LookingOutwards-11 – Page 2 – [OLD SEMESTER] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

“How Artists Can Bridge the Digital Divide and Reimagine Humanity”

By Ilia Urgen
Section B

Over the last couple of decades, the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) movement has brought a plethora of new changes in the world’s education system. The goal of this movement is not only to improve the lives of people physically, but to also bring people closer together by changing the way we see diversity and the digital inclusion of others.

According to author Agnes Chavez, a revolution in STEAM is how we see the development of humanistic skills and creating a sustainable future. This process is even more vital in isolated, remote areas such as rural and minority communities, where the necessity to tie the gender and culture gap is even greater.

One of many possible solutions was generated through the creation of the STEMarts Lab. Students from all backgrounds get to work directly with artists whose work imagines what can be achieved with digital technology. This new form of collaboration between generations is what will lead the future in a digitally-sustainable direction.

Furthermore, the STEMarts model is revolutionizing the way the younger generation is thinking through the following pillars:

21st-century skills and technology
Cutting-edge science knowledge
Real-world application and collaboration
New media arts and social practice

The STEMarts model is able to give people a better idea of how the world works better together with the combination of science, art, and technology. These ideas are more important now than ever before. The goal of our generation is to increase individual literacy of these fields as much as possible. The more great minds we have who are able to think critically and out of the box, the less problems our society will have. Even though this solution seems too good to be true, we’ll never know unless we try to unite these pillars by increasing STEAM literacy in our generation.

Link to Article:

https://www.arts.gov/impact/media-arts/arts-technology-scan/essays/how-artists-can-bridge-digital-divide-and-reimagine-humanity

Looking Outwards 11: Societal Impacts of Digital Art

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/magazine/finding-inspiration-for-art-in-the-betrayal-of-privacy.html

Finding Inspiration for Art in the Betrayal of Privacy

Jenna Wortham

Dec. 27, 2016

The article “Finding Inspiration for Art in the Betrayal of Privacy” by Jenna Wortham discusses topics including works of art, privacy, and data security.

The author introduces an art exhibition in Lower Manhattan and specifically lists some of the works to show how easy it is for people’s private information to be acquired and exploited unknowingly in the era of big data.

For example, information from Wifi-enabled devices passing through the gallery is gathered by eight antennas and relayed to a large screen, which shows how easy and common it is for us to be tracked.

The article acknowledges the high level of technology development and its wide range of uses, but also reminds people of the side effects brought by technology development–the cost of privacy.

In the author’s opinion, artists reflect on society through their creations, making people aware of the problems existing in society and reflect on them.

looking outwards 11

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x4p43/6-art-projects-prying-the-lid-off-online-privacy

I chose the article showcasing 6 Art Projects Prying The Lid Off Online Privacy. I think vice did a good job of curating art pieces to showcase, and they referenced a good south park episode as well which I appreciated. The first piece was a browser extension that sets off an alarm everytime information gets sent to google called the google alarm. I think that’s pretty clever and is an interesting check in for when the system is keeping an eye on you, which is always. The other project that stood out to me was called My Little Privacy by Niklas Roy. He created a motorized curtain that covered a small portion of his street window display, and tracked people as they walked by. I thought it was an interesting metaphor, the idea of false privacy in the modern era. I mostly like the personality it has, it looks like it would be a lot of fun to pass by and it somewhat takes on a life of its own.

Looking Outwards 11

Societal Impacts of Digital Art

ImageRoulette, an Artificial Intelligence device for generating labels, has been controversial due to its racial bias. Image Roulette is a classification tool that generates tags or labels based on an image of a person. These tags usually focus on occupation or suggested family roles. However, when several black tried this device out, they found that out of all 2500 tags, they were only labeled as “black”. When photos were varied, the results were the same and there was no further effort made by the software to classify other aspects of a black person’s photo.

Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, developers of ImageRoulette, claim that this is exactly what they hope to represent. They believe that they have proved that Artificial Intelligence is also subject to human bias and racism and that these topics will continue to follow us into the future. This project acted more like an art piece than a usable program; as of September 27th, 2019, it has been taken off the internet.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/art-project-exposed-racial-biases-artificial-intelligence-system-180973207/

Looking Outwards Blog 11 – Societal Impacts of Digital Art

The article I read this week discussed the copyrighting of NFTs. What I found interseting about this article’s conclusion was that it directed most of the issues towards the lack of secruity systems. The author states in the end of the article that the digital platforms where NFTs are passed around are not advanced enough to ensure that a peice of work is is properly insured. However, there was little to no discussion over the ethical and moral aspect of the impacts of copyrighting in the digtial world. I think that there is a sense of pushing around the responsiblity from the people who are taking artwork to the people creating systems to prevent the copyrighting of artwork. This issue not only applies in this situation, but many other societal issues as well. Instead of looking at solutions to stop copyrighting, the article discusses possible solutions for copyrighting to not make it past their system rather than stopping it from ever happening.

NFTs and Copyright

LookingOutwards-11 Societal Impacts of Digital Art

The article “Beeple’s digital ‘artwork’ sold for more than any painting by Titian or Raphael. But as art, it’s a great big zero.” by Sophie Davies address the society issue of digital divide, referring to the different between these who can reach the digital world of internet and these who cannot. Sophie argued that People who have no computer skills or a device to access the internet are more likely to receive social exclusion, as more and more people are online. The covid facilitate this process by transferring jobs and works online, and people who could access internet seem to be left behind by the times.

Sophie also discusses how women from certain countries and children from low social & economic status are more likely to not have a device for internet, which leads to an inequality problem. However, almost no solution is mentioned in the article. To me, the only solution in the article that “asking policy makers to help everyone get online for free” seems highly unlikely to happen in reality.

MLA Citation- Spanish art show spotlights ‘hidden’ digital divide in pandemic | Reuters :

Davies, Sophie. “Spanish Art Show Spotlights ‘Hidden’ Digital Divide in Pandemic.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 18 Dec. 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tech/spanish-art-show-spotlights-hidden-digital-divide-in-pandemic-idUSKBN28S0IC.

Looking Outwards 11–Section A

I read the article “Women in Media Arts: Does AI think like a (white) man?” by Anna Grubauer. AI is becoming more and more prevalent in our lives. However, this article brings up the societal issue that AI algorithms may be biased even though computers are supposedly supposed to be objective and fact-based. One explanation for this bias discussed could be because algorithms are only as unbiased as the coders who them. But, due to the lack of representation of women as programmers, the algorithms might be biased.

This is important because, as AI starts to be used more and more, we start to trust it with serious matters. In some cases, we cannot afford minor biases, such as when AI is used in predictive studies so AI is used to determine who is hired, offered loans, and make other important decisions (as brought up in the Gender Shades video in the article). AI is starting to be used in serious matters that have the ability to drastically impact people’s lives. If the AI is biased, it could have negative consequences on real people’s lives.

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

Blog 11

There is the right for artists to claim copyright but due to the nature of the digital environment, but inevitably works will be spread through digital platforms. I think in most cases the permission and authorization of the artist come first. Especially in public occasions (for example SNS posts), the copyright owner should be given the power to either remove or directly label the work.

Similarly, an artist who uses information such as photos, voice, and private information should gain the permission of the source of the data: in other words, artworks shouldn’t do any unauthorized exploitation.

Another issue with artworks that are based less on private subjects but on a public scale is biasness. Digital networks being the core of globalization, the audience and viewers of the digital work would be more diverse. There would be a huge variety of ways for different people from different backgrounds to understand the works. Artist should be aware of this and make the effort to research/pre-educate themselves with as much culture, history, and social differences; digital artworks have the benefit of exposure but there is the responsibility to take more care in problems such as biases.

Readings:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/art-project-exposed-racial-biases-artificial-intelligence-system-180973207/

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This week’s reading was related to AI. Something interesting that is arising from assistive technology based on AI is the influence of our biases. Because AI is fed on data that we give the programs, both the data and the process used to determine which data should be used allows for biases to seep in. An upsetting example I remember was from a few years ago, a black couple had taken a picture and had their image brought up when people were searching for gorilla pictures. Another example is that security cameras and face detection technology have far more errors when needing to identify the faces of people of color. These weren’t intention choices made by some asshole in some random cubicle but were instead a combination of numerous errors and biases baked into our society that we then fed to the algorithm. In one of my design classes we learned about how even cameras themselves were made to make and replicate lighter skin better, resulting in needing for overcorrection of darker skin tones and difficulty capturing faces etc. While it’s easy to be upset at Google, the algorithm, or technology for having these “biases” just from a simple glance it becomes obvious that they are only reflecting what we as a society have already created and enforced. AI is almost like a child, we teach it everything by feeding it what we know, yet when it comes out a certain way we get mad even though we were the direct creators.

Looking Outwards 11: Societal Impacts of Digital Art

Beeple’s NFT, “Everydays” sold for a whopping price of 69 million dollars to a crypto company. His piece is a piece of digital art relying on the blockchain technology to stay immutable and hold value. This is a new realm of conceptual art. Also, this type of art has a huge social impact. There are people of all ages in all professions making an insane amount of money off NFTs now and no one knows how long this can last and how reliable this is. The whole idea of NFTs rely on the authenticity and the ownership of the art. However, authenticity of digital art is conceptual and only happens when everyone believes in it. It will be interesting to see how many more people will invest in NFTs in the future and how much they will be worth in a few years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/beeple-digital-artwork-sale-perspective/2021/03/15/6afc1540-8369-11eb-81db-b02f0398f49a_story.html