was recorded directly on photographic paper.

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Tracking the Sun
12 marble slabs, laser engraving in marble, dimensions of each object: 30×91×2 cm, 2017

A record of the presence of the Sun at the given latitude (51°06'18.6 "N 17°05'21.4 "E) day by day in the year 2016. A Campbell-Stokes heliograph - a glass sphere that focuses the sun's rays on a suitably shaped strip of paper - was used to complete the work. e rays burn a trace, the length of which determines the time of the sun's operation with an accuracy of 6 minutes. e drawings created on the 365 paper strips were transferred and laser engraved into 12 marble slabs. Each of them represents one month of the year 2016.

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Tracking the sun, performance 18/07/2017
photothermography, fax paper, 1727x21 cm, 2017

A recording of a four-hour action during which the image of the sun moved across fax paper inserted into a large-format camera and moved by hand. By circumventing the mechanics of the camera, the space of the photographic frame is stretched almost to its limits - the performance resulted in a 17-metre-long drawing (a record of the Sun's path).