Modélisation d’un visage by Rebecca Allen

Rebecca Allen’s Modélisation d’un visage represents the artist’s continued work with computer-generated imagery of the human form and its movement. This work, which translates to “Modeling a Face” in English, encapsulates the essence of early digital art experimentation with 3D modeling techniques that were cutting-edge at the time.

Modélisation d’un visage besides being a technical achievement, also explores the complexities within real and digital representation, provoking contemplation about identity and perception.

More about Allen: Pioneer of generative motion

Inspired by the aesthetics of motion, Rebecca Allen’s decades-long career spans innovations in video, performance and installation art. Her work also examines themes such as gender, identity and technology’s impact on humanity.

Educated at both RISD and MIT, Allen feels comfortable in an artist studio as well as a research lab. Her scientific research informs her artistic practice, where she explores topics such as human motion simulation and artificial life algorithms.

Allen understood, early in her career, the power of the computer as an artistic tool. In Swimmer (1981), she created one of the first examples of computer animation capturing human motion.

In 1986, she collaborated with Kraftwerk on the revolutionary music video for “Musique Non-Stop.” It was one of the earliest examples of rendered 3D graphics in a music video. "My artistic goal was to define a digital aesthetic, and my research aim was to get the face to move, to express and to talk.”

Her interactive installation, Bush Soul (#1) in 1997 incorporated Allen’s research into artificial life and virtual environments. She created a generative space where participants could role-play as avatars in a virtual world.

Allen’s artistic vision and technical mastery led her to collaborate with other artists, including Nam June Paik, Peter Gabriel and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).

Her work is also in the permanent collections at the Centre Pompidou, the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA. Allen recognized the impact of technology on human behavior, seeking generative techniques for art creation that explored this dynamic. She not only had the brilliance to invent new technologies, but she also had the creative vision to incorporate them into her artistic practice.