What it is

I'll need to explain it, because this version doesn't capture the detail of the original.

This animation depicts the formation of a face in which each facial feature is constructed from the letters that spell it... each eye spells "EYE", the nose spells "NOSE", etc. Thus it is titled Self-Referential Face because each feature refers to itself.

The music in the background was done by Ryan Ulyate, who owns a company called Organized Noise. He did a great job huh? The voices are Ryan and me.

A brief note on the production

When I was fourteen I was faced with an unusual art class assignment: draw something such that the picture is composed of the letters that spell out whatever it is.  I drew a face in which each facial feature as well as the face itself was composed of the letters that spell it, producing a static version of the enclosed animation.  At that time I remember imagining what a thrill it would be to create an animated version where the facial features appeared one by one, accompanied by a voice that said the name of each facial feature out loud. It was many years before that opportunity came along, working after hours on the movie Space Jam.  In the meantime I became fascinated with self-reference and its relationship to complex, chaotic systems such as culture, cognition, and organic life and culture (as discussed in my papers).

Click here to see it.