Short Photography and Image-Making Course – Visual Recognition and AI-related Technologies

Supervised by Paul Paper

Dates:  16-17 August 2018

Volume: 12 hours + 14 independent work hours, 1 ECTS

Location:  Tallinn, Estonia

Number of participants: max 20

Cost: 290 €

Registration deadline:  6th of May

This short course will explore how visual recognition and AI-related technologies are changing the discourse of photography, challenging the traditional boundaries of the medium. Empowered by machine learning, visual recognition systems are entering the sphere of everyday life. From student dorms equipped with facial recognition in China to privately-owned surveillance systems in the US and UK, the technology is being rapidly deployed in a global rise of biometrics. What this transformation – and the resultant streams of endless machine-made images – offers is some innovative ways to think about the practice of image-making.

The course will provide students with the historical background of facial recognition and an opportunity to test and discuss some of the new technological features, as well as ask why and in what ways do these developments matter? Specific attention will be given to some of the problematic aspects of biometric surveillance and various ways artists are using new systems to produce meanings that challenge the dominant political discourse.

This course is meant for photography and visual arts students and those interested in the current technological developments in image-making, as well as their political, social and cultural implications.

Topics to be discussed:

– Visual recognition technology, apps and programmes using it and current development.

– Politics of (technological) vision and machine seeing.

– The historical context of 19^th century facial recognition discourse, as well as current research.

– The idea of pre-crime prevention and problematic aspects of biometric surveillance: prejudices in-built in the current systems of facial recognition and the “right to remain anonymous”.

– Artistic series that use – and comment on – current technology and ways of resisting visual identification.

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/photography-and-image-making/