Zoe Romano —

Kinisi by Katia Vega is a project combining FX makeup and electronic sensors. It’s prototyped using Arduino Uno and creates interactions with a smile, a wink, raising eyebrows and closing lips. As you can see in the video below, each movement of the muscles can trigger different light patterns.





Larca Meicap, a special effects makeup artist, combined her FX makeup materials with our sensors for precisely applying them on specific muscles. LEDs were also hidden on the skin and hair. Digital signals collected by the sensors are sent to a microcontroller that activates a light sequence on Kinisi’s face and hair.

I am glad the video was filmed at Aluzcine by the cinematographer Cesar Fajardo and his team, and under the direction of Juan Carlos Yanaura. Also a special music track was composed for this video by Maribel Tafur.