TECNO and Angélica Dass Unite for a New Vision
Diverging from typical tech announcements, here's a project that flips the AI narrative on its head. TECNO and Brazilian visual artist Angélica Dass have teamed up to launch "100 Portraits of Becoming," a bold two-year venture. Starting as of today in Nairobi, Kenya, this initiative stretches across five countries. What's the catch? It's not about tech specs or flashing lights—it's about how these gadgets see us, how they represent us in all our messy, glorious humanity.
A Push for True Representation
In this age where AI's fingerprints are smudging visions worldwide, TECNO hits pause, asking how technology can capture human truth without the hype and bias. They've got a principle, simple yet profound: tech should paint an honest picture of the human story. Together with Dass, a powerhouse in global portraiture, they're set on seizing 100 snapshots of real lives—lives not crammed into tidy boxes of numbers or labels.
What's thrilling? This is a cultural push-back setting out to challenge the comfortable lies of AI's sanitized representations. As per TECNO's General Manager Jack Guo, the goal isn't just technical finesse anymore; it's about embracing recognition, that deeper idea of knowing and truly seeing.
"Truthful representation is the foundation of genuine human understanding," Guo emphasizes.
Dass's Role in Shaping the Story
Angélica Dass, a name synonymous with shaking up racial identity paradigms through her Humanæ series, steps into this role not to merely click buttons but to unravel stories. Her art challenges conventions, transforming how society glimpses skin tones—doubly important as AI models often flatten such nuances. Here, portraiture evolves beyond art into a conduit for nuanced, diverse dialogues, inspiring individuals to narrate their own tales in authentic light and garb of their choosing.
From Nairobi and Beyond
Why Nairobi? Why now? It's no coincidence. Kenya represents a junction, a silicon savannah of innovation that's leaping into the future while rooted in complicated currents of its own stories. TECNO's project in Kenya aims to spotlight those untold narratives, starting with native creators who refuse to be boxed by stale stories shaped by outside eyes.
- It's about self-writing narratives, as underscored by participants like Alexander Odhiambo, who underscores the power of owning one's story.
- Portraits will be captured on TECNO's CAMON 50 Ultra, backed by Universal Tone technology—each photo a bid for fairness beyond one-size-fits-all imaging standards.
With narratives available online from August, the project aims for something grander—a "Living Archive" where truth isn't monochrome.
Carving Out Human-Centric Tech
Forget about upping megapixels for a sec. TECNO's Universal Tone is more than tech for tech's sake. Launched in 2023, it stepped up where many faltered—building an impartial bridge for fair representation in imaging. By aligning a database of 372 skin tones, it's a middle finger to mainstream algorithms stuck on pale defaults.
Now photographed subjects aren't boxed into a dimly lit past but stand front and center with dignity and identity intact. The initiative doesn't just photograph—it acts, pushing the tech sector to recalibrate its sights towards shades of humanity previously sidelined.
Expanding the Narrative Landscape
Once the shutter clicks in Nairobi, it's onward to the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and finally Brazil. Across these vast intersections of human experience, 100 voices will rise, redefining the boundaries of representation in real-time.
"This effort by TECNO, tied with Dass's touch, is more than aesthetics. It's an invitation to witness what lies beneath the surface," says an observer on the sidelines.
As much as gadgets can figure into how we see each other, initiatives like "100 Portraits of Becoming" remind us there's a deeper, unpolished charm in the raw, unfiltered moments that connect us all.
