Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Machine Vision (Machine Vision in Everyday Life: Playful Interactions with Visual Technologies in Digital Art, Games, Narratives and Social Media)
Reporting period: 2021-08-01 to 2023-01-31
In the last decade, machine vision has become part of the everyday life of ordinary people. Smartphones have advanced image manipulation capabilities, social media use image recognition algorithms to sort and filter visual content, and games, narratives and art increasingly represent and use machine vision techniques such as facial recognition algorithms, eye-tracking and virtual reality. The ubiquity of machine vision in ordinary peoples’ lives marks a qualitative shift where once theoretical questions are now immediately relevant to the lived experience of ordinary people.
MACHINE VISION will develop a theory of how everyday machine vision affects the way ordinary people understand themselves and their world through 1) analyses of digital art, games and narratives that use machine vision as theme or interface, and 2) ethnographic studies of users of consumer-grade machine vision apps in social media and personal communication. Three main research questions address 1) new kinds of agency and subjectivity; 2) visual data as malleable; 3) values and biases.
MACHINE VISION fills a research gap on the cultural, aesthetic and ethical effects of machine vision. Current research on machine vision is skewed, with extensive computer science research and rapid development and adaptation of new technologies. Cultural research primarily focuses on systemic issues (e.g. surveillance) and professional use (e.g. scientific imaging). Aesthetic theories (e.g. in cinema theory) are valuable but mostly address 20th century technologies. Analyses of current technologies are fragmented and lack a cohesive theory or model.
MACHINE VISION challenges existing research and develops new empirical analyses and a cohesive theory of everyday machine vision. This project is a needed leap in visual aesthetic research. MACHINE VISION will also impact technical R&D on machine vision, enabling the design of technologies that are ethical, just and democratic.
MACHINE VISION will develop a theory of how everyday machine vision affects the way ordinary people understand themselves and their world through 1) analyses of digital art, games and narratives that use machine vision as theme or interface, and 2) ethnographic studies of users of consumer-grade machine vision apps in social media and personal communication. Three main research questions address 1) new kinds of agency and subjectivity; 2) visual data as malleable; 3) values and biases.
MACHINE VISION fills a research gap on the cultural, aesthetic and ethical effects of machine vision. Current research on machine vision is skewed, with extensive computer science research and rapid development and adaptation of new technologies. Cultural research primarily focuses on systemic issues (e.g. surveillance) and professional use (e.g. scientific imaging). Aesthetic theories (e.g. in cinema theory) are valuable but mostly address 20th century technologies. Analyses of current technologies are fragmented and lack a cohesive theory or model.
MACHINE VISION challenges existing research and develops new empirical analyses and a cohesive theory of everyday machine vision. This project is a needed leap in visual aesthetic research. MACHINE VISION will also impact technical R&D on machine vision, enabling the design of technologies that are ethical, just and democratic.
In the first 30 months of the project, the project team has developed a database documenting and analysing representations and simulations of machine vision in art, games and narratives. Analysis and visualisations of the data are being conducted in 2021 and 2022. The database has been developed using theoretical frameworks from intersectional and feminist digital humanities and from critical posthumanism. The PhD students have developed their projects and in addition to working collaboratively on the database with the PI, they are writing articles for their dissertations. All have presented their work on several occasions, and have papers in various stages of publication, acceptance and review. The PI, PhD students and research assistant have co-published a paper on the methodology of developing the database, and are working on further papers. The PI has conducted theoretical research and a literature review, has presented and written several papers that are forthcoming, and is working on a book to be published by Polity Press in 2022. The project was granted 1 mill NOK in supplementary funding from the Norwegian Research Council’s FORSTERK program (grant no 309711) for innovative dissemination of project research: we will develop a live action roleplaying game and an exhibition at the University Museum with the goal of allowing participants to play out situations where they must make complex ethical choices about the use of machine vision, thus providing training in ethical decision making that is crucial for society. The exhibition is on view at the University Museum in Bergen from 18.03.2021-29.08.2021 and live action role-playing games for adults and children will take place in late 2021.
The database uses an innovative methodology for coding represented agency that will be documented and presented as a methodological innovation in the digital humanities. We expect the analysis of data to be productive. Theoretical work is developing that promises to be groundbreaking, but is still in early stages.