machine_in_the_middle (2021)
machine_in_the_middle, 2021, Rod Dickinson and Nathan Semertzidis
4 minute single channel video, wall graphic and 3D printed EEG headset
Synopsis:
machine_in_the_middle reworks a Man (or Machine) in the Middle cyber attack, using EEG brainwave sensing, emotion recognition and facial muscle stimulation, made with World Snooker Champion Steve Davis.
machine_in_the_middle, video still (2021)
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machine_in_the_middle is a single channel video, wall graphic and 3D printed EEG headset. The video documents the operation of a hardware / software system which detects Davis' emotional state and then animates his face into the expression that the machine thinks he is experiencing.
A 3D printed Brain Computer Interface headset streams Davis’ EEG (brainwaves) to a Machine Learning model that detects his emotional state, and uses Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) to animate his facial expression.
Usually a Man (or Machine) in the Middle attack involves an attacker who secretly intercepts the electronic communication between two parties. In this case the two parties are the brain and the body of a single person, Steve Davis, and the Machine in the Middle, is the system controlling the communication between Davis' brain and his facial expression.
machine_in_the_middle, video still (2021)
machine_in_the_middle, 3D printed OpenBCI EEG headset (2021)
machine_in_the_middle renders visible a new kind of machine / human assemblage in what Louise Amoore calls a new kind of “we”, that creates "new limits and thresholds of what it means to be human" (Cloud Ethics, Amoore, 2020).
The video depicts the machine_in_the_middle system being tested on World Snooker Champion Steve Davis. During his period of multiple World Championship wins in the 1980s and 1990s David was famous for his deadpan demeanor, never openly expressing any emotion during snooker tournaments. machine_in_the_middle overrode any tendency Davis might have had to not express his emotional state.
machine_in_the_middle, wall graphic (2021)