20/X
SEE THE WORLD LIKE A MACHINE, 2015
McMullen_Winkler (US & DE)
In order to understand, critique and shape the impact of machines that can exceed human vision capability, humans will need to learn to see like machines, to understand their rules and concepts, and their categorisations of things in the world.
20/X asks the question: do we need to acquire new literacy skills in the current culture of synthetic vision? This interactive interface allows users to navigate through the different levels of an algorithm used by a computer to identify objects in the world around them — from coarse and geometry-driven in the beginning to more specific and detail-oriented in the end. At this point, distinctive patterns, areas and objects that ‘excite’ the computer vision system can be identified.
The title of the work refers to the measurement of perfect human vision — 20/20 — contrasted with an as-yet unquantifiable measure of seeing for a computer vision system, represented by the variable "X". Visitors are invited to experience the process of seeing through a complex neural-network-based computer vision system to determine the value of "X" for themselves.
Based on an advanced synthetic vision system developed by Eugenio Culurciello and Alfredo Canziani in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in the United States, 20/X explores visuality, representation and knowledge in the age of intelligent seeing machines.
BIO
Shannon McMullen and Fabian Winkler (McMullen_Winkler) are interdisciplinary artists and researchers who use their backgrounds in new media art and sociology to produce collaborative artworks that combine image, code and installation to create temporary new social spaces and investigate relations between nature and technology. Their work has been shown internationally at venues such as the China Science and Technology Museum; Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in Germany; VISAP ’14 in Paris, France; Gallery on Wade in Toronto, Canada; and Art Center Nabi in Seoul, Korea. They have also published articles in Leonardo; Plurale. Zeitschrift für Denkversionen; Media-N, Journal of the New Media Caucus; The Senses and Society; and The Environmentalist. Their large-scale investigation at the intersection of art, engineering and science, Images of Nature, was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation. Shannon and Fabian teach in the Electronic and Time-Based Art Program at Purdue University in West Lafayette in Indiana, USA.