New Tools in Photography: From Google to the Algorithm
September 4th, 6.00 p.m. at VAA Nida Art Colony (E.A.Jonušo str. 3) there is the opening of the group exhibition New Tools in Photography: From Google to the Algorithm. The curator of the exhibition Paul Paper will be present.
New Tools in Photography: From Google to the Algorithm explores how programmes, apps and AI-related technologies shape and change the discourse of photography, challenging traditional boundaries of the medium.
Various programmes and services – Google, Photoshop, Flickr, Snapchat, visual recognition, etc. – provide new tools to conceive image-making and think photographically. Technological interfaces not only deliver instruments for making work but can become the very logic for creating photographic series.
The presented artists offer perspectives to raise questions and discuss these technological shifts. From dealing with traumatic events and inaccessible sites through technological mediation to playing with our expectations of an all-pervasive Photoshop manipulation. From exploring so-called smart surveillance systems (Esther Hovers) and censoring politically sensitive sites to everyday glitches (Mantas Grigaitis). From playing with the copyrights of such collective websites as Flickr (Penelope Umbrico) to exploring the shared language of being in some of the most photographed places on earth. And from using Photoshop to create images (Aaron Hegert) to an image that is barely photographic (Zachary Dean Norman).
Together with the exhibition there is a magazine “Photography” published. It can be seen as a catalogue for this exhibition. The four essays (Kate Palmer Albers, Roksana Filipowska and Marijana Rayl, Ilaria Speri, Alise Tifentale) map out the works in broader social, historical and art contexts.
In short, the works deal with our technologized world. They talk about being in the middle of changes that few have envisioned. Being so immersed, one can feel it (almost) hurts.
One thing, however, seems clear: photography, which has already changed significantly in the 21st century, is affected by – and in some important ways is part of – this development.
photos by Esther Hover
