Future Face Image, Identity, Innovation

Faces are endlessly fascinating. Their diversity, their versatility and their unrivalled ability to communicate make them an enigma. Artists and scientists have been trying to unravel the mysteries of what makes a face and how it functions for thousands of years. Where does the face begin and end? It is a slender and fragile boundary, where interior and exterior worlds meet. It is part of the body and yet it is elevated and fetishised. It is where our spirit and personality manifest themselves. The closer we come to an anatomical understanding of the face, the more impenetrable it seems to become. Future Face looks at the physical characteristics of the face and at how we read faces and use them to express our thoughts and emotions. Creatively juxtaposing historical and contemporary material, Sandra Kemp takes us on a journey through the myriad ways the face has been depicted and analysed, altered and reconstructed from pre-history to the present. It encompasses the physical – skin, bones and tissue – and the conceptual, where faces are re-imagined in the virtual-reality. Kemp invites us to consider perhaps the most urgent question about the face today – whether it will continue to be shaped by genetics and evolution, or whether we will ourselves determine its appearance in the future? She asks whether our self-image can keep pace with ever-accelerating technological advances, from airbrushing and digital manipulation to cosmetic surgery and face transplants. Do we face a crisis of identity now that realms of science fiction are within the reach of possibility? Published to accompany a major exhibition by the Wellcome Trust, Sandra Kemp’s ambitious and wide-ranging study explores questions around the face, its representation and function. She unpicks some complex issues using a rich mix of intriguing material, drawing on art, technology, medicine and psychology. The book also contains a complementary chapter on the psychology of the face by Vicki Bruce and one on medical technology by Alf Linney. Future Face is a provocative and at times unnerving exploration of the human face.