Headtransformator is a participatory media art project exploring the construction and transformation of identity through the human face.
Moving beyond the conventions of self-representation and the carefully curated identities of social media, the project approaches the face as a mutable visual surface — a site of experimentation where familiar notions of appearance, individuality, and self-image can be temporarily suspended.
Within a photographic studio installed on the festival grounds, visitors were invited to transform their faces using an assortment of colourful objects, materials, and accessories. Through playful acts of arrangement, concealment, and exaggeration, participants created ephemeral compositions in which the boundaries between portrait, mask, and sculptural object became fluid.
Rather than seeking to reveal an authentic identity, Headtransformator encouraged participants to abandon established images of themselves and explore the possibilities of becoming someone — or something — else.
Each evening, the resulting photographic portraits were projected onto a large-scale surface within the festival grounds, transforming individual experiments into a collective, publicly experienced visual installation. Removed from the intimate setting of the photographic studio and enlarged into the nocturnal festival landscape, the images entered into a new relationship with their viewers, oscillating between personal expression, performative self-invention, and collective spectacle.
Concept, Artistic Direction, Photography & Installation: Pola Rader
