Identity Optics Lab
Baiyuan Xing
Advisor: Theo Ellin Ballew
Identity Optics Lab is an interactive experience that stages a bureaucratic identity evaluation, using limited data in a performative process to provoke reflection on how identity is constructed, and to question the validity of identity of the metrics used by real-world institutions.
Project Description
Identity Optics Lab is an interactive installation that simulates a surreal bureaucratic identity evaluation. Participants enter a fictional optometry clinic where they fill out an application, complete psychological projection tests, and are interviewed and photographed by a performative “optometrist.”
Using limited data and a real-time system, the project generates two synthetic ID cards filled with exaggerated traits. These details are arranged in an eye chart format, highlighting how society ranks identity markers at a glance. The experience culminates in a visual “eye exam,” where participants view both a standard and hidden version of their ID—prompting reflection on how identity is constructed and judged.
Through a fusion of institutional design, satirical performance, and generative AI, Identity Optics Lab exposes the constructed nature of authority and challenges participants to reconsider the validity of real-world identity metrics.
Technical Details
Platform & Software:
TouchDesigner was used as the primary real-time visual programming environment for integrating user input, controlling interaction flow, and managing media output.
OpenAI ChatGPT API was embedded within TouchDesigner to generate synthetic identity profiles based on text and image inputs. The API handled the transformation of participant data (Application - Projective Test, Participants’ Photos) into fictional attributes.
Arduino with a photoresistor was used to detect when the participant covered one eye with the occluder; this trigger was sent to TouchDesigner.
Hardware:
Webcam for live photo capture of participants during the identity examination.
iPad Camera to digitize participant application forms and projective test results (e.g., word association, inkblot interpretations).
LCD screen for final ID display, simulating an optometrist’s eye chart.
Eye occluder connected to Arduino is used by participants to switch between the “visible” and “hidden” ID card layers via real-time interaction triggers.
Thermal printer to produce physical ID cards with outcome stamps (“Accepted” or “Denied”).
Research/Context
Identity Optics Lab is grounded in research on social identity theory, surveillance culture, and the bureaucratization of identity. It draws from real-world practices such as border control questioning, psychological projection tests, and data-driven profiling, investigating how institutions categorize individuals based on limited inputs—often visual appearance.
The project is also informed by personal experience as an international student frequently subjected to identity checks, prompting a deeper inquiry into belonging, trust, and perception. Conceptually, it aligns with works in speculative design, satirical bureaucracy, and critical media art, echoing influences like Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s biometric critiques and Hasan Elahi’s self-surveillance.
By blending AI-generated fiction with procedural formality, the project questions the validity and power of identity metrics used in official systems and how they shape social perception in both overt and insidious ways.
