Reading and writing in n-dimensional face space

Abstract This manuscript begins with a brief introduction that establishes the theoretical background, followed by a tripartite unfolding that explains the following contents: 1) the path from point zero as a plurimorphic space of semiotic tranquility; 2) the historical trajectory of physiognomy and pathognomy suggestions; and 3) new biometric readings and the digital face. We postulate the neutral state of the face and see a possible manifestation of it in the tranquility illustration and theorization by Le Brun. Together with the passive face recounted by Magli, these are some of the static aspects of that space called the face, full of signs that write and compose it and allow its physiognomic reading. Degree zero, the pre-signal null point from which interpretation originates, determines the semiotic potential of the face, and the expressions of the emotions become the key to pathognomy studies, in their historical-cultural variants. We will then see how, in today’s highly technological and mediatized society, there are new biometric manifestations linked to the digital face. From the Bertillonage of the early 1900s, we conclude with a work of contemporary art that critically revisits the same approach.