Change your face; change your race

Interactive technology designed to challenge perceptions of race, age and other outward features, “The Human Race Machine,” will take up residence in Reed Library at SUNY Fredonia the week of Nov. 26 to 30.

The machine is an actual computer console comprised of four different programs: the Age Machine, which allows viewers to age his or her face, and has been used for over 20 years to enable the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help locate kidnap victims; the Anomaly Machine, which affords viewers the unsettling opportunity of seeing themselves with simulated facial anomalies; the Couples Machine, which combines photographs of men and women in varying percentages to allow couples to view their offspring, or simply to envision layered “maleness” and “femaleness” in one face; and lastly, the Human Race Machine, which allows participants to see themselves with the facial characteristics of six different races mapped onto their own visage.

A camera captures a person’s image while seated in front of the machine, and then the person uses the four different programs to apply the changes he/she would like to see.

The machine will be available to members of the campus and community beginning Monday, Nov. 26, during regular library hours.

There will also be a program including faculty members from the departments of biology, history and sociology facilitating a discussion of race on Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 4 p.m., in Williams Center Room S-104. Refreshments will be served. Panelists include Dr. Ted Lee, chairperson of the biology department; Dr. Bruce Simon, professor of English; and Dr. Timothy Levonyan-Radloff, professor of sociology.

A second program, the screening of the three-part PBS series, “Race – The Power of an Illusion,” will be held Thursday, Nov. 29, at 4 p.m., in Williams Center Room S-104. Again, refreshments will be served. Facilitators are Dr. Ted Lee (biology) and Dr. Sandra Lewis (director of affirmative action).  

Both programs are free and the public is invited to attend.

At all locations and events, The Race Literacy Quiz, developed by California Newsreel in association with the Association of American Colleges and Universities, will be made available to participants.

The events are presented by the university’s Affirmative Action Committee’s Dialogues on Diversity series. The events are sponsored by the offices of the President, University Advancement, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Administration and Affirmative Action. For more information, interested persons should contact Affirmative Action Director Sandra Lewis at 716-673-3358.