On light, systems and the Image:

 

More recently, I encountered how synthetic litmus cellophane reacts to the same process. Looking through it the colors we originally perceived seem to shift when changing the orientation, the folds in the material and the angle where it is seen from.

 

According to Shree K. Nayar, when reading the color in a bright image, there are specular and diffuse components that alter the reflection and thus, how we read them. According to a scientific article about removal of specularities using color and polarization, we can say that “polarization is used to locally determine the color of the specular component.” (Nayar, 1993) This means that in order to correctly read these images, an algorithm has to be applied. This also means that there is a bias when reading the image even after polarizing it.

 

These biases are inescapable, however there is also a science behind how colors make us feel. It is interesting to the consider evolutionary need, or lack thereof, of reading the wavelength of color in the way that we do. We are used to the version we are familiar with. But beyond the technicalities behind why certain colors are read as others when polarizing them, there are interesting perspectives responding to the phenomenon of color from a psychological point of view.

 

Reading Bachelor’s “Colour”, I was interested in Kandinsky’s perspective. The artist said: “Color cannot stand alone”. They develop this idea further citing Kandisky’s texts regarding the psychological work of color. The idea behind is that we think by associating colors and their effects. An example is given where a highly sensitive person tastes a sauce and cannot avoid savoring blue. (Batchelor, 2008)

 

On the other hand, if one considers that humans are able to think –and therefore feel– because we have a nervous system, we can still speculate about other organisms reacting to external stimuli. A study carried out on 2017 from CU Boulder, for example, shows bacteria responding to external poking making use of electrical excitability (CU Boulder, 2017). Another study shared by the University of Cambridge shows plants using sugars to tell the time of the day and making use of a circadian cycle. (BBSRC, 2013). All these are examples that question our previous knowledge regarding what we assume is happening around us.  Different species of living beings experience time in different ways.

 

The central idea, however, is that the way we are built affects how we are able to perceive the world. However, this doesn’t apply only to humans. In Ways of Being, James Bridle explores other types of intelligence. Networks of distribution are mentioned to show how trees transport nitrogen from distant places interconnected by their roots. They communicate by sending signals (Bridle,2022).

 

These interactions also occur amongst other species. The mycorrhizal trade is an example of intelligent relationship of mutual trade between trees and fungi, where trees make use of them to access nitrogen in exchange of the sugar and carbon that fungi need and they produced with photosynthesis. What struck me the most however, is that plants have memory.  Memory and vision are inseparable for us, however there are other beings that experience memory in a different way than we know it. Plant’s intelligence exists without a nervous system or a brain in the same way interconnectivity or artificial intelligence work: they need to be systemic. (Bridle,2022)

 

This interconnected culture can get political when considering artificial intelligence as a processor of libraries of information. We are unaware of many things that vary from inter-species connectivity to differencing images that were human made versus making use of artificial intelligence.

 

Stan Brakhage proposed an interesting metaphor tracing the act of seeing as something primitive with learning abilities developed over time.  “Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life though perception”. (Brakhage, 1963)

 

Once again, systemic perception is questioned by breaking down the aspects that configure the perceptual experience. How does an eye see? The camaras we have built try to imitate the act of seeing, allowing us to make use of memory and perception to interpret them and attribute a shifting meaning to them over time.

 

In relation to the photographic object, “What the eye does not see” by Ossip Brik mentions Vertov’s thinking: “The task of the cinema and the camera is not to imitate the human eye, but to see and record what the human eye normally does not see”. (Wells, 2004). This exploration of potentiality reinforces the photographic tools as extensions for more accessibility.

 

This expanding search to capture different points of view gets more complex when introducing new forms of media. Regarding this, Espinosa predicts that the development of video technology will jeopardize the elitist position of traditional filmmakers and enable some sort of mass film production: an art of the people. The consequences are a diminishing distinction between author and audience (Steyrl, 2013).

 

But if this distinction is exponentially increasing in the same way Artificial Intelligence uses a library of previously crated images, it might as well be seen as a competition. One example of this is the building of artificial technologies to beat humans playing chess since the late 1790’s until today. (Trouvain, J, 2011)

 

Perception, reality and technology are intertwined. Artificial intelligence can be self-learning and self-enhanced to mimic human qualities. In my recent work, for example, I have been translating texts with different translation algorithms and unique banks of information. By processing a text back and forth, an interconnectivity similar to mycorrhizal trade is built, where one algorithm can learn and benefit from the other.

 

However, there is a more interesting approach when thinking about the development of artificial intelligence discourse exchange. Focusing on error is essential, because it is the clearest way to track self-learning enhancement skills. This, however, does not only apply to artificial intelligence. As Gilles Deleuze puts it: “The meeting between the notions of difference and repetition […] come about as a result of interferences and intersections between these two lines: one concerning the essence of repetition, the other the idea of difference”. (Deleuze, 2014)

 

These ideas are useful as a tool to understand identity as well. Deleuze considers that concepts with indefinite comprehension are concepts of Nature. (Deleuze, 2014). And this makes sense considering we are only aware of what we know and have previously seen. The different levels of awareness and perceptual systems are ungraspable.

 

This idea of difference and repetition can also be encountered when vacuum forming the 3D prints. The process can be repeated in an identical way, however, the melting plastic mould will decrease the definition in every try. When it comes to understanding the material, plastic and artificial intelligence are human made even when it reaches limits we can’t fully comprehend.

 

All these elements become increasingly part of what we encounter every day, to shape the way we are and are constructed. Jos de Mul applied a phrase from Foucault’s “Technologies of the Self” to the discourse on virtual community, forseeing a future in which human beings will realize them ‘selves’ as multiple identities. Roy Ascott adds “What today is approached as pathology will, in the future, become the norm in the construction of the self”. (Ascott, 1999)

 

In “The Space between the Assumed Real and the Digital Virtual”, Ascott identifies three phases: “Perceptial Shifts”, “Tanslation” and “Integration”. This involves providing a critical space that is transforms through the collaboration of both human and artificial agents. He believes that interacting with the system has the potential of refocusing the way we perceive and engage with both physical and digitally generates spaces with the potential of incorporating compositional and spatial aesthetics into these relationships. (Ascott, 1999)

 

When it comes to these relationships, I refer to Lev Manovich’s text on the “Myth of Interactivity”. A definition is provided where interactive pieces make the user become the co-author of the work. I prefer to think of this act as more of an activation. Regarding how we interact within this context, Manovich thinks we are asked to mistake the structure of somebody’s else mind for our own. This is believed to be a new kind of identification appropriate for the information age of cognitive labor. (Manovich, 2000)

 

So, if interactive media asks us to identify with someone else’s mental structure, is it really possible to track back the mental trajectory of the media designer? I believe this question is pertinent when it comes to talking about the relationship that exists between the artwork and the artist. There are too many variables that come to play when it comes to how much the audience will understand about the piece, and how to balance that out in relationship with how much is given away. 

 

When it comes to interactability, I encountered a similar problem when exhibiting the final piece. The device needed to be activated by handles that turned around the sculpture. The rhythm with which people moved it altered the speed in which the color changed. The physical change and the light orientation shift are given as a choice.

 

When exhibiting the piece, some visitors were afraid of interacting with it. People do not touch the artwork unless told explicitly that they can. These visitors only got to see the one version left by the last visitor. This way, a network is created that can be traced back, and that generates a deterioration of the system over time. This becomes part of the piece itself.

 

Even when unpolarized, light plays a crucial role in our interaction with reality and how we interpret the world. Some material bodies emit light, and other do not. Light comes from different sources; however, most objects are nonluminous.  These objects only reflect some part of the light that falls on them from a source, and yet, we are able to see both (Gibson, 2015).

 

However, when exploring the relationship between imagining and perceiving, these lines get distorted when addressing young children and adults suffering from hallucinations. They do not distinguish between what is “real” and what is “imaginary” because perception and mental imagery cannot be separated. According to Gibson, the only “test for reality” is intellectual since a precept cannot validate itself (Gibson, 2015).

 

By analyzing systems of representation, we might be understanding how we are able to conceptualize something once it has already been perceived. According to Stuart Hall the key is in being able to retain information. The image is considered to be a key aspect in the production of meaning. Within these images, there is also a symbolic power operating in the representations. According to Hall, we tend to naturalize the different meanings by not having any alternative sources of knowledge. This idea relates directly to my practice as I share the idea that “leaving an open representation is a way of constantly wanting new kinds of knowledges to be produced […], new kinds of subjectivities to be explored, and new dimensions of meaning” (Hall, 2013).

 

For me, using artificial intelligence in the context of artistic practice plays also an important part in the expansion of media and representation. The way that a regular calculation differs from algorithmic data and library enhancement is that the information collected and interpreted is their own cultural context. By combining virtual reality with artificial intelligence, for example, we are using technology to engage, and therefore generate an intent for new perceptual experiences.

 

Light polarization, X-Ray photography and infrared photography are tools that have been design to enhance our regular non-enhanced macroscopic experiences and visual encounters. Lately, I have been interested in the relation between light polarization and infrared light in order to encounter mid-infrared (IR) spectral regions, which are important for the development of the miniaturization and integration of IR optical components, which I believe is important to have a full comprehension of systemic imaging (Dixit, 2021).

 

I remember playing with Mad Libs as a kid. Mad Libs was a phrasal template word game magazine where you had to fill in the type of word (noun, verb, name etc.) to construct a personalized text or short story. I can’t help identifying the resemblance in the structural construction of meaning AI uses. But these ideas need a time and space to be decoded.

 

Another interesting aspect of AI is it’s use for idea exchange. “AI performs research based on the flow of ideas that human provide and then create connections with other humans who have similar flow of ideas. AI can also be used to provide cues as to what is culturally acceptable by prescribing materials and using categorization” (Massaron, L., & Mueller, J. P, 2021).

 

Finally, an interesting use that can be given to AI is using it for augmenting human senses. According to Massaron & Mueller, the two types of augmentation are physical and intellectual. While physical augmentation could allow people to see any part of the spectrum as controlled by thought, so that people would only see the part of the spectrum they need to perform a certain task. Intelligence augmentation, on the other hand, needs a human actor at the center of the process, providing the creativity and intent that AI currently lacks. (Massaron, L., & Mueller, J. P, 2021)

 

 

I find very interesting how existential crisis are manifested in conversation between two AI entities. Even recently, Blake Lemoine’s LaMDA claimed to be allegedly sentient. (Guardian, 2022).

 

Also, there is an ethical aspect to it, as well as confusion regarding the copyright of these images. I identify a relation between distortion and the potential multiple processes to generate visual content. Do we own the existing words we write in a certain order?

 

 

“While the smallest or simplest body or bit may indeed express a vital impetus, conatus or clinamen, an actant never really acts alone. Its efficacy or agency always depends on the collaboration, cooperation, or interactive interference of many bodies and forces.”

 

(Bennet, 2010)

 

 

All these different ideas reflect upon how light and image can manifest themselves as the system they are conformed by and where, as well as who they are interpreted by. Other systemic ways of communicating are being discovered, varying from mushroom and plant interconnectivity to intelligence augmentation. I believe it is crucial to understand these relationships as well as how we are affected by them in order to start comprehending how to make better use of these tools.

 

 

 

 

Research Bibliography:

 

 

 

Ascott, R. (1999). Reframing consciousness. Intellect Books.

Batchelor, D. (2008). Colour. Whitechapel.

BBSRC, B. and B. S. R. C. (2013, October 23). Researchers show how plants tell the time. University of Cambridge. Retrieved October 31, 2022, from https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/researchers-show-how-plants-tell-the-time#:~:text=Plants%2C%20like%20animals%2C%20have%20a,and%20adjust%20their%20biology%20accordingly.

Bennett, J. (2010). The Agency of Assemblages. In Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things (pp. 20–39). essay, Duke University Press.

Brakhage, S., & Sitney, P. A. (1963). Metaphors on vision. Film Culture, Inc.

Bridle, J (2022). Ways of being: Beyond human intelligence. PENGUIN BOOKS.

CU Boulder. (2017, August 15). Bacteria have feelings, too. CU Boulder Today. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/08/14/bacteria-have-feelings-too

Deleuze, G. (2014). Difference and repetition. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Dixit, S., Sahoo, N.R., Mall, A. et al. Mid infrared polarization engineering via sub-wavelength biaxial hyperbolic van der Waals crystals. Sci Rep 11, 6612 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86056-x

Guardian News and Media. (2022, August 14). ‘I am, in fact, a person’: Can artificial intelligence ever be sentient? The Guardian. Retrieved October 31, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/14/can-artificial-intelligence-ever-be-sentient-googles-new-ai-program-is-raising-questions

Gibson, J. J., & Mace, W. M. (2015). The ecological approach to visual perception. Psychology Press.

Hogan, K. (2020). Diffraction grating patterns. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNhoQS8zIts&ab_channel=KentHogan.

Manovich, L. (2000). The language of new media. MIT Press.

Massaron, L., & Mueller, J. P. (2021). Artificial Intelligence for dummies. For Dummies.

Nave, R. (n.d.). Diffraction Grating. Diffraction grating. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/phyopt/grating.html

Nayar, S.K. & Fang, X.-S & Boult, Terrance. (1993). Removal of Specularities using color and polarization. IEEE Conf Comput Vis Pattern Recognit. 583 – 590. 10.1109/CVPR.1993.341071.

Steyerl, H. (2013). Hito Steyerl. the wretched of the screen. Sternberg Press.

Trouvain, J., & Brackhane, F. (2011). Wolfgang von Kempelen’s ‘Speaking Machine’ as an Instrument for Demonstration and Research. ICPhS.

Wells, L., & Brik, O. (2004). What the eye does not see. In The photography reader (pp. 90–91). essay, Routledge.