Author: Chinhwa He

Bibliography

1. Is Photograph Over – Trevor Paglen

Standing from a professional photographer’s point of view, Trevor Paglen (2014) says, smartphone has technically allowed normal people to take proper pictures, and the number of photography that is put on the internet is numerous every day which shape people’s way of seeing. He points out directly the wonder of why look at specific photography while they are everywhere. On the contrary, I regard photography today could be simply just a memory recorded medium for normal people. Though those similar photography has reduced their aesthetic value, there remains value could be seen as knowing there has other seeing things in the same way and the same perspective, which brings out the unions of humankind.

2. The digital image in photographic culture – Lister, M (ed)

Standing from a professional photographer’s point of view, Trevor Paglen (2014) says, smartphone has technically allowed normal people to take proper pictures, and the number of photography that is put on the internet is numerous every day which shape people’s way of seeing. He points out directly the wonder of why look at specific photography while they are everywhere. On the contrary, I regard photography today could be simply just a memory recorded medium for normal people. Though those similar photography has reduced their aesthetic value, there remains value could be seen as knowing there has other seeing things in the same way and the same perspective, which brings out the unions of humankind.

3. Designer as Author – Michael Rock

Michael (1996) reckons that one of the authorships of the designer is translator, the essential role of design is to translate one form to another according to the given or found material. In the process of translating, designers imply their own understanding of the work which becomes another version of art from the original. Through the understanding of the article Is Photography Over by Trevor Paglen (2014), I extract some text that shows his position to align with the artistic practice I did, together as a self-publication. Through the interactive format of printed material, I try to present the idea of algorithms and photography.

4. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects- MARSHALL MCLUHAN AND QUENTIN FIORE

“All media are extension of some human faculty-psychic or physical(1967,p.26).”

In The Medium is the Message, Marshall McLuhan presents a discussion of the medium and the human being. Although McLuhan wrote this essay before the prevalence of various personal electronic devices, his discourse on the medium can also explain the relationship between users and computers. What is the human extension part that the computer refers to? As a provider, the computer contains the union database for humans to learn new things. The function of the brain would be seen as limited just as a computer trapping itself in the algorithm loop, no one could be seen as thoroughly neutral and without a specific perspective. Therefore, the limitation of the algorithm could be understood.

5. WORLD OF DETAILS – Victoria Binschtok

The way Viktoria (2013) presents her own photography and Google Street View as the contrary within the same place has discussed the boundary of the transmitted touch in the existing pictures. By cropping the detail in Google Street View and enlarging the details in person while taking photos of that actual place found on Google Street View, Viktoria questions the visibility of things. Furthermore, the black and white colour approach to Google Street View and the colour approach to her photography have visually given a strong distinction. Together it gives evidence of my concept about algorithms and images and could be seen as an aesthetic transformation of reality and digital life.

6. Alien Invader Super Baby – Synchromaterialism (VI) – Jim Ricks

The artist Jim Ricks (Onomatopee, 2018) mentioned a triggering concept about cultural migration and identification in visual images. In his artistic publication Alien Invader Super Baby – Synchromaterialism, he put together many different images he collected from online research that share some common ground in visual form. By doing this cataloguing, the book invites the audience to this inherent visual journey and questions a person’s existing knowledge and recognition. Besides, the book has exaggerated the form of interactive experience using printed material, with the back-and-forth pages flipping, which enhances the understanding of the idea that one thing will always lead to another. For my practice, I include a small publication also using the format of interactive printed material, showing the searching engine outcome and the references as appropriation in a hidden way, but also allowing the audience to compare the original images and the algorithmic images by dragging out the folded paper.

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Radical Aesthetic & Alien Invader Super Baby – Synchromaterialism (VI) – Jim Ricks

Being an American expat presently residing in Dublin, geographic import and export of images and narratives plays a significant role in his methodology. Artist Jim Ricks explores the relationship between the circulation of commodities and symbols in a global economy by connecting everyday objects to find an external or internal connection between different things.

Guided by this viewpoint, he presents different perspectives through two works. In the form of display, viewers are invited to devise their own connections between the objects on display: to play the cultural clash of the local and the global, the individual and the collective, and investigate new relations through identification. In Eindhoven, the site of his exhibition entitled Radical Aesthetic, he starts with local objects and expands this cataloguing collection of objects by collecting, buying and exchanging them for symbols. The objects can be seen to range from carpets, magazines and wall art to Starbucks cups, Mickey Mouse alarm clocks and Paris Tower keychains, all seemingly very different but arranged in a way that leads the viewer to find their inner connections and form their own narratives. The space is presented horizontally on a table, hung on a wall, or freestanding, with different forms of exhibition blocks linked together to create a gallery exhibition that is more connected to reality. The video image of Jim Ricks in conversation with Max Bruinsma provides a clear illustration of the intended display.

Another work in the same series, the publication Alien Invader Super Baby – Synchromaterialism (VI), further illustrates the circulation of symbols in the context of globalization by looking at the similarity of visual forms of images, referring to an idea called visual migration. People from different cultural backgrounds may get different messages in this series of images, which in turn, side by side, confirm the identity of the viewer. Books exaggerated the forms of print media, from sticker, newspaper, leaflet, cook book, colouring, bookmark and so on to provide the viewer with different sensations. The jumping colorful paper with the moving back and forth effect cover creates a visual form that also referring to the unexpected bouncing context. Similar to the exhibition, here Max Bruinsma’s critique of the Synchromaterialist is in the form of a booklet. The booklet format of Max Bruinsma’s Synchromaterialist critic provides a clear insight into this intentional display of images. And because the books themselves are more easily circulated, the larger number of viewers from different cultural backgrounds in the process of viewing them further refines the communication of the main idea of the work.

In conclusion, through Jim Ricks’s work, he aims to explore the significance of the vast number of things and images that surround us and the individual, as humans, we internalise our culture and consciousness as a translator of foreign information into something we can digest. And the way he displays these two works challenges the ability to find a corresponding narrative from the chaos of information. They are not even presented gently and clearly, as is the state of the mass of symbols we are exposed to daily, receiving part and escaping part.

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Is Photograph Over – Trevor Paglen

The American artist, Trevor Paglen, has written a series writing to discuss the idea of whether photography is over or not. Using four articles from iPhone camera to algorithm generated images to automated targeting systems – and what they mean in terms of 21st-century photography.

The author begins by mentioning how the accessibility of the camera has made photography less professional, and the sheer volume of images everywhere on the internet every day has made photography a way for us to see the world. The author’s criticism also mentions that many photography exhibitions are constantly being narrowed down to ensure the value of the criticism. Thus, in the face of the everydayness of photography, the author raises the crucial question of whether there is any need to specifically ‘look at photography’ when photographic images are everywhere. This question, in turn, leads to the discussion in the following essays.

In each essay, the author leads the reader on a continuous journey of thought through the arguments that follow from one piece to the next.

The reference to the camera as one of the seeing machines in the first essay continues into the second essay, where he mentions that in the course of subsequent technological developments, human technology has created different ways of seeing the world and different ways of seeing the world for other machines; and that different machines have different styles, different algorithms and different metaphors, which concludes the second essay and continues into the third essay It is these different ways of processing images, or rather these algorithms, that are the ‘scripts’. Without scripts, the components of the seeing machine would be fragmented and would not be valid. The authors then go on to discuss what a ‘script’ is. See how the machine, by its ‘scripts’, forms a networked database and generates an economy that sells data for profit, commercial, or political benefit, thus creating a cultural, economic, and political footprint in society. This concludes with the suggestion that machines can generate a broader and larger ‘footprint’ than the script, which leads to the fourth discussion on Geographies of Photography.

In this fourth essay, the author draws on material, relative and relational approaches to show the range of political, labour and privacy issues that arise from technological inputs through concrete examples of different machines; these include examples of camera materials, drones, algorithms, spy satellites, etc. that are generated by vast relational geography and in turn cause enormous relational geography with political, economic, legal, social and cultural dimensions, in line with the opening essay We see the world through photography, and photography images the way we see the world.

Lastly, the author wasn’t writing the essay one time. During the process, he would post his article, use an intriguing question every time in the end, and give a flashback every time at the beginning that formed a clear and logical structure. The example he uses has also shown the different bits of forming a stronger idea, that is not only concerned about the photography itself but also how different machines as tools to reveal the different social problems.

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Reference List:

Binschtok, V. (2013) WORLD OF DETAILS, viktoria binschtok. Available at: https://viktoriabinschtok.wordpress.com/publications/world-of-details/ (Accessed: May 30, 2022).

McLuhan, M. and Fiore, Q. (2014) The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Gingko Press Editions.

Mitchell, W. J. T. (2005) What Do Pictures Want? : The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 28–55.

Paglen, T. (2014) Is Photography Over?, Fotomuseum Winterthur. Available at: https://www.fotomuseum.ch/en/2014/03/03/is-photography-over/ (Accessed: May 30, 2022).

Ricks, J. (2018) Alien Invader Super Baby, Synchromaterialism (VI). Onomatopee .

Rock, M. (1996) Designer as Author, 2×4. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/1996/designer-as-author/ (Accessed: May 30, 2022).

Statement:

A symbol, an image, or a sculpture is considered to convey a specific meaning, but people from different positions can have various interpretations. When things with similar meanings are placed together, does this increase the understanding of the meaning conveyed by the author? How does the placement of things with opposite meanings change the viewer’s understanding? For 100 iterations, I made a collage of 15 completely different photographs, subjectively combining images according to the meanings I had given them; in the process, I experimented with different ways of combining images, and I was most interested in exploring the relations between images by zooming in on details. So for 50 iterations, I continued to work with the images by zooming in on details. I uploaded a photograph of myself in front of a mirror to Google search. The resulting image may be similar in colour or shape to the original, but it is, in fact, a completely different image. By zooming in on the details of the two images and combining them, the various resolutions give depth to the picture. The similar details cast doubt on the authenticity of the image.

Bibliography:

1. A Shaking we– Liu Shiyuan

Through Shiyuan Liu’s project, The Shaking We(2018), she uses different sources of images and video clips, some of her own, some from the internet, trying to imply the circumstance that human beings are living in a globalised and hybrid situation; by placing the various images together as massive collages, she uses this method attempts to allow the viewer to make their narration and resonate with their experience in it. Same as the practice I made on the 50 iterations, how can I provide different ways of seeing through high lighting various details? The symbolic information could have different interpretations. 

2. Kensuke Koike

In most of Kensuke Koike’s works, he tends to create a connection between the images. For the Future Portraits(2010), he uses morphing to create knitted photography, tries to answer the question in a humorous way of what a parents’ baby will look like. For the State(2011), he puts together the image he took in the United State, those photographs seem to be arranged in casual order, but in reality, each image is connected graphically to the next one. This peculiar connection creates a whole new story. This method of dealing with archive images are inspiring in term of visual narration.

3. What do pictures want – W. J. T. Mitchell

Mitchell(2005) sees abstract painting as a subtle way of arousing desire in the viewer, an unobtrusive expression that is also expressive, even provocative. And in an abstract image, the atmosphere is the primary thing that can be sensed, which is shaped by form and colour. While the theories of abstract visuals apply to the graphic communication design field, the outline, the boldness, the colour, and the space all matter. Without saying specific words, graphic design could use abstract visuals to arouse desire in the viewer and sell the idea to a specific group of people.

4. In defence of poor image – Hito Steyerl

Hito(2009) argues that the high-resolution images are more seductive, but poor images blur the boundaries between consumer and producer, audience and author. They are narrowing the distinction between author and viewer. In my 50 iterations, with the blurred parts and clear parts together in the collage, the audience might be confusing the authenticity of the image and which part belongs to which image; this could be referring to the manipulation by the media. If truth has credibility only if the power establishment or capital narrates it, then are those blurred images representing the marginalized or bottom circumstance not worth seeing?

5. Rendering the Desert of The Real – Tobias Revell

As Revell(2019) states in Rendering the Desert of The Real, the high-resolution of CGI image can assure us of its authenticity; with the large format of the image, As Revell states in Rendering the Desert of The Real, the high-resolution of CGI image can assure us of its authenticity; with the large format of the image, the more clear the audience sees, the more possible the audience gets immersed in the picture, and those pictures have similar power with those edited images of Stalin’s photographs back in the time, a new way of delusive information. But is it only those clear and rich pictures that have the power to give a delusive sense? Could blur images also be delusive after showing a specific part? The key is the context itself than the visual effect.

6. Appropriation”John Stezaker – Interview with John Roberts”

The problem is, in order to find the answer to why I like finding the similarities between things, I should rather consider the connotation of using existing photos. Stezaker(2009) states that he was attracted by the surplus-value of the image because of the little function that image have yet it create a continue evoked thinking between itself and the world. Stezaker collect images because he notice the hidden culture of the image that is usually unconsciously given. By doing collages, he was revealing that hidden message. Image do have different interpretations in different perspective, should we embrace the hybridity rather than question how a specific image value?

Reference List:

Hito Steyerl (2009) In Defense of the Poor Image. Available at: https://unthinking.photography/articles/rendering-the-desert-of-the-real (Accessed: April 2022).

Kensuke Koike(2010) Future Portraits. Available at: https://www.kensukekoike.com/project/future-portraits/ (Accessed: April 2022).

Kensuke Koike(2011) State. Available at: https://www.kensukekoike.com/project/states/ (Accessed: May 2022).

Liu, S.Y. (2018) A Shaking We. Available at: http://www.shiyuanliu.com/A%20Shaking%20We-mainpage.html (Accessed: April 2022).

MItchell, W.J.T. (2005) What Do Pictures Want. 1st edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Stezaker, J. (2009) Title. 1st edn. Edited by David. E. London: Co-published by Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT press

Tobias Revell (2019) Rendering the Dessert of the Real. Available at: https://unthinking.photography/articles/rendering-the-desert-of-the-real (Accessed: April 2022).

 

What’s working:

• It is interesting that there are algorithmically generated components in the images(partly through mechanical processes) and components made with organic, intuitive processes.

• You are engaging in appropriation practice.

• Exploring what you see in real life and the eyes of the internet, algorithmic scene.

• The content-aware tool creates visuals that look like fragmented reality.

What’s not working:

• The critical question is vague now. Need to reframe it.

• Some images works and some do not. They read more like fine art photographs rather than graphic communication projects.

What’s next:

• Could try a method of cataloguing because you are cataloguing images from google and how they connect to your photos. That can also help you get more insight into how the tools work.

• You need to think about how you present these images.

When moving forward with this project, you should pay attention to your thinking about the association and algorithm search tool.

• It doesn’t need to be only one image; it could also be an archive.

• Paying attention to how the search engine collects images together can be important for your project. What are they seeing?

Employing the method of the above image from last week, this week, I tried to use the different resolutions of the image cropped detail to form a delusive picture.

I use the picture I took as the original source, then I import it into the google search to see how much the outcome would be similar. Piece by piece, I cropped them into fragments and re-composite them to create the various resolution depth.

At first, I was using the photo I took. Later, I use those selfies that I was in front of the mirror or with my back to the sunlight. Used two ways to select the detail, one is to select manually, and one is to use a grid to help me decide. Then I put the collage into PS and use content-aware to see how the outcome would be genera further by the “machine”.

By employing those pictures that show I was taking the photo, the collages were being seen but also are seeing the audience. Together with one’s own photos and photos from the internet, aim to find the relationship between individual and society. The blur and clear parts of the collages also question the authenticity of the images.

The 100 iterations this time were encouraged to be hands-on, doing things without overthinking. Instead of choosing the snippet from one project, I combined the methods of what I use the most, which are using images for narrative.

Each composition was based on the connotation I chose subjectively. Making collages based on different metaphorical meanings or forms or colours or timelines of the image, using crop, cover, enlarge, etc. to edit.

The images below are those I found interesting and the methods could be developed in the next step.

First draft

Misread by AI

What I like about the photo is it could be identified as nature or something else by the nowadays machine. Because the AI has been set up their program to a specific function and analysis in a specific way, which is answering/information without understanding the question correctly. 

The idea of this process of iterating is imaging the world that humans are no longer existing, but AI/robot does. By importing the photos into different AI generators, the outcome is diversified through the generators. 

The context is generated by the AI generator, besides the idea of the process and the original photo was taken by me, where is “me” in this practice? The tools seem diverse, how do the quantitive elements and variable elements affect the context.

Second draft

Gender Bias of AI

What I like about the photo is it could be identified as either male or female by the nowadays AI machine. Because the AI has been trained by the existed images and captions and uses a specific algorithm to a particular function and analysis in a particular way, which it is giving answer/information without understanding the question correctly. 

As Barbara Wright (1958) claims in the preface of Exercises in Style, Queneau wrote a story in 99 ways that were the experiment of communication patterns instead of linguistic exploration. The idea of my process of iterating is to trick the same AI generator with different biases and see the response.

1. By picking a series of photos that could be biased, to get the neutral sentences, then hand out the sentences to different people, ask them to outline the images that pop up in their head when they first see the sentence. 
2. There still have the bias of AI generator, collect those sentences with gender bias, then put them into the text-to-images generator, we got a whole vision of “standard man” and “standard woman”.
3. There has a bias ratio of the AI generator in a different topic, for example, you can’t get a sentence that the subject is female from any skateboarding picture.

The context is generated by an AI generator, besides the idea of the process and the original photo was taken by me, where is “me” in this practice? (The process I use is representing me and my way of thinking.) The tools seem diverse, how do the quantitive elements and variable elements affect the context. (Use the same AI generator, which is SeeingAI, the variable elements of different source images could exaggerate the assumption of AI’s bias)

Reference:

Queneau, R. & Wright, B., 1958. Exercises in style / by Raymond Queneau; translated by Barbara Wright., London: Gaberbocchus.b

Third draft

Machine Gaze

What I found interesting about AI machine is it is trained by the existed images and captions and use a specific algorithm to a particular function and analysis in a particular way, it becomes a container of bias. In the patriarchal society, the male gaze has objectified women, nevertheless, men have to meet certain regulations to have muscularity. The question is, can we see the AI machine gaze as a term or a value that is similar to the male gaze?

In JeongMee Yoon’s ongoing project The Pink and Blue Project, the initial idea was inspired by how her daughter was fascinated about the pink colour products, and the observation on colour consumption between Korea and America gave her a deeper thought on how consumerism shape people’s gender identity. By revisiting the children she had filmed before, she is documenting the change of that person but also the change of the social recognition toward gender bias, furthermore, the effect on colour by a social movement. JeongMee uses documenting of different children’s favourite consumptions in different ages of that person, as her way of iterating practice.

With the development of AI technology, it become more accurate. The way that AI machines answer questions, might be the combination of social movement and political correctness due to the program setting.

I use two AI systems to test the current bias of it:

1. The first one is the image-to-test generator, an app called SeeingAI designer by Microsoft. By importing collages of different part of human postures or features to see in what extend, the person in that image could be identify as woman or man or with a more neutral demonstration, a person.
2. The second one is to use the text-to-image generator called nightcafe.studio. The main subject is either woman or man or person, with the slightly change of the sentence, the sentence has grown to have more emotion or change to other things. Bit by bit, the outcome become a catalog and the commonality and differences rise to you.

These two ways of generating seems to be parallel but share the same idea of machine bias. The comparison of those outcomes also gives a more in-depth insight.

I wonder after a few years if I put these collages and sentences into the AI machine of that time, would the outcome be more neutral and gender-ambiguous? Or just stay the same?

Different generations would probably have different gender biases, how can the AI define the mixture of modern hipster and Napoléon?

Reference:

It’s Nice That (2019) A study of gender and colour over 14 years: JeongMee Yoon on The Pink and Blue Project. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/jeongmee-yoon-the-pink-and-blue-project-photography-040319

This week, I went further with the eye-contact experiment. As Michal Rock claims at Designer as Author, the designer is the medium that brings the material to a new model and expresses to the new audience and being a translator, you should outline the spirit of the original material but also give your personal perspective.

What goes on inside the brain influences emotions, and emotions are expressed through a combination of facial expressions and body movements. Reinforcing the narrativity of the images by creating a flipbook for the viewer to create their own expressions.

The middle part of this flipbook is from the original clip, which basically has 3 kinds of expressions that would affect the narrative: eye contact, looking away, smiling. below are the extra actions and the above are the possible thoughts in mind.

Body language tells secrets, which influences human interactions. What these two characters have in common with the leaders’ meeting is that they show some nonverbal information, including facial expressions and body language.

By naming the project by the description of the clip on the internet: I like to feel your eyes on me when I look away, I capture the ambiguousness of the body language and related it to the facial expression of politicians when they are at the leader’s meeting. Showing the contrary of the small things that happen to two people and the things that happen to two or a few leaders that could have a huge impact on the country, I try to give it an ironic and serious-humour feeling.

Basically, I use the same method which is to create a flipbook, it’s also for readers that can have their own narrative or experience the sense of serious-humour based on empirical.

Feedback:

– Maybe try more context.

– Flipbook idea is excellent because you can create your own story.

– Political part: These people know how to use their body language properly because they were trained to do something. We can see that there are moments when they are acting “improperly.”

– Last weeks’ zoom eye contact is also enjoyable.

– Utilizing two iPad is nice. Maybe use an app that can change each portion of the image.

– Film one works well. But the political one should further develop, choose the image more intentionally.

Translating could be considered that putting yourself in a creator position. You translate the text into images, sound, or even smells through your brain by reading a novel. You translate the actions and facial expressions of a person into messages. The translation is happening all the time unconsciously.

Generally, the important part of the film was translated by actor or actress from screenwriting through acting if the theme is human-related. In the Before Sunrise clip, the BGM arises the emotion of the actor and actress and translates the emotion into action.

Discovers:

1. The body language of the complexity emotion of shyness, fear of being seen and judge, hidden feeling, the restrained attraction.
2. The music and the lyrics here speak out the emotion of the characters, and they are the lines of this scene.
3. As the audience, what is the psychology of empathy and crush.

Experiment 1:

Translate from video to a book, which changes the linen narrative situation and allow the audience to create their own narrative.

Experiment 2:

Translate from images to context, take away the time, detailize the emotion, movement and surroundings of the story, allow the audience to create the video by themselves in their head.

Experiment 3:

Translate from physical experience to virtual experience. Thinking of the long-distance relationship or online dating in this pandemic era. Parodying the “eye contact” with myself, the lagging internet connection naturally creates desynchrony eye contact.