Does AI think like a (white) man? By Anna Grubauer, 2020

Anna Grubauer writes about a series of artists and activists that have faced prejudices or noticed prejudices made from Artificial Intelligence. She writes that, as AI becomes more and more common, it is important for us to be aware of the shortcomings and even harms of this system. For example, Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru investigated AI face recognition and found that the error rate for this system is significantly higher among women, and even higher among women with darker skin. This is harmful as face recognition is often used in medical fields to detect skin cancers, so if it is not accurate for a certain group of people, it puts them at risk. In addition, Mary Flanagan pointed out more discrimination in her project “[help me know the truth]”. She found that AI often has stereotypes based on race and will label “leaders” as those with more western features. The good news is that there are many up and coming feminist computer programmers working to get rid of this gap in research. One of these names is Caroline Siders, who has a website called Feminist Data Set which is a multi year art project that combines resources for a collection of feminist data. 

https://ars.electronica.art/aeblog/en/2020/04/10/women-in-media-arts-ai/

LookingOutwards-09

I researched Toni Dove’s Archeology of a Mother Tongue. This piece is a virtual reality murder mystery film and was created at The Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Dove collaborated with Michael Mackenzie for this immersive interactive narrative. Dove worked to create a piece using interactive computer graphics, laser disk video, and slides with interactive sound. I find this project interesting because of how detailed it is. The entire experience takes about forty minutes to experience, which means there was a lot of computing involved in this. In addition, there are many different parts that allow the viewer to experience the story in different perspectives. For example, you can look through a small plastic camera and see the perspective of one of the main characters, the coroner. She is having a dream of her life as a child. This piece is also interesting because it focuses on the stories of women, and centers the story around female characters, contrary to most murder mystery stories. 

Toni Dove, 1993

https://tonidove.com/archeology/text/

Image from “dream”

LookingOutwards-08

Clare Katyal

Chris Barr is the director of arts and technology at Knight Foundation. This is a nonprofit that works with newspapers to support democracy and free speech. Barr is interesting because while he has a background in art, design, and new media, he also works in journalism and civic tech through his non profit work. His art reflects this multi-faceted background, as it is often of landscapes or nature, showcasing his knowledge of the natural world. In his talk for Eyeo in 2019, Chris Barr discusses the art of interactive experiences. He brings up the Muesum of Ice Cream, which is a place widely adored for the way adults get to act like children in it. It has many immersive art exhibits, such as a pit full of sprinkles. He discusses how these companies generate massive amounts of revenue just from cheaply designed exhibits. He helped create Meow Wolf, a company centered around this idea that immersive galleries can become very popular. According to their mission statement, Meow Wolf intends to “inspire creativity through art, exploration, and play so that imagination will transform our worlds”.
https://vimeo.com/354276161?embedded=false&source=vimeo_logo&owner=8053320
https://meowwolf.com/about

looking-outwards 06

Clare Katyal

I am inspired by the randomness in the piece 4900 Colours: Version II by Gerhard Richter. Richter used a computer program to randomly assign a color to each 5×5 square, which is then put together with other squares in forty-nine 10×10 displays. The colors were randomly selected from a palette of 25 colors. This piece is very interesting because it was created in order to demonstrate the joy of looking at objects that at first glance, do not have any meaning other than being squares. And yet, the random colors and the patterns created by randomness can provoke deeper thought from viewers and inspire them to question how often colors appear randomly together. The arrangement of the panels was not done randomly, but by the artist. This makes one wonder if art is ever truly random, or if there is always a slight oversight or bias from the artist creating the art. 

https://plus.maths.org/content/understanding-uncertainty-pure-randomness-art

Gerhard Richter, 2007

Looking Outwards-04

Clare Katyal

I researched Seiko Mikami’s Desire of Codes. This is a project which uses a variety of sensors and small lights, as well as cameras to follow the movements of visitors. The movements trigger a response throughout all of the units, and lights are pointed on the visitor. I find it very intriguing how Mikami programmed all of these units to work in tandem to create an interactive experience for visitors. The sound created gives a slightly uneasy feeling, as the sounds given off by the guests are translated to sound like insects flying. I think this is an interesting idea, especially because of the creators intention to play with time and space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjUC1xjRek0
2011, Desire of Codes, Seiko Mikami

Looking-Outwards-03

Clare Katyal, Section E

This project was created by Michael Faraday and is called Faraday waves. Faraday, along with photographer Linden Glendhill, used a high-speed camera and an LED ring light to reflect on water and capture the motions of the waves in the water. He attempted to depict the change in the waves when vibrating from different frequencies and found that higher frequencies create more complex patterns. I assume the patterns are generated through some art computer program which translates the wave frequencies (Hertz) into colorful circles on a black background, in order to better show the patterns and the complexities of the waves’ movements. Faraday studied the patterns of waves and their frequencies in the early nineteenth century, and used his knowledge of the vibrations to create a final product which artistically shows a beautiful and detailed graphic of a wave, while also educating the viewers about the ways nature can create beautiful art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APcBqk_UujA
Created by Michael Faraday
https://parametricworld.tumblr.com/post/175502683288/fuckyeahfluiddynamics-vibrate-a-pool-of-water

LookingOutwards-02

Section E, Clare Katyal

I researched the Nonsense Laboratory created by Allison Parrish in 2021. This project uses a program created by Parrish called Pincelate. This program breaks down English words into their phonetics. The idea of the program is to play with the way words are spelled the same way you play with clay or with notes on an instrument. The program inputs words, translates them into how they sound in the mouth, and then ejects a word for the program’s user to try to say. I admire how versatile the program is because it is able to work with any word, and even words that aren’t really words, like made up sounds or jumbles of letters. The front-end implementation was created by Allison Parrish, while the visuals of the program and instructions were created by Jenny Goldstick and Tim Szetela. Allison Parrish creates many different programs playing on scrambled words, which is interesting because it makes one think about how every word we know is just random letters put together. It is cool to think about how people create the words that have so much meaning to people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAbx5kgCJo
Created by Allison Parrish
https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/nonsense-laboratory/

Project-02-Variable-face

Section E

I tried to play with adding makeup to the face when it was clicked, in order to add more color on the face. I also tried to play with beauty standards, and had the lips and eyebrows get fuller, as this is what many celebrities look like nowadays.

var boxWidth = 6
function setup() {
    createCanvas(640, 480);
    background(220);
    text("p5.js vers 0.9.0 test.", 10, 15);
}

function draw() {
background(247,233,106,[255]);
 fill(75,36,36,[255]); //hair
 if (mouseY < width/2) { //hair grows
     ellipse(width/2,height/2+50,230,400);
 } else {
     ellipse(width/2,height/2+170,260,700);
 }

   
 fill(212,179,135,[255]);
    ellipse(width/2,height/2,180,250); //face
if (mouseIsPressed) //lipstick
    fill(219,58,107,[100]); 
if (mouseIsPressed) {
       ellipse((width/2),(height/2+50),70,30); //lips
} else {
        ellipse((width/2),(height/2+50),40,15);
}
if (mouseIsPressed) //blush
fill(255,204,204,[255]);
    circle((width/2+40),(height/2),30);
    circle((width/2-40),(height/2),30);
fill(0)
strokeWeight(3);
    line((width/2-40),(height/2+50),(width/2+40),(height/2+50)); //mouth
fill(255); //eye whites
    ellipse((width/2-30),(height/2-40),30,15);
    ellipse((width/2+30),(height/2-40),30,15);
fill(75,32,32,[255]);
    if (mouseX > width/2) { //pupils dilate
        boxWidth=12;
    } else {
        boxWidth=6;
    }
    ellipse((width/2-30),(height/2-40),boxWidth,boxWidth); //eye right
    ellipse((width/2+30),(height/2-40),boxWidth, boxWidth); //eye left
    arc((width/2-30),(height/2-60),30,mouseY,PI,radians(360)); //eyebrow right arches
    arc((width/2+30),(height/2-60),30,mouseY,PI,radians(360)); //eyebrow left arches
fill(164,135,106,[255]); //nose
strokeWeight(1);
    triangle((width/2-15),(height/2+10),(width/2+15),(height/2+10),(width/2),(height/2-30));
fill(223,193,163,[255]);
strokeWeight(1);
    rect((width/2-9),(height/2-30),18,35);
fill(0); 
    ellipse((width/2-5),(height/2+5),8,5); //nostrails
    ellipse((width/2+5),(height/2+5),8,5); //nostrails

}

01-Project-face

sketch
function setup() {
    createCanvas(400, 300);
    background(220);
    text("p5.js vers 0.9.0 test.", 10, 15);
}

function draw() {
 fill(75,36,36,[255]); //hair
    ellipse(200,200,230,400);
 fill(212,179,135,[255]);
    ellipse(200,150,180,250); //face
fill(219,58,107,[100]);       
    ellipse((width/2),(height/2+50),70,30); //lips
fill(0)
strokeWeight(3);
    line((width/2-40),(height/2+50),(width/2+40),(height/2+50));
fill(255); //eye whites
    ellipse((width/2-30),(height/2-40),30,15);
    ellipse((width/2+30),(height/2-40),30,15);
fill(75,32,32,[255]);
    ellipse((width/2-30),(height/2-40),10,10);
    ellipse((width/2+30),(height/2-40),10,10);
    arc((width/2-30),(height/2-60),30,10,PI,radians(360)); //eyebrow right
    arc((width/2+30),(height/2-60),30,10,PI,radians(360)); //eyebrow left
fill(164,135,106,[255]); //nose
strokeWeight(1);
    triangle((width/2-15),(height/2+10),(width/2+15),(height/2+10),(width/2),(height/2-30));
fill(223,193,163,[255]);
strokeWeight(1);
    rect((width/2-9),(height/2-30),18,35);
fill(0);
    ellipse((width/2-5),(height/2+5),8,5);
    ellipse((width/2+5),(height/2+5),8,5);
fill(255,204,204,[255]);
    circle((width/2+40),(height/2),30);
    circle((width/2-40),(height/2),30);
noLoop
}

I found creating the proportions most challenging and getting different features in their correct positions.