Posted on Jan 19, 2009

Jessica Strang '12 uses The Human Race Machine to see what she would look like if she were Asian. Rachel Tyson, daughter of Senior Director of Campus Diversity Gretchel Tyson, looks on.

The Human Race Machine resembles an instant photo booth at the mall, but instead of taking your picture, it slightly modifies the characteristics of your face to resemble those of different ethnic groups. You can be Asian, black, Middle Eastern, white, Hispanic.

The machine, invented in 2000, has been at Union all week, adding something different to this year's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Series.

“We wanted something that would match our generation of students, students who are so visually-driven and technology-based when it comes to learning,” said Karen Ferrer-Muñiz, director of Multicultural Affairs and Campus Diversity.

Using a computerized morphing program, the Human Race Machine captures a person’s image and then subtly changes features to fit those of another race.

“It was like, wow,” said Mayleen Rivera ’11, one of the first to try it. “I looked like a real person, a different person.”

During discussion sessions held Monday, Ferrer-Muñiz, Gretchel Tyson, senior director of Campus Diversity, and Marcus Hotaling, director of Counseling Services, asked people to talk about their perceptions of race. Individuals were simultaneously engaged in an interactive quiz to convey pertinent information, like the fact that there is no definitively indentifying trait or gene present in all members of one race and absent in another.

Jessica Strang ’12 found her "facetime" valuable. “I never thought I could see myself as another race,” she said. “It gives you a unique perspective on things.”

Ferrer-Muñiz agrees.

“This way of people seeing themselves as someone else is perfect for Martin Luther King Day,” she said. “That is what he asked us to do – he wanted us to see ourselves in others.”

The Human Race Machine will be at Reamer through Friday, Jan. 23.