Your ideal portrait based on brainwaves
Wednesday 17 January 2018, 22:22 by Michelle Peeters | 5,446 views | 3 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Many people have an ideal self-image in their head. An image that you can clearly see in your mind, but that does not seem to be represented or described well, so that others can also see what you would like to look like.
But photographer Scott Chasserot came up with a clever way to discover how people would like to look. He did this based on their brainwaves for his idealised portrait series Original Ideal.
Chasserot took simple and unembellished headshots of his volunteers, then used editing software to create dozens of altered versions based on the 'scientifically established canons of beauty'.
By showing the edited photos to the volunteers while they were wearing EEG headsets, Chasserot was able to analyse their brainwaves and discover which version they preferred based on positive neural responses. The preferred photo was then labelled as their "ideal" appearance.
What do we instinctively find beautiful in the human face, and how does this translate into self-image? What assumptions would we make about another person if we could see their ideal self-image?
Original Ideal combines portrait photography and neuroscience to isolate the ideal self-image of the subjects. A rational and genuine preference obtained by bypassing conscious thought.
About the author
Michelle Peeters is fotografe en oprichter van DeuxBleus Fotografie. Michelle herkent het bijzondere in het gewone en het gewone in het bijzondere. Ze heeft zich nooit willen specialiseren en is daardoor van alle markten thuis.
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3 comments
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Teun wrote on Tuesday 23 January 2018 at 11:47 | replyI wonder what is achieved with this technique: you discover that your appearance does not correspond to the ideal image in your head. But I already know that. Is the ‘industry' of plastic surgery behind this technique? Hopefully not.
Translated from Dutch. -
Michelle Peeters wrote on Tuesday 23 January 2018 at 12:04
| reply
@Teun: let's hope not indeed! I've been thinking about that too. As a photographer, it can be quite educational to discover how people like to see themselves (and thus how you should photograph them to get as close as possible to that ideal image). If I let clients choose their own best photo from a series, it is always a photo I would never have chosen myself!
Translated from Dutch.
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