Recurrent Kafka
Submirror 2
“Recurrent Kafka” is an interactive mirror installation from the ongoing Submirror series, a body of work that explores the tension between self-perception, loss of control, and digital puppetry. These mirrors are recalcitrant, they do not reflect faithfully; they act with intention, manipulating the viewer’s image to reveal a version of the self that is no longer entirely their own.
In “Recurrent Kafka”, the mirror replicates the viewer’s image, but the reflected image—the virtual subject—gazes relentlessly at a teleprompter text that scrolls across the mirror and displays the collected works of Franz Kafka. The piece uses AI to create a live “rigged” clone of the viewer, controlling the direction of the eyes, the pose of the head, and the speed of movement. The viewer is disoriented —at once, reading Kafka’s writings while also watching their own face fixed on the ceaseless flow of words.
This real-time distortion is resonant with Kafka’s body of work, which is often marked by a protagonist embarking upon a deeply serious, potentially senseless, ambiguous task that is both forced upon them and impossible to complete. As with other pieces in the Submirror series, “Recurrent Kafka” questions the stability of self-image under automated observation. It asks what happens when technology doesn’t just observe us—but represents us, poorly, poetically, and without consent.
In “Recurrent Kafka”, the mirror replicates the viewer’s image, but the reflected image—the virtual subject—gazes relentlessly at a teleprompter text that scrolls across the mirror and displays the collected works of Franz Kafka. The piece uses AI to create a live “rigged” clone of the viewer, controlling the direction of the eyes, the pose of the head, and the speed of movement. The viewer is disoriented —at once, reading Kafka’s writings while also watching their own face fixed on the ceaseless flow of words.
This real-time distortion is resonant with Kafka’s body of work, which is often marked by a protagonist embarking upon a deeply serious, potentially senseless, ambiguous task that is both forced upon them and impossible to complete. As with other pieces in the Submirror series, “Recurrent Kafka” questions the stability of self-image under automated observation. It asks what happens when technology doesn’t just observe us—but represents us, poorly, poetically, and without consent.
General info
Spanish name:
Kafka recurrente
Year of creation:
2025
Technique:
Nanotexture display, facial-detection camera, speaker, PC running custom Live Portraiture AI software.
Additional info:
The piece uses AI to create a live “rigged” clone of the viewer, controlling the direction of the eyes, the pose of the head, and the speed of movement. The viewer is disoriented —at once, reading Kafka’s writings while also watching their own face fixed on the ceaseless flow of words.
Keywords:
Edition:
6 Editions, 1 AP
Credits
- Software: David Robert
- Research: Stephan Schulz
Photo Library (click to expand)
2025 - Antimodular Studio, Montréal, Canada
