Author: Bru

Gender and Racial Bias in AI

A societal issue I read about was how Artificial Intelligence has a problem with gender and racial bias. The article also offers solutions in how to fix that. The article was written by Joy Buolamwini for Time magazine in 2019. Buolamwini is a computer scientist and poet of code who uses art and research to illuminate the social impacts of artificial intelligence. She has founded the Algorithmic Justice League, a foundation working towards creating more equitable and accountable technology in the world. The article itself is about her MIT Thesis, in which she used AI services from Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon, and used photos of famous black women to see how they AI would identify them. When she evaluated them, she found that for darker-skinned women, errors of guessing the gender of the faces were 35%, and failed to correctly classify the faces of Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Serena Williams. She found that by using a white mask, the computer then was able to correctly identify the gender.


The issue surrounding gender and racial bias in AI, is due to the fact that women of color rarely are in positions to develop this technology. Most of the technology in AI fields are created by white males. The AI’s data set that it is using to help recognize faces also has less women of color than men or lighter skinned people. Buolamwini highlights the many different organizations that are trying to combat this bias in AI, and calls for governments and police to stop using this technology in identifying individuals, as it will incorrectly identify women of color and perpetuate a system of abuse.

How I’m Fighting Bias in Algorithms TED talk by Joy Buolamwini from March 2017

Andrea Polli

The project that I admire is Andrea Polli’s “Garrison Canal” light artwork that is in Downtown Pittsburgh. I have seen this work of hers in person, and it is very famous in Pittsburgh due to its beauty at night which makes it very instagram-able. What I did not know about his project was that it is a weather responsive light artwork. The light turns the alleyway into an imaginary underwater future world of big data. The lights transform color and are animated in response to real time changes in local weather conditions from a weather station in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Andrea had previously done another project called “Energy Flow” on the Rachel Carson bridge and wanted to create another artwork that was similar. The project is meant to liven Pittsburgh’s alleyways with artwork, lighting and other interactive elements. I really liked the simplicity of this project and how beautiful it ends up being at dark. It really makes a dark and scary alleyway more inviting and beautiful to the average pedestrian.

Andrea Polli is an environmental artist that uses art, science, and technology in her works. Her work includes media installations, public artwork, community projects, performances, publications, and public exhibitions/events. Her artwork looks to raise awareness of environmental issues. She studied at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago for her MFA in Time Arts, and she has a PhD in practice-led research from the University of Plymouth in England. She is currently a professor at the University of New Mexico. She has also worked at Columbia College Chicago, Robert Morris College, and Hunter College of CUNY. She has co-edited a book,
“Far Field: Digital Culture, Climate Change and the Poles”. She has also authored “Hack the Grid” published by the Carneige Museum of Art. She has public work all over the world, including Pittsburgh, Utah, North Carolina, Germany, and Croatia.

Garrison Canal public light artwork by Andrea Polli in Downtown Pittsburgh (2019).

Mother Cyborg

Mother Cyborg, AKA, Diana Nucera, is an artist, educator and community organizer. She is heavily active in the Detroit Area, and looks to develop technology meant to impact communities that are being left behind in the digital age. In her lecture at Eyeo, she showed data about Detroit residences access to broadband, and how that correlates to people impacted by poverty. She co-founded the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC) that works in the Detroit area to make sure that everyone has equal access to technology and media. They also share the tools to do this freely with the public, and organize communities together to generate solutions within the digital landscape. In 2014, she founded the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP). Through this program, she has expanded community technology in Detroit through the Equitable Internet Initiative.

Through her Mother Cyborg alter-ego, she has developed music and art that discusses where technology intersects social spaces and relationships. She was a Kresge Literary Arts Fellow in 2019. She recieved her Bachelor of Fine Arts in New Media at San Francisco Art Institute, and her Masters of Fine Arts from the School of the Arts Institute in Chicago. She is now looking into AI and how that with music can advance community digital justice issues.

A body of work of hers that I admire is from her Pressure Systems album from 2017. Her first track, 3souled Women, has a very interesting electronic beat that is catchy and very dance worthy. But what I really like is her lyrics. She talks about a cyborg women’s body and how it experiences pain, but can’t verbalize what it is. It is very other worldly and so very different from music I usually listen to. I enjoyed the whole album, but I do really like the first track.

From her justice initiatives, I really liked the Beat Match Brunch initiative. In her Mother Cyborg persona, she taught women and gender non conforming individuals how to play and scratch records to make their own beats. Her hope is to diversify Detroit’s music scene and creating a network for these musicians to grow into and with. Being a female musician myself, I really resonated with this idea and story.

Diana presented her work by using interesting visuals in a powerpoint presentation that complimented or augmented her speaking. She also connected with her audience by asking for a reaction to her ideas or issues. She had a good and clear tone of her voice to present, and she was very likable.
At the end of her presentation, she sang a song that she sings at the beginning of every show she does. The song is her way of cleansing the palate and opening up the soul to evoke empathy and receive a story. By singing that song at the end, she was really connecting with her audience and providing them an experience that is similar to if they saw her perform a show live. I can use all these techniques, except the singing, to use when I present my own work.

To see more of her work and CV, here is Diana’s website: http://www.mothercyborg.com/

Diana Nucera Eyeo 2019 Presentation entitled:
MOTHER CYBORG IS HERE TO ESCORT YOU INTO THE FUTURE WITH LOVE

Eyeo 2019 – Diana Nucera from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Information Visualization – Gun Deaths

A particular computation information visualization project that I found and admire is Periscopic’s “U.S. Gun Deaths” visualization. This project was overseen by Kim Rees, who is a co-founder of Periscopic. This project was created in 2013, and has been continually updated through 2018 data about gun deaths. This project uses data from U.S. Law Enforcement that voluntarily reported gun homicide deaths. The data does not include suicide deaths by guns.
What I admire most about this project is the simplicity of it. It isn’t a hard graph of data to look at visually, nor is it hard to grasp what it is showing. The data is shown prominently with the total people killed on one side counting up, and the years that were stolen on the other side. I liked showing the years stolen as it is a very large number and really highlights the impact guns have on people in the US, specifically male black Americans. The graph also shows what age each person was killed at, and the predicted age they could have lived to. The last figure is interesting as it highlights how many years they could have had to live. They calculated that data based on the morality rate data from the WHO. I am not sure what algorithms they used to generate the work, but I think it was mostly just loops for each set of data they had, and then a counter for each value they wanted to keep track of.
The creator’s artistic sensibilities of illustrating what potential was lost due to gun deaths, is very prominent and apparent in the final form. The colors highlight the flames of life that were extinguished by guns, and how far they could have gone with the arcs of life. It is a very easy graph to view as well and to understand, making it easily digestible to the regular audience.

U.S. Gun Deaths in 2018 by Periscopic, created in 2013

Randomness in Sound

The Click::RAND by Paul Dunham (2019-2020) is fascinating to watch. Dunham used a series of electric relays and random numbers to generate clicking noises that become sonic beats. He used the RAND’s 1955 book “A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates” as a database of random numbers to feed into the electric relays. The book is a giant table of a million random digits that contain small but statistically significant biases. The largest bias the table had while running tests was about 2%. Dunham fed the digits to a computer that converted every number into binary, which told the relays when to open and close. The result is a very fun and cool syncopation of clicks and metallic rings. Sometimes there are patterns that appear in the clicks, but they quickly dissolve into something else. I admire the simplicity of the installation, as well as the results it produces. The clicking pauses, breaks, quickens, slows, just like the rhythms of everyday life do as well. He will sometimes add more than one panel of relays to create even more poly-rhythms. There are no algorithms in his work, only randomness and relays. His artistic vision of giving the book a voice, and having the audience listen to randomness, is a highly effective one that definitely manifested in the final form.

Dunham’s other work is also very interesting and I highly recommend viewing his Click::TWEET project from 2020. In that project, he transcribed tweets into morse code using multiple telegraph machines to highlight how ‘loud’ social media is these days.

Click::RAND from Atticus Finch on Vimeo.

3D Computer Art

The project that I found that was very beautiful was Alexey Kashpersky’s “Environment for Umakala Movie Project” released in 2016.

I admired the project because of the beautiful colors and structure that was used to create the abstract and otherworldly environment. It seemed like this project took a long time to create, and it shows in the details of each piece. The texture of the coral really brought this piece to life, and I can imagine a beautiful animated movie that happens in this world.

I know that the artist used ZBrush to create the world, VRay to render, and After Effects to comp it all together. I do not think there was an algorithm that was used to create this landscape. Rather I think the artist created this landscape completely by hand. He also used some floral elements and ice models that were created by his wife.

I am not sure what the movie project is about or if the artist captured what they were going for. I do know that a trailer of it came out in 2016, and all of the subtitles are in Chinese. I think the story is mythical, powerful, and mysterious based on the trailer. Therefore, I would say the artist’s sensibilities manifested well in the final form. The world he created is very mythical and mysterious.

String Art?

sketch
//Emily Brunner, ebrunner
//Section C

function setup() {
    createCanvas(400, 300);
    background(200);

}

function draw() {
background(200);
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){                 //DARK RED LINES
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 - width, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 - width, height/2, i, height);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 + width, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 + width, height/2, i, height);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 + width/2, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 + width/2, height/2, i, height);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 - width/2, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 - width/2, height/2, i, height);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 + width/3, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 + width/3, height/2, i, height);
}for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 - width/3, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 - width/3, height/2, i, height);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 + width/4, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 + width/4, height/2, i, height);
}for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkred");
    line(width/2 - width/4, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/2 - width/4, height/2, i, height);
}



for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){         //YELLOW LINES
    stroke(246, 190, 0);
    line(width/5, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/5, height/2, i, height);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke(246, 190, 0);
    line(width/3 + width/2, height/2, i, 0);
    line(width/3 + width/2, height/2, i, height);
}


for(i = 0; i <= height; i += 10){             //ORANGE LINES
    stroke("orange");
    line(width/5, height/2, 0, i);
    line(width/5, height/2, width, i);
}
for(i = 0; i <= width; i += 10){
    stroke("darkorange");
    line(width/3 + width/2, height/2, 0, i);
    line(width/3 + width/2, height/2, width, i);
}
}

I had trouble with the math of this project, and understanding how to get the lines to do what I wanted. I didn’t get to draw a picture that was similar to what I pictured or found on the internet, but I made something that visually looks appealing so I call that a win.

Laetitia Sonami’s Interactive Sound Performance

A project of sound art that I found very interesting and intriguing was Laetitia Sonami’s Lady Glove.

She built the first glove in 1991 out of rubber kitchen gloves, five hall transducers glued to the fingertips, with a magnet on the right hand. Touching the magnet to the different transducers varied the voltage that were fed to a Forth board and coverted into MIDI signals that controlled synths and samplers. Her latest glove was built in 2001 with the help of the STEIM Institute. The glove became a thin black mesh glove that had various colorful wires coming out of it. It had five microswitches, four hall effect transducers, a pressure pad, restitive strips, two ultrsonic recievers, a mercurty swtich and an accelerometer. All of the signals are now mapped through a software that I am familiar with, MAX MSP.

MAX MSP is a great visual coding software used by many sound designers to create interactive sound installations and art around the world. I have used it several times and have always had fun results. It can also be used in video projects as well.

The thing that I admired the most about this project was the fact that she made it originally as a joke, and it quickly became not only the defining piece of her works, but also a very interesting and fun way to create sound in real time. She has used the piece a lot in physical performances, often accompanying narration. I admire the ingenuity of it because it is so simple, but very effective in being able to control sounds, and it has limitless possibilities.

The artist did not use any algorithims as far as I can tell. She mostly used changes in voltage to change synths and samples at first. She since uses a software that converts voltage in a more nuanced way.

She created the glove to comment on how heavy masculine apparel have been used in virtual reality systems in 1991. In that, her intentions and sensibilities were very much realized. But the way in which her project has evolved and been used since 1991, it has shown how creative her original project was.

“Lady’s Glove” (1991) by Laetitia Sonami

The Foldable Fractal

The project I found that I admire is “Foldable Fractal 2.0” by David Dessens who is a generative artist. This project was from 2008.

I admire the visual look of it a lot. It is mesmerizing and beautiful to just look at. It is also gives off clock vibes to me, and makes me think of time passing or gears turning, even though the sculpture does not move. The design of it is simple as well, it seems to just be a pattern of hexagons that repeat within each other to create the structure. I admire how peaceful it seems too. It is a design that invites the viewer to stare and dissect.

The algorithms that were used to generate this art was through using a recursive algorithm that is based on a lindermayer system. It uses a recursive algorithm of a pentagon shape after folding a pentagonal dodecahedron. I believe the artist used a program called Generator.x 2.0 to build the algorithm and sculpture.

“Foldable Fractal 2.0” by David Dessen (2008)

Project – 02 Variable Faces

emily-variableface
//Emily Brunner, Section C
 
var eyeSize = 60;  //size of eye
var faceWidth = 300;  //face width
var faceHeight = 300;  //face height
var faceColorR = 255; //face color red space
var faceColorB = 155;  //face color blue space
var pupilSize = 5;   //pupil width and height
var mouth = 190;  //mouth width
var mouthColorR = 255; //mouth color red space
var mouthColorG = 25;  //mouth color green space
var mouthOpen = 95;  //mouth height
var nose = 20; //nose width


function setup() {
    createCanvas(640, 480);
    text("p5.js vers 0.9.0 test.", 10, 15);
}

function draw() {
    strokeWeight(0);
    background(180);

    fill(faceColorR, 150, faceColorB); //head color
    ellipse(width / 2, height / 2, faceWidth,  faceHeight); //head
    
    var eyeLX = width / 2 - faceWidth * 0.2; //left eye width
    var eyeRX = width / 2 + faceWidth * 0.2; //right eye width
    fill(255, 255, 0); //color of eyes
    ellipse(eyeLX, height / 3, eyeSize, eyeSize); //height of left eye
    ellipse(eyeRX, height / 3, eyeSize, eyeSize); //height of right eye
    
    var pupilLX = width / 2 - faceWidth * 0.2; //width of left pupil
    var pupilRX = width / 2 + faceWidth * 0.2  //width of right pupil
    fill(0, 0, 0); //color of pupils
    ellipse(pupilLX, height / 3, pupilSize, pupilSize);  //height of left pupil
    ellipse(pupilRX, height / 3, pupilSize, pupilSize);  //height of right pupil
    
    fill (mouthColorR, mouthColorG, 156); //color of mouth
    ellipse(width / 2, height / 2 + faceHeight / 4, mouth, mouthOpen); //position of mouth relative to head
    
    fill(255, 100, 97); //color of nose
    ellipse(width / 2, height / 2, nose, nose / 2) //position of nose

}

function mousePressed() {
    faceWidth = random(300, 650);
    faceHeight = random (300, 600);
    eyeSize = random(10, 30);
    mouth = random(100, 200);
    nose = random(20, 70);
    mouthOpen = random (0, 100);
    faceColorR = random (0, 255);
    faceColorB = random (0,255);
    mouthColorR = random (0, 255);
    mouthColorG = random (0, 255);
}

This project was interesting. I had a lot of fun getting the colors to change. I am struggling with how to get objects to be relative to each other in space and change relative to each other when the mouse is pressed, so there are fewer attributes/physical features than I would like. If I were to do this again, I would probably spend more time on more facial features than the changes the face has.