Vibe Check
Lauren Lee McCarthy & Kyle McDonald







As tracking and surveillance lead us through our pandemic crisis, we enact another control system through the passive observation of our neighbors. Are they a threat, or essential to retaining our feeling of humanness? We notice our heightened sense of interdependence. Vibe Check extends throughout the gallery and appropriates common surveillance tools including face recognition and expression analysis to catalog the emotional effect exhibition visitors have on one another. Some are identified as evoking expressions of happiness, disgust, sadness, surprise, or boredom. Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are playfully alerted to who these people are, and as they leave, they may find they’ve earned this distinction themselves.
Commissioned by Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel and MU for the Real Feelings exhibition. Photos by Gina Folly and Franz Wamhof.