Technology keeps getting more powerful and on the one hand that’s a good thing. It makes life a bit easier and can transform the world into a more efficient place. On the other hand technology also keeps getting better at surveilling us and in movies that usually leads to dystopia. Not exactly what we want and that’s why designer Sara Sallam decided to take back some privacy with her Orwell jewellery line.
As you might have guessed the jewellery line is named after the dystopian book 1984 by George Orwell. ” I wanted to create objects for an Orwellian future where this surveillance is commonplace, and as such, the form needs to appeal to people’s sense of aesthetics and still allow the wearer to be identifiable to the people around them.“
Tricking Amazon Rekognition
The collection consists of three pieces. designed to tackle facial recognition, heartbeat monitoring and gait tracking. The first piece is a “mask” that’s supposed to block facial recognition systems, without deforming the wearers features. It’s a follow up to Ewa Nowak’s anti-AI Incognito Mask. And although beautiful, the designer noticed that the Incognito Mask was no longer capable of misleading certain types of recognition. Nowak’s mask was designed to be effective against Facebook’s AI. Sallam wanted to add to that and create jewellery that’s able to fool more updated systems, like Amazon’s Rekognition.
The Orwell mask works by obscuring key features, such as the chin and the area where the nose and eyebrows meet. It also distorts patterns of light and dark across the face with it’s reflective material and decreases facial symmetry. The goal was to lower Amazon Rekognition’s confidence rate in identifying a face to 90 percent. In the end Sallam’s face piece was able to get down to 92 percent. Which also works as Sallam explains that anything under 99 percent is not admissible in the court of law (USA).
Heartbeat blocking armor
The second piece is meant to protect the wearer against heartbeat tracking technology and wraps around the chest area. Heartbeat detection tech uses lasers to track the heart rhythm on the skin’s surface. The designer notes that “not a lot is known about this technology yet, but it can currently be deterred by wearing thick clothing. But anticipating rapid new advances, I created a lightweight piece that covers the most susceptible areas of skin where lasers could pick up the heart’s rhythm.”.
The last piece of jewellery tackles gait recognition, which is a technology that can recognize people by the way they move. The accessory works by lifting the ball of one foot, which interrupts bipedal symmetry. It’s designed to be worn on either foot, so you don’t end up walking crooked.
Unfortunately Sallam wasn’t able to make physical prototypes of the pieces, as her university closed due to Covid-19. She did manage to create digital models using software and a 3D-scanner.
So Sallam’s jewellery works to block technology, but sometimes you want your accessories to actually work together with it. These earrings for example help out with keeping your AirPods in place.
Source: Dezeen
