Research database

Selfies are posted on social media networks and masks are donned by anti-establishment activists like Anonymous. Photo-realistic 3D-printed face prosthetics also exist that can trick facial recognition software and conceal the wearer’s identity. These are examples of how facial aesthetics are evolving as an important influence on social behaviour. The EU-funded FACETS project will combine visual history, semiotics, phenomenology, visual anthropology, and face perception studies as regards the cognitions, emotions and actions people attach to the interaction with one’s and other’s faces. The project will review the effects in terms of alterations in self-perception. It will also collect, analyse and socially contextualise big data to identify the cultural and technological causes of these changes.