The Order of Passions: A Portrait of Polyphonic Canada

(Long paper)

Keywords: Media polyphony, Canadian hybrid culture, identity, generative art installation, facial expression recognition, media ecology, emergence, complexity.

In this paper we discuss the Order of Passions, generative media installation that visualizes dynamism, disturbance and unity within the diverse set of human facial expressions that together create a collective and emergent polyphonic portrait of Canada. We discuss critical compositional, technical and meaning making strategies for the creation of this generative artwork. The discussion is positioned from the perspective of artist-creators dealing with computational media as a medium for both, creative production and presentation of the artwork. We describe the tools and processes that were used and developed to support the creation of the project.