Liar! Liar! by AmCor

In a world where 91% of people lie regularly at work and at home, it is important to detect deception, even within our closest social networks. The average untrained human being can detect lies only 54% of the time. Discerning between lies and the truth can save us time, money, and guard our personal and economic safety. Co-founders and Co-CEOs officers Claöd Îdíã” PhA, and Aj Dåhl, PhB established the highly successful company AmCor® in 1989 in response to a rapidly growing market for fear-based products and services. AmCor® specializes in Human Lie Detection using technological advancements in blind contour drawing techniques to analyze micro-expressions.

Facial Recognition software, as utilized by Facebook, the FPI and the Sharper Government are no match for AmCor’s® advanced Deception Detection Training Program (DDTP) which utilizes a specialized Mendacious Coding System (MCS) through patented Visual Taxonomy Technology (VTT) and Interpersonal Suspicion Theory (IST). DDTP attendees receive thorough training from highly informative visual and audial exhibition of prevarication signs and indicators.

Liar! Liar! is a humorous critique of state surveillance and control, an examination of the culture of fear perpetuated by institutional authority, as well as the unmitigated trust in objective technologies. Presenting as highly trained AmCor Human Lie Detector Services Agents, Special Officers Çlåöd Îdíã and Aj Dåhl will be present interrogating audience members during the exhibition’s opening reception.

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As visitors enter they will hear an audio recording of a computerized voiceover spouting authoritative sounding statements and warnings in many languages including English, French and German. Besides the audio and signage, the Liar! Liar! exhibition consists of drawings which play with instructional texts and diagrams that purport to teach lie detection, crudely depicting “liars” and how to spot them. Viewers are alerted to the Amcor® Inc telltale signs of deceit, such as wrinkled clothing, dubious insignia, lack of eye contact and excessive eye shadow. On opening night, visitors may voluntarily participate in their Deception Detection Training Program (DDTP), a “simple 60-minute, 2-step tutorial” (which actually only takes about 5 minutes).

Across a table from the participant, “Officer Dåhl” and “Officer Îdíã” stoically ask interrogation-like questions (about simple things like what the person had for dinner) while drawing distorted, blind contour drawings and diagrams of the participant’s facial expressions, at times recording quotes from the participant. This short session is followed by a brief, but detailed analysis of the drawing, as if the participant could not hear. These drawn “analyses” are then left behind on the wall for the duration of the exhibition, along with the now vacated integration room.

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Masterminds behind AmCor:

Amy Modahl, originally from Wisconsin, lives and works in Salmon Arm, BC. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia, Kelowna and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Northern Arizona University. Her research and creative practice often investigate linguistic ideas visually through various media including: drawing, painting, printmaking, stop-motion animation and installation. She also creates and performs under two other identities. Currently as Officer Aj Dåhl, working for the highly reliable deception detection corporation AmCor Inc together with artist Corinne Thiessen. For this work, Dåhl was rated by LinkedIn in the top ten deception specialists in the world. She has also pursued the amateur outsider in publishing and performance as part of the collaboration Janet. Amy as herself has taught for many years at the post-secondary level in subjects including: writing, linguistics, and visual art. Currently she teaches in the Communications Department at Okanagan College, British Columbia.

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Corinne Thiessen is a multidisciplinary artist born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She holds an MFA from the University of Lethbridge. Thiessen is curious about human social activity, especially pertaining to deviance, social norms, self-regulation and social control. Through kinetic objects, drawing, video and performance, her work explores physical and ideological impediments, repression and “acting out.” Thiessen has presented in group exhibitions and collaborative performances at home and abroad, such as Ortstermin, Berlin; her site-specific installation, Chronic (2015) was on view at the Esker Foundation. Her collaborative drawing performance and installation Liar, Liar! with Amy Modahl has been exhibited at the Petit Trianon (Lethbridge), Stride Gallery (Calgary) and upcoming at Soo Visual Arts Centre in Minneapolis. Thiessen's solo exhibition Factory Logic (2015) was recently on view at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Thiessen has participated in artist residencies at Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik in Berlin; ReMaking, and Mutopia 7 at the Banff Centre. Thiessen has taught in the Media department at Lethbridge College and teaches Drawing in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge.