(Inter)Faces of Predictions examines the persistent impulse to analyse and classify faces and bodies through imagery. Societies around the world have developed ways to ‘predict’ a person’s character through facial features. In East Asian cultures, the esoteric practice of face reading claims to see into one’s future through facial analysis. Though it remains largely a folk belief, many continue to seek advice from its practitioners. In the West, the controversial pseudo-science of physiognomy, combined with statistics and machine learning, re-enters our modern lives through facial recognition algorithms, perpetuating societal biases, surveillance systems and individual prejudices.

For the project, Yiu brings together materials from different cultural and technological contexts, including archival photographs, diagrams, illustrations, texts and self-portraits that have all been subjected to various predictive processes. Together, they create a visual study of facial reading through the ages that complicates notions of objectivity, rationality, and progress. 

The discussion will be followed by a book signing for (Inter)faces of Predictions, published by Spector Books in 2026. You can purchase a ticket for the event including a copy of the book that can be picked up on the evening.

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