Patipolitics, Peak Face and The Enclosure of the Human
🗓️ Wednesday, 24 June — 5:10pm
- 6:30pm
(80 mins)
Presenters
Image
Abstract
We are living in the age of Peak Face: a historical threshold at which the human face becomes the primary site of extraction under algorithmic capitalism. Drawing on Isabel Millar’s concept of patipolitics, Lacanian drive theory, and the evolutionary logic of cephalisation, this contribution examines how the face shifts from relational organ to optimised infrastructure. From Instagram aesthetics to deepfake legislation, faciality becomes a regime of legibility governed by circulation, enclosure, and personalisation. Through the artistic projects END-TO-END and EPIS(T)EMIC EROTIC with the Nansen Fredssenter, I propose friction, opacity, and preserved ambiguity as ethical other counter-practices against the pornographic drive for total knowledge and machinic intimacy.
Biography
Katherine Butcher (she/her) is an Australian visual artist living and working in Norway. She is a PhD candidate in Artistic Research at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, with joint supervision at the University of Technology Sydney. Her practice-based research explores how human datafication, likeness, AI/ML deepfakes, and synthetic representations intersect with questions of personhood, responsibility, and public trust. She is a member of COST Action CA23158 ARTinRARE (Artistic Intelligence: Responsiveness, Accessibility, Responsibility, Equity). Working across performance, relational aesthetics, and moving image, her projects examine the administration and governance of the face under algorithmic capitalism.