Exploring Faces, Art, & Maths at Dublin Maker
John Butler from the School of Mathematics and Statistics is delighted to be part of Dublin Maker again.
Dublin Maker is a fabulous event that brings together a wide variety of makers from weavers to roboticists, who really love what they do and want others to enjoy their passion. This year it is on the 30th and 31st of August in Leopardstown Racecourse.
John, who is a lecturer in the School of Mathematics & Statistics, TU Dublin, will be running Digital Mirror, an interactive workshop that blends art, mathematics, neuroscience, and machine learning to explore how we recognise faces. The project is a creative collaboration between artist Cian McLoughlin and John, combining their expertise to offer visitors a unique mix of science and creativity.
Participants begin by sketching faces with different expressions, prompting reflection on the features we use to identify people. Then, we capture photographs of these expressions, which are processed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a mathematical algorithm that extracts the key features from all the images. This process mirrors aspects of how the brain encodes faces, and also underpins computer-based face recognition.
During the workshop, the mathematics behind the algorithm is explained as well as its links to both neuroscience and portraiture. Each participant receives their own “eigenface” — a unique, computer-generated image distilled from all the photographs — to take home as a personal artwork.
The workshop is open to all: come along, pick up a pencil, make some faces, learn some maths, and see yourself in a whole new way.
Digital Mirror was originally developed during Cian’s artist residency at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, supported by Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland.
It is also part of Maths in the Wild, a series of free workshops delivered by John to primary and secondary students, and through TU Dublin Access and Outreach programmes.