Spirit is a Bone
Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin
2015
Spirit is a Bone
Spirit is a Bone
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Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s project is inspired in both form and concept by Citizens of the Twentieth Century: 1892–1952, August Sander’s monumental typology of twentieth-century German society, comprising 431 portraits arranged according to social ...
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Spirit is a Bone
Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin
2015
London: MACK
240 pages
21.5 × 17 cm

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s project is inspired in both form and concept by Citizens of the Twentieth Century: 1892–1952, August Sander’s monumental typology of twentieth-century German society, comprising 431 portraits arranged according to social class and profession. Sander’s book is a seminal photographic inquiry that, tacitly and almost inadvertently, came to trace, among others, the rise of fascism in Germany.


 


At a moment marked by constant political upheaval and the resurgence of imperialist ideologies, Broomberg & Chanarin created a collection of portraits using a Moscow-developed facial recognition system originally designed for surveillance and border control. Rather than producing conventional photographs, the technology generates digital "life masks." Echoing Sander’s project, the artists organized contemporary Russian subjects according to their professions, while allowing the machine to produce the images. The resulting portraits are low-resolution and fragmented, their appearance determined by the system’s own ability to map facial features such as the nose, eyes, and chin. Despite this automated process, the portraits still reveal the people behind the images and their complex relationship with state power. For instance, recognisable figures such as Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich


 


Commissioned by GRAIN with support from Arts Council England, the book is the outcome of artists’ engagement with the Library of Birmingham’s photography collections.

London: MACK
240 pages
21.5 × 17 cm

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s project is inspired in both form and concept by Citizens of the Twentieth Century: 1892–1952, August Sander’s monumental typology of twentieth-century German society, comprising 431 portraits arranged according to social class and profession. Sander’s book is a seminal photographic inquiry that, tacitly and almost inadvertently, came to trace, among others, the rise of fascism in Germany.

 

At a moment marked by constant political upheaval and the resurgence of imperialist ideologies, Broomberg & Chanarin created a collection of portraits using a Moscow-developed facial recognition system originally designed for surveillance and border control. Rather than producing conventional photographs, the technology generates digital "life masks." Echoing Sander’s project, the artists organized contemporary Russian subjects according to their professions, while allowing the machine to produce the images. The resulting portraits are low-resolution and fragmented, their appearance determined by the system’s own ability to map facial features such as the nose, eyes, and chin. Despite this automated process, the portraits still reveal the people behind the images and their complex relationship with state power. For instance, recognisable figures such as Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich

 

Commissioned by GRAIN with support from Arts Council England, the book is the outcome of artists’ engagement with the Library of Birmingham’s photography collections.

DESCRIPTION

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s project is inspired in both form and concept by Citizens of the Twentieth Century: 1892–1952, August Sander’s monumental typology of twentieth-century German society, comprising 431 portraits arranged according to social class and profession. Sander’s book is a seminal photographic inquiry that, tacitly and almost inadvertently, came to trace, among others, the rise of fascism in Germany.

 

At a moment marked by constant political upheaval and the resurgence of imperialist ideologies, Broomberg & Chanarin created a collection of portraits using a Moscow-developed facial recognition system originally designed for surveillance and border control. Rather than producing conventional photographs, the technology generates digital "life masks." Echoing Sander’s project, the artists organized contemporary Russian subjects according to their professions, while allowing the machine to produce the images. The resulting portraits are low-resolution and fragmented, their appearance determined by the system’s own ability to map facial features such as the nose, eyes, and chin. Despite this automated process, the portraits still reveal the people behind the images and their complex relationship with state power. For instance, recognisable figures such as Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich

 

Commissioned by GRAIN with support from Arts Council England, the book is the outcome of artists’ engagement with the Library of Birmingham’s photography collections.

London: MACK
240 pages
21.5 × 17 cm

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s project is inspired in both form and concept by Citizens of the Twentieth Century: 1892–1952, August Sander’s monumental typology of twentieth-century German society, comprising 431 portraits arranged according to social class and profession. Sander’s book is a seminal photographic inquiry that, tacitly and almost inadvertently, came to trace, among others, the rise of fascism in Germany.

 

At a moment marked by constant political upheaval and the resurgence of imperialist ideologies, Broomberg & Chanarin created a collection of portraits using a Moscow-developed facial recognition system originally designed for surveillance and border control. Rather than producing conventional photographs, the technology generates digital "life masks." Echoing Sander’s project, the artists organized contemporary Russian subjects according to their professions, while allowing the machine to produce the images. The resulting portraits are low-resolution and fragmented, their appearance determined by the system’s own ability to map facial features such as the nose, eyes, and chin. Despite this automated process, the portraits still reveal the people behind the images and their complex relationship with state power. For instance, recognisable figures such as Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich

 

Commissioned by GRAIN with support from Arts Council England, the book is the outcome of artists’ engagement with the Library of Birmingham’s photography collections.

MORE BOOKS

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s project is inspired in both form and concept by Citizens of the Twentieth Century: 1892–1952, August Sander’s monumental typology of twentieth-century German society, comprising 431 portraits arranged according to social class and profession. Sander’s book is a seminal photographic inquiry that, tacitly and almost inadvertently, came to trace, among others, the rise of fascism in Germany.

 

At a moment marked by constant political upheaval and the resurgence of imperialist ideologies, Broomberg & Chanarin created a collection of portraits using a Moscow-developed facial recognition system originally designed for surveillance and border control. Rather than producing conventional photographs, the technology generates digital "life masks." Echoing Sander’s project, the artists organized contemporary Russian subjects according to their professions, while allowing the machine to produce the images. The resulting portraits are low-resolution and fragmented, their appearance determined by the system’s own ability to map facial features such as the nose, eyes, and chin. Despite this automated process, the portraits still reveal the people behind the images and their complex relationship with state power. For instance, recognisable figures such as Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich

 

Commissioned by GRAIN with support from Arts Council England, the book is the outcome of artists’ engagement with the Library of Birmingham’s photography collections.

MORE BOOKS