Perpetual.portrait exists in two versions, gallery and online. Each is a variation on ideas contained in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, a portrait that ages instead of its subject, deforms as a result of their deeds and is validated by the gaze of a voyeur, Dorian Gray himself.

Perpetual.portrait ages and deforms, as does Dorian Gray's Portrait, however the means of presenting the portrait changes how it does this and in what context. The gaze of the subject himself as voyeur, while still contributing, is no longer fundamental. Instead it is the gaze of the 'other', their act as voyeur and how this is reflected back on the subject.

As a gallery piece (Diagram A), there are many voyeurs / viewers / users and their gaze validates the portrait as existing, as software, running. While the portrait runs it records the lapse of time by progressing through the images and deforming them.

As an online piece (Diagram B), instead of one portrait and many voyeurs / viewers / users, the portrait multiplies through distribution on the network, each becoming a unique instance or version to each user and their environment. The gaze, while not the subjects gaze, becomes a private act once more, similar to Dorian shutting his portrait away in a locked room to keep its secret and look on its horror.

While this website serves as documentation of both gallery and online versions, it primarily presents and distributes the online version. All photographs used by the software online along with the date they were taken can be viewed in the Original Portraits section.