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Art Supplies

The Photographers' Gallery

Writer's picture: Luke KandiahLuke Kandiah

Brief History and Introduction

Funded in 1971 with the first building in Newport street.

Moved to current building in 2012 as seen below.

Very proud of digital curator and producers, some which are working now with the gallery.


Extended Project Qualification in photography course started at the gallery as lots of schools do not have photography as a set course or EPQ co-ordinators.


The gallery also runs a program with and for teachers, both online and in person.


Commitment to digital

Screenwalks - visit an artist's studio that works with digital technologies.

How artists are working with digital technologies and artificial intelligences today.

One such Screenwalk will be exhibited this Wednesday, online for free at: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/screen-walk-beck-haberstroh


Interdisciplinary framing of AI that forces us to respond with and to a broad range of specialists.

Diffusion models

Images that are produced to deceive.



Ways of Machine Seeing


Yasmine Boudiaf, Yugyoung Choi, Geoff Cox

Annie Davey, Dean Kenning, Makaila McKensie, Janice Mclaren, Nicolas Maleve, Nikoletta Papaxenophontos, James Stevenson


Critically engage with machine learning in the classroom.

Who feels they can teach with AI? - who is welcome to teach with this technology.

Very few people grasp it all, movement is looking for ways of enabling young people to enter this space.

Art and Design should have a stake in the academic encounterance with AI. We deal with images and with authenticity in a unique way.

Machine Learning is the older phrase used to describe AI.

Today's workshop headings:

Intro to 'Machine Learning'.

Our changing relationship to images with John Berger.

Hidden labour & Seeing at speed

Algorithmic bias

Activities to try and take away


Discussion


In what ways do you think AI is influencing 'ways of seeing'?


  • AI can create images in seconds, it can produce art that has no face value.

  • Raises questions of authenticity (Deepfakes, generated artworks, generated text)

  • It has a bias already surrounding it, so could influence in certain ways/aspects

  • Chat gpt chooses what it thinks is relevant to your request.

  • Mostly men who work in the AI industry so that could have implications on what the public consumes. 

  • Fairly new system and processes

  • Used for propaganda very easily - influencing people's thought processes

  • AI softwares cannot visually see, meanings are associated through text and crowdsourced user input.


Chat GPT response: [Prompt: In what ways do you think AI is influencing 'ways of seeing'?] AI is influencing "ways of seeing" in various ways across different domains. Here are some notable ways in which AI is impacting our perspectives and the ways we perceive and interact with the world:

  1. Image and Video Recognition:

  • Enhanced Vision: AI-powered image and video recognition technologies enable machines to "see" and interpret visual data. This has applications in fields such as healthcare, security, and autonomous vehicles.

  • Content Curation: AI algorithms analyze user preferences and behavior to curate personalized content, influencing what individuals see online, from social media feeds to recommended products.

  1. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR):

  • Immersive Experiences: AI enhances AR and VR experiences by simulating realistic environments and objects. This influences how users perceive and interact with digital information, blurring the lines between the virtual and real worlds.

  1. Artistic Expression:

  • Generative Art: AI algorithms, especially those using generative models, can create unique and novel artistic content. This challenges traditional notions of creativity and authorship, impacting how we perceive art and its creation.

  1. Natural Language Processing (NLP):

  • Language Understanding: AI-driven NLP models can analyze and understand human language, affecting the way we communicate with machines. This includes voice assistants, chatbots, and language translation services, influencing how we express and comprehend information.

  1. Recommendation Systems:

  • Personalized Suggestions: AI algorithms power recommendation systems in various platforms, suggesting movies, music, books, and other content based on individual preferences. This influences what people choose to consume and broadens their exposure to different ideas.

  1. Bias and Ethical Considerations:

  • Algorithmic Bias: The use of AI in decision-making processes can introduce biases present in training data, impacting how decisions are made and reinforcing existing social biases. This raises awareness about the ethical considerations and biases in the algorithms that influence our perspectives.

  1. Data Visualization:

  • Pattern Recognition: AI helps uncover patterns and insights in large datasets, influencing how data is visualized and interpreted. This aids in understanding complex information and making informed decisions.

  1. Medical Imaging:

  • Diagnostic Support: AI in medical imaging assists in the analysis of diagnostic images, influencing how healthcare professionals interpret and diagnose medical conditions.

  1. Autonomous Systems:

  • Automated Decision-Making: AI-driven autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars, impact how we perceive transportation and safety, challenging traditional modes of driving and navigation.

  1. Deepfakes and Manipulated Media:

  • Media Authenticity: The rise of deepfake technology challenges our trust in visual and audio content, influencing how we perceive the authenticity of media and raising concerns about misinformation.


In summary, AI is reshaping "ways of seeing" by altering how we perceive, interpret, and interact with information, media, art, and the world around us. The impact is multifaceted, touching on aspects of creativity, communication, decision-making, and societal perspectives.

[End of Response]

What are some of the implications for - or tensions with - art and design?


  • Emergence of 'AI artists' (seen on Twitter/X) who just use prompts to produce images - not actually understanding the creative process.

  • Amalgamation/mismatch/frankenstien images that have not been critically designed or made.

  • Can be a tool to use for people who feel like they aren't creative

  • Removes the scope for individual and personal imput on the teacher if used in lesson planning or art teaching etc. 

  • When it comes to education (GCSE and A-Levels), would these images be counted as primary or secondary resources. on one hand you could say that they are imputting the information but you could also argue that technically it is not their own image/ photo that they have taken. 

  • Discredits artists labour

  • A change of experiencing artwork - online exhibitions/viewing rooms and the barrier of seeing things as they are/were created. This is a positive and negative outcome, as experiencing art through the digital sphere is advantageous for some.

  • Ai Art - can speed up certain creative processes and in turn put people out of work.

  • Disconnects you from the process of researching yourself, how does it choose it's sources? 

  • T

  • Reappropriation of digital images and artworks.

  • A loss of reality and touch - in terms of physical images, prints analogue materials

  • Digital identity in a post-digital world

  • Generation of AI text such as Chat GPT, can sometimes generate false information. (famous court case of Lawyers using Chat GPT to write legal doccuments, Chat GPT would make up laws and case examples that didn't exist to prove points..)

  • Disincentivises developing artists.

  • Creating your own documentation and then using Ai to createmini exercises/activities from the research.

  • Definitions - One ST's school placement is learning to use this tool to add elements to their PowerPoint lesson plans. If I was an alien ....what would this definition be....

  • Disconnect with the hand held and sensory relevance in creating artworks



 

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Geoff Cox

Centre for the Study of the Networked Image (CSNI)


What constitutes an image?

These concepts move very quickly, how can we chart these elements and think more broadly?


Oliver Laric's Versions - artwork (video) created in response to the multiplicity of images and our contemporary relationship to them.


As discussed in Berger's first episode, this is the text from which these ideas were produced.

The Artwork in the age of digital reproduction. Walter Benjamin's Aura. Original text:

(Interesting read, highly reccomend.)


Berger links the representation of women with the system of the patriarchy and the feminist struggle for liberation.


Questions for this project

How has visual literacy been trasnformed by developments in computer vision, underpinned as it is by developments in machine learning?


When most images are made by machines for other machines, and distributed across planetary networks, and part of vast annotated datasets, how are worldviews analysed differently?


Processes of proving humanity, digitally.

Inspired by the Turing test.


Learning experiments in computer vision and visual literacy


How is seeing being taught to machines?

What are useful parallels of learning and training from computer science and pedagogy?


What opportunities and challenges does AI present for the understanding of visual culture?



Teachers Workshops - What role do teachers have in supporting critical understanding of machine vision?


Tololkit/Wiki


What is visual literacy in the context of computer vision?


How to encourage AI literacy beyond STEM, and change perceptions about the skills and methods required?


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