Computer Vision for Artists and Designers
This article illustrates the historical development of computer vision techniques using notable examples, and then provides practical instruction to artists and designers on computer vision principles and optimizing their physical environment for the camera. I found it interesting how the development of technology always seems to welcome a process of democratization but also capitalization and surveillance with negative consequences. For example, before the advent of the printing press and similar technology for mass printing, only a select few people could print books. The ability to disseminate texts is a tool, but what people do with it can cause both positive and negative consequences — such as distributing hate speech or propaganda. Similarly, the ethics of computer vision, now that it is so democratized, is intriguing to contemplate.
Two example usages of computer vision particularly stood out to me, Krueger’s Videoplace, and Suicide Box by the Bureau of Inverse Technology. The concept behind Videoplace, that it involves the whole human body, is something that I think could be used to positively offset the fact that modern humans sit at screens all day. Would it be possible to make word processors or computer operating systems controlled by larger upper body movements, or even foot movements, like floor pianos, so that we can still move while doing our schoolwork/jobs? This line of thinking was inspired by the podcast Body Electric, exploring how the human body has changed in response to technology.
The Suicide Box also raised many questions for me. How did it know to only detect human vertical movement, and not if someone threw something from the bridge? How come the numbers of suicides it recorded were so much more than the officially recorded amount by the port authority? For a topic as emotionally charged and taboo as suicide, is it empowering to record data to bring awareness to the topic, or does it cause more harm than good (as 13 Reasons Why’s suicide depiction did)?