Invitation: Participate in the art project “Gruppebilde Bergen 2020”
Published
Submit a portrait of yourself here www.gruppebilde.bek.no and become part of a group image with Bergen’s residents! Using technology that interprets photographs and creates new images, artist Toril Johannessen will create a comprehensive group image based on submitted portrait photos. The final image will become two large tapestries for Bergen City Hall where people and their elected representatives meet. Everyone who lives in Bergen is hereby invited to participate.
Gruppebilde Bergen 2020. Informasjon på norsk.
Gruppebilde Bergen 2020. Informacja w języku polskim.
جروب بيلد برجن 2020. المعلومات باللغة العربية.
Would you like to contribute? Go to the image collection page here!
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see more generated “Bergeners”.
A large amount of portrait photographs is needed to create the group image. Submissions are accepted until 31 January 2020. In collaboration with BEK, Johannessen will use machine learning technology to create new images based on the portraits submitted to “Gruppebilde Bergen 2020”. The technology in use is a form of artificial intelligence, where the computer learns what the portraits look like, in order to create new, similar portraits. The goal is to include a breadth of the city’s population and allow the computer to create a diversity of faces.
You may thus see faces similar to yourself, but your submitted photo will not appear in the final artwork. The computer-generated portraits will be put together into a large group image designed by the artist.
The final motif will be woven and become two large tapestries that will be installed in Bergen City Hall. One tapestry will be on public display in a vitrine at street level by the reception. The other tapestry will become curtains in the large meeting room on the top floor. The idea is that the work will give those who live in Bergen a presence in the city hall and symbolically keep an eye on the elected representatives.
The artwork will be completed in the autumn of 2021 when Bergen City Hall reopens after extensive rehabilitation.
HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE?
Everyone who lives in Bergen can participate by submitting their portrait. The submission takes place via an online survey tool that you can find by following the link below.
The portrait should show your face frontally, including the neck and preferably a little of the shoulders. The photo should have a calm background, preferably one colour.
You may only submit a photo that you have taken of yourself, or one that has been approved for submission by the photographer.
To submit a contribution, you must be 15 years or older. If you are under 15 years of age and want to participate, a parent or legal guardian must submit your photo.
Submissions are accepted until 31 January 2021.
To submit your portrait, click here.
First, you will be asked to register with your name and email address, to receive a link to upload your submission. You will be asked to upload a photo and answer two questions: What part of the city you live in and what age group you belong to. This information will only be used to ensure diversity in terms of age and geography, and will not be reproduced in the work or used in any other way. Please read the consent form here.
You can also submit a printet photo instead of a digital image. Please use the dedicated mail boxes in the departments of Bergen Public Library as listed here.
The artwork will be installed in two places at Bergen City Hall: Indoors on the top floor, and in a vitrine at street level.
Read the article about the project on City of Bergen’s website here.
Go to the project’s page on Facebook here.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROJECT?
“Gruppebilde Bergen 2020” is a project by artist Toril Johannessen. The image collection project will become an artwork at Bergen City Hall commissioned by the City of Bergen.
Collaborators:
Sindre Sørensen / Sørensen EDB
BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts
Innvik AS and Kristina D. Aas
Mediation:
Daniela Ramos Arias
Naomi Niyo Bazira
Sosial media:
Christa Mako Teigen
Contact:
Toril Johannessen
E-mail: gruppebilde@bek.no
Phone: 91568989
Photo: Byantikvaren, City of Bergen
Illustrations: Liv Ragnhild Kjellman