Quantum Face Filter

The project began with the observation that digital platforms do not passively record identity, they actively produce it.

Every interaction with a digital environment is measured and translated into deterministic systems: profiles, identifiers, categories and scores. Over time, these systems accumulate data and construct increasingly rigid representations of a person.

Human identity, however, is rarely stable or singular. It is contextual, evolving and plural.

The speculative design provocation fl(u)id explored this question through future scenarios about the relationship between identity, technology and control.

Using the hindsight–insight–foresight framework, alongside the PPPP cone and scenario matrix, the research mapped how digital identity systems evolved, how they currently shape behaviour, and how they might influence human identity in the future.

Four scenarios for 2050

What ultimately distinguished these futures was who controls the conditions of measurement. In dystopian scenarios, measurement is controlled by platforms and institutions. Identity becomes something imposed and accumulated externally.

In the preferable scenario, individuals control when and how they are observed. Identity becomes contextual, temporary and self-directed.

This insight shaped the design challenge:

Quantum mechanics offers a radically different way of thinking about information. In the quantum world, a system exists in superposition until it interacts with its environment. That interaction forces the wave function to update: the probabilistic description of possible states resolves into a single outcome.

Two properties are particularly interesting for identity systems:

• Contextuality: the outcome depends on the interaction.
• Non-persistence: the prior state cannot be perfectly recovered once measured.

This suggested a provocative possibility:

Quantum is not only a metaphor for fluidity, but potentially a different architectural logic.

fl(u)id introduced the question through speculative design. After attending a workshop on creative quantum computing at the Creative Computing Institute, the project evolved toward a more technical exploration.

Quantum computing operates on principles that differ fundamentally from classical computing. In particular, quantum information is difficult to copy or store indefinitely, and measurement fundamentally changes the system.

This suggested a new direction:

Q.Filter became an attempt to translate this logic into an interactive experience.

Q.Filter is a live browser-based interaction prototype built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and MediaPipe FaceMesh. The system tracks 468 facial landmarks in real time using the webcam.

Before a face is detected, particles drift in a diffuse probability cloud. When a face appears, the particles move toward the landmark positions, a behaviour inspired by the collapse of a quantum state during observation.

Even after forming the face, the particles never fully stabilise. Each particle is continuously displaced by an independent sine wave, creating persistent instability similar to quantum noise. The face exists, but never as a fixed representation. Instead, it behaves like a system constantly updating through interaction.

Open Q.Filter (use Google Chrome)

Q.Filter translates three quantum principles into interaction behaviour:

Rather than representing identity as a static object, the interface presents it as a behaviour that emerges through interaction.

System behaviour

Ultimately, Q.Filter is not intended as a finished product but as a research probe. It explores how quantum principles might translate into an interface behaviour people can experience directly, and whether such systems could return greater agency to the people they represent.

If identity were generated through contextual interactions rather than stored profiles:

• Systems would accumulate less permanent personal data
• Identity could remain plural and context-dependent
• Users could have more control over when and how they are observed

Current explorations include experiments in TouchDesigner to expand the visual behaviour and real-time responsiveness of the system. Future work aims to integrate quantum-generated randomness, replacing simulated noise with genuine quantum outputs.