FACE DESIGN
2019
Face Design is a design-based research project exploring the effects of Botox treatments on the human condition. In addition to her work as a cosmetic doctor, Marsha has a background in visual arts and design. She combines her knowledge of medical technology with an 'out of the box' design approach, using her own face as the subject of research.
In a video work, she demonstrates the impact of a full-face Botox treatment on non-verbal communication by utilizing Artificial Intelligence that can read emotions. Through her research, she aims to initiate a discussion about how far we, as humans, should go in modifying our bodies. To what extent should this come at the expense of our humanity?
Publications on Face Design:
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Schiller, Devon. 2024 (forthcoming). “A Face of My Own: The Cultural Semiotics of Botox Treatment in Marsha Wichers’s Project Face Design.” In Nadja Gernalzick, Nora Benterbusch, Thomas Metten, and Filip Niemann (Eds.), Semiotiken in den Kulturwissenschaften: Ansatzpunkte einer kritischen Methodologie/Semiotics in Cultural Studies: Towards a Critical Methodology.
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Wichers, Marsha. 2022. How botulinum toxin affects nonverbal communiction: a visualisation using artificial intelligence. Journal of Aesthetic Nursing, October 2022, Volume II Issue 8
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Schiller, Devon. 2020. “For Now We See through an AI Darkly; but Then Face-to-Face: A Brief Survey of Emotion Recognition in Biometric Art.” PrzeglÄ…d Kulturoznawczy [Cultural Studies Review], Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 230-260.