T H E   F O R E C A S T   ( 2 0 2 3 – o n g o i n g )

The work „The Forecast“ presents initial outcomes from Sarah Straßmann’s five-month residency in photography and media art, supported by the State of Carinthia and the City of Klagenfurt.
During this residency, Straßmann focused on how smartphone technologies reflect structural beauty ideals and may reinforce racist stereotypes. Her ongoing artistic research explores smartphone photography, facial filters, and their historical contexts. This website features first results from the project, including a “research table” that visualizes her research process, photographic series based on experiments with various smartphone apps, and an installation investigating properties of light, expanded by associative photographic works. Additionally, a video essay explores the representation of #beautybiases on the internet. The project remains in progress.

Research Table— This installation documents the process of artistic research using archives, libraries, and the internet. Books, copies, photos, screenshots, and objects are assembled on a work table, their arrangement referencing networked internet searches and associative research paths. The „Research Table“ helps identify key aspects for further investigation and artistic development.

I’m alive. Fire Fire Fire— This video essay visually analyzes Google search results for #beautiful, #beauty and racial bias, and #beautiful ai woman. Searches for #beautiful and #beautiful ai woman mostly show white women in sexist poses, while #beauty and racial bias yields evidence of underrepresentation of Black people in media.

Dear Shirley, what if you were black?— This banner reimagines the 1950s Kodak Gray Card (Shirley Card), historically based on a white model and used for color calibration in photography. By featuring a Black woman, the work raises questions about the impact on media representation if standards had been set differently.

Natural Gray 80%— A gray square, digitally generated and brightened by 80% in Photoshop, is shown processed through every Instagram filter.

Unable to recognize any Faces— A self-portrait processed in the „Snow“ facial filter app until the message „Unable to recognize any faces“ appeared.

How to become fucking average— Seven self-portraits edited with different facial filter apps, each from a different country representing specific beauty ideals. All filters are set to 50% for comparability and to reflect an averaged standard.

More real than Reality— Portraits of a Black woman and a white woman are successively altered using the “Snow” filter app, with effects incrementally increased. The faces increasingly align with Western beauty ideals and resemble each other more closely in shape and features.

Light Experiments / Figures 01–03— These three works explore the qualities of “white” light. Although digital cameras can adjust white balance, their sensors are primarily calibrated for Central European light. The experiments examine light, shadow, and visual perception beyond the ordinary.

(Excerpt exhibition text for „Textures and Tales,“ Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt, 2023)