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Course preview
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all around us, transforming the way we see the world and the world see us. Sometimes, we barely notice, sometimes, the results of AI can be very impressive, though sometimes so impressively bad, that Hito Steyrl and others started to talk about “Artificial Stupidity”. But almost always, the actual procedures of AI remain mysterious, locked away in a black box.
In this module, we will look at a recent wave of artistic and theoretical work that tries to open this black box, creating a language and an esthetics for critical engagement. In particular, we will look at image recognition AI, what the artist Trevor Paglen calls “predatory vision” and the data scientists Joy Buolamwini calls the “coded gaze”, referring to gender and racial biases in these systems.
We will also use some web-based image recognition systems to get a first-hand impression of the capacities of these technologies as tools for artistic investigation.
Course logistics
Date: Week 17, April 20-24, 2020
Time: 10:00 - 17:00
The course takes place online:
Connect through the Zoom app, ID: 7890997001
or through a web browser
https://zhdk.zoom.us/j/7890997001
The password is sent to you by email.
Course requirements:
- active participation in group activity
- active individual work (via pad)
- fictional short story, 2-3 pages, to be handed until Sunday, April 26. (Upload to Paul)
Course Materials
Monday Morning
Similarity & Difference
- !Mediengruppe Bitnik SAME SAME. WATCHING ALGORITHMS - CABARET VOLTAIRE EDITION 2015
- Mario Klingemann & Simon Doury X Degrees of Separation, 2018
How Image Recognition works, technically
- Activation Atlas, 2019
- Understanding image models and predictions using an Activation Atlas, Google AI Adventures, 2019, 7:49
Joy Buolamwini The coded gaze
- AI, Ain't I A Woman?, 2018, 3:33
- https://www.notflawless.ai, see stories there,
- How I am fighting Bias in Algorithms. TEDx Talkj, 2017
Another form of Bias:
- !Mediengruppe Bitnik! Dada. State of the Reference, 2017
Further Reading:
- Eubanks, Virginia. Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. First Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
- Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press, 2018
Monday Afternoon
- Select one story, read it. Write short summary in the pad and how the story relates to the actual company, add your name to the entry
- short research on image recognition. Select one news story that you fund interesting. Enter the link to the pad and write why you selected this story. Add your name to the entry
Tuesday Morning
Adam Harvey Art projects about privacy, computer vision, and surveillance
- Rejecting the automated gaze: Camoflash, 2008-10 CV Dazzle, 2010-2014, https://ahprojects.com/stealth-wear/ Stealth Wear, 2012-13, Hyper Face, 2017-18
- Exploring data sets: [https://ahprojects.com/megapixels-glassroom|[MegaPixels: Faces]] Machine Learning City Interview with Adam Harvey, 2018
- Research: The unstoppable Microsoft Celeb (MS-Celeb-1M) Data Set
- From 1 to 100 pixels, Adam Harvey, TEDxVilnius, 2017, 18:29
- Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, Timo Aila. This Persons doesn't exist
ClearView AI
- The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It. NYT, 20.01.2020
- The Far-Right Helped Create The World’s Most Powerful Facial Recognition Technology Huffington Post, 07.04.2020
Afternoon Tuesday
Trevor Paglen
Is Photography Over?, 4 Parts, Fotomuseum Winterthur, 03.2014
- Read these four short parts. Select four sentences that you find interesting and copy them to the pad. Please organize them in the pad according to the section.
- Select one news story or artwork and add it to the pad. Write a short note, why this story/Work is interesting.
Wednesday Morning
Trevor Paglen & Cate Crawford
- Datafication of Science Lecture at HKW, Jan 12, 2019. 32 Min
- |Discussion with Kate Crawford, Trevor Paglen, Felix Stalder HKW, Jan 12, 2019, 14Min
- Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, AI. The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets
- Fondazoione Prada: Training Humans, Fondazione Prada, Venice, 12 Sep 2019 – 24 Feb 2020 Review, we-make-money-not-art.com, Dec. 16.2019
- Why our facial expressions don’t reflect our feelings, BBC, 10.05.2018
Wednesday Afternoon
Research and select the news story on which you want to base your fictional story. Make a first sketch of your story.
Thursday: all day
Guest. Marco Spitzbart Image recognition projects and hands-on exercises.
Friday Morning
Collection of News Stories and ideas of short stories
Friday Afternoon
Individual writing of short stories
Possibility of individual mentoring.