Face To Face was a proposed project to collect personal stories from individuals in China, to be co-created with Kodak at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In 2008, China was playing a growing role in the world’s consciousness, given its economic might, its rising political power, and its position as Olympic host. In the West, China is often seen as a monolithic entity rather than as a collection of some of the most diverse people in the world. China seldom exports personalities, so we tend to hear about its economy and its government, but rarely about its 1.3 billion inhabitants. Face to Face aimed to tell the stories of some of these individuals, at a time when China was coming “face to face” with the rest of the world — and therefore also with itself.

The project was to consist of a physical installation at the Olympic village in Beijing, along with an interactive website to share the collected stories with the rest of the world. The proposal was made in response to an invitation from Kodak, but due to the latter’s quickly shifting fortunes, it never became a reality.