Project "Style Eyes"

Style Eyes² is an immersive, interactive installation that explores the unsettling relationship between surveillance, fashion marketing, and misinformation. Built for GOGBOT Festival 2021, the project uses a combination of physical and digital elements to simulate how personal data can be harvested and manipulated to influence individual decisions, in this case, through personalized clothing recommendations backed by misleading information.

Visitors enter a space filled with eyes, both physical, 3D-printed animatronic eyes on servo-powered poles, and digital eyes rendered on a screen. The smaller eyes track the user’s movement, using Kinect sensors to detect and follow them in real-time. As the user steps onto a marked point in front of the central screen, a camera captures their outfit. Using AI-based color and clothing recognition, the installation identifies what they are wearing and then displays fabricated advice about what they “should” be wearing instead. The advice is supported by manipulated statistics, fictional celebrity endorsements, and algorithmically generated fashion suggestions.

At its core, the installation parodies the logic of targeted advertising: it tells users their choices are incorrect and tries to convince them otherwise using persuasive but false data. The system’s voice, visual design, and ambient music contribute to a slightly unsettling atmosphere, making users feel as if they are always being watched, judged, and sold something. This experience critiques the fashion industry's manipulation tactics and broader issues around digital surveillance and deepfake culture.

The project was developed by a multidisciplinary team of students, with contributions in hardware design, AI, interface development, and sound production. As team lead, I contributed to both the physical and digital eye systems, final assembly, and the complete list and coordination of materials. The software stack involved Python for AI recognition, Processing for visualization and interaction, and Arduino for physical component control. Communication across systems was handled using a custom TCP protocol.

Through Style Eyes², we aim to raise awareness of how seemingly neutral technologies can be used to manipulate perception, not just by tracking what people wear, but by subtly reshaping how they feel about their choices.