taCity

By now, you will have no doubt seen adverts for the new Pixel 8 mobile phone. One of it’s key new innovative features is it’s AI-infused camera technology, notably ‘best take’ (advertised above, if you can stomach it). This feature, which the adverts are keen to show in a fun, cutesy and gen-z hyped way, allows the user to swap the faces of the photo’s subjects with a more befitting facial expression. So if one member of your family is grimacing in the family portrait, you can swap her face with one of her smiling, and no one would be none the wiser. What’s not to love about this creative, innovative and ingenious new feature?

Well, I would argue, quite a lot. The ‘best take’ feature integrated into the Google Pixel 8 represents an apex of self-commodification within the context of our Instagramified media landscapes. It is emblematic of our contemporary society’s predilection for image-centric existence. That is because it takes that which most defines us outwardly – our face – and renders it interchangeable. Our face is unique within our physiology because it serves as the portal to our raw emotional states and our unadulterated humanity, and does this all without any means of verbal or sonic communication.

Hence ‘Best Take’, this Black Mirror of digital tools not only redefines the conventional practice of photography but also encapsulates a profound transformation in the way we understand, curate and expose our innermost emotional identities within the digital ‘town square’.

Camera phones have always been able to augment the photos with AI, filters, emojis and every other gimmick Silicon Valley can come up with. And even before the smart phone made its way into every human palm, professional photographers have been editing photos to make (for example) fashion models even more of a perfect specimen to hang commercial interests off. But ‘best take’ feels different; more sinister in its attempt to curate the perfect facial expression as it entails picking one, much like a fashion item, from ‘off the shelf’.

This manipulation of our facial representations brings a disquieting social dissonance; it’s a digital artifice that takes us further into the depths of the uncanny valley. If our eyes are a window into our souls, and our faces are representative of our emotional and irrevocably human state, then ‘best take’ tears our face away from what makes us human, and transmogrifies it into a commodity. Our ability to understand facial expressions informs not only the way we comprehend language, but also other minds and the concept of personhood itself: our faces are a vehicle of socialised empathy. If we can chop and change our face at will, then were does this lead our ability to empathise with each other?

As the famous philosopher and cultural theorist Debord expounded in The Society of the Spectacle, contemporary society has shifted towards an image-driven existence, where the genuine human experience is obscured by an overwhelming proliferation of representations and spectacles. He contends that this commodification of life results in a “spectacular domination” where the world is perceived through the lens of mediated images rather than direct experience.

The ‘best take’ feature on the Google Pixel 8 amplifies this process by encouraging individuals to construct and project carefully curated versions of themselves, to engage in self-alienation within the spectacle. Our true emotions (and perhaps then our related vulnerabilities) are overshadowed and edited out by the desire to conform to the idealized narratives of our online personas, thus perpetuating the commodification of our authentic selves. By blocking out one of the few means by which we can read those vulnerabilities empathetically, you can see why ‘best take’ sets a dangerous precedent.

Furthermore, Debord emphasized the homogenizing influence of the spectacle, which erases distinctions and fosters conformity. The ‘best take’ feature, through its stylized image manipulation, extends this homogenization by turning every user into both a producer and a product of the spectacle, thereby subduing the uniqueness of individual expression.

The ‘best take’ feature of the Google Pixel 8 for me, exemplifies our society’s dystopian reliance on image-centric existence as well as encapsulating the evermore complex interplay between technology, surveillance capitalism, and our own sense of personhood; in this case, as represented by our faces. The feature’s transformative power, where the boundaries between authenticity and artificiality blur, reflects a profound shift in our contemporary culture and raises significant questions about the authenticity of our experiences, our sense of self, and the implications of living within the ever-expanding spectacle of the digital age.