Rehearsals on Faciality Diagrams of AI Avatars

Abstract

As the post-Kantian schēma tradition emphasizes the importance of using mental concepts and frameworks to understand and interpret sensory experiences, in our case dramaturgies of faciality, rethinking different schemata concepts in various rehearsals and theoretical scenes seem fruitful to critically heed the development and use of faciality applied to AI avatars in virtual and augmented reality environments. One theoretical rehearsal to be explored is the baby schema theory as proposed by Konrad Lorenz to explain why certain physical features are perceived as cute. In recent years, the baby schema-cuteness relation has also been studied culturally in Kawaii aesthetics and in the context of virtual humans. In another rehearsal we critically heed exemplary faciality diagrams of Paul Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS) as a system for identifying and analyzing facial expressions of emotion based on the problematic idea that specific facial muscle movements correspond to emotions as a highly questionable facial diagrams (Stjernfelt/Peirce) –fallible as such – and finally glimpse towards the scenes of Todorov’s critic of facial rapid glance inferences and Lavater’s physiognomics.