Crazy faces against war

This week, Dutch and Palestinian kids pull crazy faces towards each other through a custom interactive installation that enables live-gaming with the use offace recognition technology. This eventlaunched the platform ‘Crazy Faces’ by War Child and Right to Play which raises awareness for the importance of expressing and recognizing emotions for children in warzones.

Growing up in conflict areas, many children have difficulty recognizing and expressing their emotions. Right To Play and War Child Holland made it their mission to teach kids how to cope with their feelings. Sport, games and psychological support help them to deal with the horrors of everyday life that are inherent to growing up in warzones.

To communicate this message to a broad public, Amsterdam based creative agency ACHTUNG! launched a digital campaign that invites the audience to make crazy faces that match four different emotions. Using face recognition technology, the webcam automatically takes a picture when the right emotion is mimicked. Kicking off the campaign, Dutch schoolchildren and Palestinian kids had the opportunity to pull faces to each other through a live internet connection. It showed that emotions are universal, regardless to living standards, culture, health or wealth.

The game is also available in a stand-alone version on www.crazyfacesgame.com, where visitors are asked to share their crazy faces on social media channels and help raise awareness for the important work War Child and Right to Play do for the children who need it most.

Photo’s of Dutch and Palestinian children making faces will be on full display at an interactive exhibition later this year.