October 7, 2006 Turbulence Commission: "Self-Portrait" by Ethan Ham http://transition.turbulence.org/works/self-portrait/

"Self-Portrait" is a software search for the artist's face among the millions contained in the photos uploaded to www.flickr.com. The project's site displays three photos: 1) an ever-changing photo that depicts what is currently being evaluated by "Self-Portrait's" facial recognition software; 2) the most recent photo that was identified as containing a face. (The software often misses seeing faces and occasionally misidentifies an inanimate object as a face.); and 3) the most recent photo that has a high probability of depicting Ethan Ham (the artist). Clicking on this photo allows viewing earlier photos that were found to contain Ethan.

"Self-Portrait" is a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.

BIOGRAPHY

Ethan Ham is a kinetic and new media artist who has recently moved to New York from Portland, Oregon. His projects often involve art generated by viewer participation, seemingly random events, and/or automated means. He is Assistant Professor of New Media at City College of New York, CUNY.

For more information about Turbulence please visit http://turbulence.org

Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade