Visually Similar Images, 2012
archival inkjet prints 56 x 100cm each
Series on the google search tool that uses a mathematical algorithm to return as result a number of images considered “visually similar” to any initial image input.
The results are photographic prints
Google search tool
This series questions the replacement of our individual perception by perception created by an algorithm, or “robot-like” perception, thus creating an exterior sense foreign to our own sensitivity.
The search tool uses random image and provides, through a mathematical calculation (algorithm), a series of images with visual similarity, following its own concept.
Our perception is filtered by a mathematician or machine-eye logic. An alien sensibility to our experience of the world; droid, automated and oblivious to our perception, projecting a new “reality“.
Process:
- MetadataIn an initial image, all text information embedded in it (metadata) such as file info, file name and caption is removed
- Search
The picture is inserted into the Google’s search engine Visually Similar Images - Comparative presentationThe search results are them organized, re-grouped, edited and assembled. The final work displays the image that originated the search and all return in simillary pictures, said “Visually Similar” by Google’s search algorithm
Thus, Piero, 2013, a painting by Piero della Francesca is presented alongside images ranging from similar reproductions of the same, other works by the painter to street scenes, a vineyard and personnal Facebook photos.
In Hugo Chaves, 2012, former Venezuelan President is sided by bikers, flowers, a baseball game, faces tattooed and a kung-fu fighter.
image credits: Yevgeny Khaldei, Egilda Gomez/Presidencia, Lawrence Beitler (Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith lynching)
