Portrait art has a storied role throughout history, from its glory days in the Renaissance to its importance in modern photography or current hyperrealist painting that mimics it. Today technology allows us to create our perfect digital replicas, forming part of a global database and reproduced one pixel at a time on that modern mirror, the screen.

Our images can also be digitally transformed, as in Aram Barthol’s light installation “0,16” which projects and pixellates the viewer’s shadow. Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi present two works: “Fadeout,” which uses an infrared camera to capture the viewer’s image and reproduces it by laser projection on a phosphorescent screen, creating a portrait condemned to slowly disappear; and “Points,” in which a compressed air pistol recreates the contours of the viewer’s image. “Photobooth” by Ignore is a version of the classic instant photo booth but aims to capture the viewer’s surprise and incorporates social networks to add a viral dimension. “The Yelling Room” by Joshua Davis allows visitors to build portraits based on the sounds they make.

“The Janus Machine” by Kyle McDonald, Zach Lieberman, Theo Watson and Daito Manabe scans a 3D image of the viewer and compares and creates a new one based on previously recorded forms. “Mirror place” by Marnix de Nijs also compares viewer’s portrait with others in a database that includes the famous and even criminals, announcing the identity of one most closely resembles. Seth Hunter and Eric Rosenbaum present “Stillness Clock, Motion Clock” which reproduces two images, one taken when the viewer moves, the other while still, exploring the perception of time. Also collaborating is the Overtype project, which develops creative tools for digital artists, and incorporates the work of leading Barcelona design studios.

Are you prepared to face your digital alter ego?

June 9–19

CCCB. C/ Montalegre, 5 (Raval)

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