The transfer window may have closed but “Dundee FC players have found themselves on the wanted list anyway.
Dark Blues stars past and present were used as subjects of police sketches in an artistic experiment to improve forensic investigation and help identify “criminals.
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design student Gillian Barrie (32) asked volunteer witnesses to study pictures of players and then provide her with a description, which would then form the basis of her drawings.
When investigating crimes, police artists “produce sketches of the perpetrators from descriptions provided by witnesses. These can then be “released to the public in the hope someone recognises the suspect,
Gillian, who had no “interest in football before starting her project, then took her completed ‘criminal” sketches to Dens Park to see how many fans could recognise their heroes.
She described the results as “reasonably” successful. While former star, and current St Johnstone striker, Sean Higgins is unlikely to be too upset after being “described as “a cheeky chappy” and “trendy boy about town,” the club”s “assistant manager and Englishman Matt Lockwood is unlikely to be impressed by being described as a “Scottish, tattie-faced kinda guy.”
“Like myself, the “participant witnesses were “unfamiliar with the “players,” Gillian said. “The non-football fans randomly selected one of the images of the Dundee players and studied the “facial image for one minute and the following day we worked together to produce the facial sketch.
“The participant witness recalled a clear mental “picture of the target and “described the face to me in order to produce a “composite facial sketch which looked like the face in the memory of the witness.”
Like a police sketch “artist, Gillian did not know any of the subjects and so had to rely solely on the “descriptions of each player given to her.
Continued with the players’ identities revealed…
“I never saw the target “images until the sketches were done,” she said. “So I had to go on what the “witnesses told me, how they saw the eyes or hair.
“It has been a very “interesting and fascinating area to research not only the end results, but also “discovering how similarly and, in some cases, how “differently witnesses can “recall and describe a face from their memory.
“Some witnesses who studied the same face gave very similar descriptions, while others varied slightly.”
Dundee FC chief executive Harry MacLean visited the exhibition, which is part of the Duncan of Jordanstone Masters Show, on Thursday to see if he could recognise his team”s players.
He said: “It”s good for the club to get involved in the community, although this is in something of an unusual way. Because we know the players, it”s maybe easier for us to recognise them but it”s interesting to see what “features witnesses picked out.
“What Gillian is doing is a very worthwhile project and we were delighted to help. Helping students with research that could ultimately help police carry out forensic investigations and identify criminals very much fits with the club”s community ethos and I”d like to “congratulate Gillian on her work on behalf of everyone at “Dundee.
“It will be interesting to hear Matt Lockwood”s “reaction to the hair they have given him!”
The exhibition features works from about 50 “postgraduate students at “DJCAD, which is part of Dundee University. The show, which is open to the public, ends today.Did you get it right? The player sketches are (from left) Rhys Weston, Sean Higgins and Matt Lockwood.