alex/andra crouwers
@acrwrs
Retracing the steps of my artistic trajectory keeps taking me back to my obsession with spirit photography of the late 1800s and early 1900s. This is technology as mediator for the invisible, the ‘occult’. This type of trick photography I tried to copy in the darkroom was my gateway to Photoshop. Image from 2002.
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Stu
@stusontier
I'm drawn to this stuff as fantastic examples of how the ability to fool people with visual imagery evolves as the technology does. I'm sure you know the 'fairy' pictures which convinced many of the 'reality' of them, at the time.
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alex/andra crouwers
@acrwrs
Oh, yes! And how they fooled even Arthur Conan Doyle! It’s amazing how after over 150 years of photographic image manipulation people are still so naive when it comes to images, right? See the whole AI will change our perception of reality discussions, haha.
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Stu
@stusontier
snap - I know that story too. I'm about to write a piece about visual literacy as connected to imagery that has been intervened by machine learning - Google Earth satellite imagery to be precise. And I'll refer back to these two things. I'm not sure how AI will change perceptions yet, but yeah! Like minds!
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alex/andra crouwers
@acrwrs
Oooh, interesting! Keep me updated on the piece, please, Stu!
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Stu
@stusontier
will do - I'm hoping its recorded when I present it, although I only have 10 mins. Would be interested if you have any writing on this topic too.
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alex/andra crouwers
@acrwrs
It’s part of a chapter in my thesis, based on this amazing collection of essays in particular: https://academic.oup.com/book/35192 Totally recommended!
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Stu
@stusontier
oooh yes, some of those chapter names are compelling, as is the intro
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