If I Didn't Know You by Your Face
Yunqi Chen
Anchored in research on face blindness—a neurological condition that is widely recognized yet often poorly understood—is the core question of this work: If I couldn’t recognize you by your face, how would I do so? Through sound? Smell? Gesture? By challenging the dominance of facial perception, If I Didn’t Know You by Your Face seeks to amplify non-visual cues as meaningful forms of recognition, extending human connection beyond the traditional reliance on sight.
Through book design and interactive installations, I examine how identity can be reconstructed through multi-sensory experiences. The project creates speculative spaces where presence is felt through voice and movement rather than facial features alone. It invites audiences to reconsider how we recognize, remember, and relate to one another.
At stake is the deeply ingrained cultural and technological emphasis on faces as primary markers of identity—an assumption embedded in everything from social interaction to biometric surveillance. By shifting focus to alternative modes of recognition, this work begs the question: Can we really know someone when the “window” to their identity—the face—is no longer the reference point?