Alter Ego is a screen-based installation where you can interact with what appears to be your own mirror image but which is, in fact, an avatar onto which an image of your face is mapped in real time.  Alter Ego investigates the familiar sense of being outside of (beside) oneself, and plays with the experience of a loss of control over an aspect of the self. Using a computer to produce a semi-autonomous replica of the person sitting in front of it, Alter Ego invites people to question the various facets of their own identity.

In the installation, a stool with a curved black screen behind it is placed 1.5 metres in front of something that appears to be a mirror hanging on a wall. If you sit still with a blank expression on your face the computer will capture your image via a webcam located behind the ‘mirror'. Using data gathered from these captured images, the system reorganises a stored 3D model to look like you. As the computer is working you will see an image which forms your own ‘reflection’. After about thirty seconds this reflection begins to react to, rather than mirror, your facial expressions. For example: if you smile, the virtual face, or ‘alter ego’, may look surprised or angry, or may smile back. This dialogue continues until the system detects that the face has moved outside its field of vision, at which time it is reset.

The interface is designed to be automatic and invisible - it does not require conscious intervention (such as button pushing/touch screen etc). Alter Ego has a secondary audience comprised of those people who have already used the work, or who are waiting to use it, and who are discussing their ‘performance’.

The creation of Alter Ego was made in collaboration with Professor Alf Linney at University College London. the project was supported by Arts Council England Touring and an Impact Award from the Wellcome Trust.