Research & Innovation

The human face is the centre of our social identity, emotional lives and sense of self. How we represent the face, and how those representations change over time, is the subject of the Interface project. Interface began as AboutFace at the University of York and is funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship awarded to historian of emotion Prof Fay Bound Alberti. 

Interface asks critical questions about the meanings of the human face in the past and in the present. Its core themes are surgical interventions, concepts of beauty, identity and selfhood, and the role of technology in creating and reflecting versions of the self. From face transplants to aesthetics, from robots to deep fakes, Interface explores the psychological, ethical, and social issues behind two simple questions: What is a face? And why does it matter?