Contextual Research – Jasmine Murray Photography

Post MA: An update on Artists, Python, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

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Figure 1 Pipeline Gallery’s Instagram (2021) Artist Talk: Jasmine Murray

I can’t quite believe it’s been nearly 6 months since my last post. A few months after my online residency with Transient, I did an artist talk with Pipeline Gallery’s Holly Richards, which is available to watch back on their website, alongside other fantastic artist talks. Some point next month (April 2022), one of my images from the series Transhumane: The Immortality of Self (2019) is set to be exhibited in Festival Pil’Ours, France, in an exhibition curated by Shutterhub called Your Body Belongs to You.

**Figure 2** Pipeline Gallery (2022-) *Listening to; Jasmine Murray*

Last month I caught two virtual events, one organised by Natasha Caruana’s Work Show Grow Artist Talk Salon 9 which featured artists Anna-Tia Buss and Vera Hadzhiyska. The other was organised by Hundred Heroines in collaboration with Exposure 2022 an online talk called Women in STEAM which featured Falmouth Flexible’s Wendy McMurdo and Mónica Alcázar-Duarte. Both talks were incredibly interesting and informative, though Mónica Alcázar-Duarte’s practice in particular resonated with me, as it overlapped with my own research made during the MA on digital biases.

Anna-Tia Buss

**Figure 3** Buss, A. (2018) *I Never Realized* *exhibition*

Buss’ series I Never Realised draws on the question of beauty ideals in society and the impact such ideals have on our identity and the broader notion of what it means to be a woman in the eyes of society and the lasting trauma such narrow ideal boundaries can cause to those subjected to it. Her work reminds me of the following passage from Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal which states: “In an era of technological intervention, shame attaches more to the body than its clothing; shame of wrinkles, shame of bumpy noses, and shame of sagging jowls, shame, in general of the imperfect and nonconforming body.” (Widdows, H. 2018; 33), albeit a visual rendition and representation. Her pairing of traditional studio portraiture with the more personal and intimate collaborative Polaroid print of her subject’s body and written testament of the area of the body they, the sitter, deems to be their ultimate flaw provokes the viewer of the work to reflect and think of just how restrictive humanity is on what beauty is. Whilst these narrow boundaries have always existed since time immemorial, I would argue that the rise of Web 2.0 – particularly social media has accelerated a global ideal as mentioned by Widdows in her book, but also brought about the notion of the unrealistic and artificial beauty only made possible through the lens of body modification apps and extreme cosmetic procedures.

Vera Hadzhiyska

**Figure 4** Hadzhiyska, V. (2017-2019) *With the Name of a Flower*

Hadzhiyska’s practice is quite far removed from my own, however With the Name of a Flower (2017-2019) gave me a lot to think about on the notions of identity and belonging. Her series investigates and tackles a topic I was unfamiliar with – the forced name changes of those from the Bulgarian Muslim population during the era dubbed the ‘Revival Process’ between 1912-1989. Whilst I knew Bulgaria was at one point part of the Ottoman Empire, I had never really given thought to how this historical fact meant Bulgaria was and I suppose still is, a decidedly diverse culturally rich country. The story behind the images really tugged on my heartstrings and really made me reflect on just how much of your identity can be linked to a name, and how under an unjust society lack of freedom is ultimately a form of censorship.

Dr Wendy McMurdo

“All art is produced as a mirror to the technology of its time.”
McMurdo, W. (2011)

**Figure 5** McMurdo, W. (2002) *Anaesthetist John Bracken and Surgeon Marjorie Ritchie at The Roslin Institute*

Despite being aware of Dr Wendy McMurdo’s work prior to the talk host by Hundred Heroines (in part because she was module leader of the Final Major Project module of my MA in Photography.) I wasn’t familiar with the fact she had documented the scientists who worked on the Dolly the Sheep project (Figure 5). Hearing McMurdo’s thoughts on photography was insightful and resonated with my own views on the future of photography, in that I see photography as a medium that now entwines with other art and tech practices to the point of indistinguishability of where photography itself begins or ends within an image. For example thinking on my own practice is the use of cinemagraphs truly photography or is it instead moving image, or is it both an uncanny hybrid between the moving and the still? McMurdo’s own practice depicts the rapid evolution of technology available to society and its impact on those growing up during these times.

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte

“How is the delegation of algorithmic filters capable of extracting the majority opinion, thus automatically becoming truth?”
Alcázar-Duarte, M. (2021)

**Figure 6** Alcázar-Duarte, M. (2017-2020) *Here to be caught.*

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte’s practice, but particularly her series Second Nature revolves around the inherent pre-existing biases being fed into machine learning algorithms that further pre-existing discrimination and negative stereotypes faced by those who have historically been oppressed. Second Nature explicitly draws on Alcázar-Duarte’s own Mexican heritage and are an fusion of algorithmic search results on the Internet and testaments from women of the discrimination they face, which she collected during her travels in Mexico. During the talk Alcázar-Duarte showed some of her work in progress which I found very insightful, as she appears to have reached the same conclusion as I had during the duration of my MA – that GAN technology works on what is fed into the input and given most current GAN libraries rely on search engine results the outcome is inevitably biased, and tends to dehumanise women into the epitome of the male gaze (if going by deep-fake and deep-nude technology and what AI did when given a cropped photo of AOC).

Learning Python, Understanding AI & Machine Learning

**Figure 7** Sketchplanations (2013-) *Gif diagram of Boyd’s OODA Loop*

During my MA I didn’t have time to explore in-depth how GAN worked in regards to coding, so since graduation I’ve been researching and learning Python and the fundamentals to AI and Machine Learning. Recently I attended a Code First Girls MOOC: An Introduction to Python which made me realise I had indirectly learnt a lot of the basics when experimenting in Ren’py last year (like knowing when to indent, when to print, and how to add a comment within the code). I did learn some helpful tips attending however in regards to formatted strings: instead of writing .format you can just use the letter f instead. This week I attended a tech talk hosted by Dr Joni Pelham at the Friendly Nettle Café on AI, which gave a fundamental overview of the various types of Machine Learning and that ultimately AI is not just Machine Learning, but all of Machine Learning is Artificial Intelligence. Whilst Boyd’s OODA loop was originally created as a military strategy, his theory works as a general predications loop and is a fundamental basis to all coding and programming, something which has been sped up and automated by the development of Machine Learning. However as I found during my MA, AI can only be as reliable as the data it is fed or has access to and in the case of GAN a lot could be improved as it is a method of supervised machine learning. Towards the end of my MA, I did find when researching that you could use Google Colab for some python applications but wasn’t sure whether it would be powerful enough to host any kind of GAN so was pleasantly surprised to find out it should work for a simplistic GAN.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Pipeline Gallery’s Instagram (2021) Artist Talk: Jasmine Murray. [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/CXIkTwEopXJ/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Figure 2 Pipeline Gallery (2022) Listening to; Jasmine Murray. [Online] Available from: https://www.pipelinegallery.org/post/listening-to-jasmine-murray [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Figure 3 Buss, A. (2018-) I Never Realized exhibition. [Online] Available from: https://www.flare-photoforum.com/post/183608095060/prix-photoforum-2018-part-2 [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Figure 4 Hadzhiyska, V. (2017-2019) With the Name of a Flower. [Online] Available from: https://museemagazine.com/culture/2021/1/18/photo-journal-monday-vera-hadzhiyska [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Figure 5 McMurdo, W. (2002) Anaesthetist John Bracken and Surgeon Marjorie Ritchie at The Roslin Institute. [Online] Available from: https://hundredheroines.org/brief-news/wendy-mcmurdo-ig-take-over/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Figure 6 Alcázar-Duarte, M. (2017-2020) Here to be caught (from the series Second Nature). [Online] Available from: https://www.1854.photography/2021/05/monica-alcazar-duarte/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Figure 7 Sketchplanations (2013-) Gif diagram of Boyd’s OODA Loop. [Online] Available from: https://sketchplanations.com/ooda-loop [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Bibliography

Alcázar-Duarte, M. [in] Vora, B. (2021) British Journal of Photography: Mónica Alcázar-Duarte explores the dangers hidden behind the algorithm. [Online] Available from: https://www.1854.photography/2021/05/monica-alcazar-duarte/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Buss, A. (2022-) [Online] Available from: https://www.annatiabuss.com/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Buss, A. [in] International Photography Magazine (2018) Anna-Tia Buss: I Never Realized. [Online] Available from: http://internationalphotomag.com/anna-tia-buss-i-never-realized/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Code First Girls (2021-) MOOC [Online] Available from: https://codefirstgirls.com/ and https://codefirstgirls.com/courses/moocs/ [Accessed 11/03/2022]

Hadzhiyska, V. (2022-) [Online] Available from: https://www.verahadzhiyska.com/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Hao, K. (2021) MIT Technology Review: An AI saw a cropped photo of AOC. It autocompleted her wearing a bikini. [Online] Available from: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/29/1017065/ai-image-generation-is-racist-sexist/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Hundred Heroines (26^th February 2022) Women in STEAM Artist Talk: Mónica Alcázar-Duarte & Wendy McMurdo. [Online] Available from: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-in-steam-photography-talk-tickets-243629260677?keep_tld=1# and https://hundredheroines.org/event/women-in-steam-photography-talk-with-monica-alcazar-duarte-wendy-mcmurdo/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

McMurdo, W. (2022-) [Online] https://wendymcmurdo.com/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

McMurdo, W. [with] Boothroyd, S. (2011) PhotoParley: Wendy McMurdo Interview. [Online] Available from: https://photoparley.wordpress.com/tag/future/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Pelham, J. (2022-) LinkedIn Events: What is AI & How do I have a go? [Online] Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/events/whatisai-howdoihaveago6904522087541616640/ [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Pipeline Gallery (2021-) Pipeline Gallery: Listening to; Jasmine Murray. [Online] Available from: https://www.pipelinegallery.org/post/listening-to-jasmine-murray or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgd6KB6pXjA [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Transient (2020-) Residency Archives: September. [Online] Available from: https://www.transienttt.co.uk/2021/september [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Widdows, H. (2018) Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal. pg 33. Oxfordshire; Princeton University Press.

Work Show Grow (23^rd February 2022) Artist Talk Salon 09: Anna-Tia Buss & Vera Hadzhiyska. [Online] Available from: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/work-show-grow-artist-talk-salon-09-tickets-261294397577?keep_tld=1# [Accessed 10/03/2022]

Research: In the News, Locating my Practice

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

“…the best way to deal with those who get ideas above their station is to silence them. And to do so violently. When we see rape and death threats bandied across social media in such extraordinarily high numbers, when we watch and take note as social media companies actively refuse to suspend accounts of those who send the threats, we receive the message that this behaviour, this discourse, is acceptable.”
Bates, L. (2020; 164)

**Figure 1** Wack, P. (2019) *February 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Locals wait in line for ID check and body searches before entering the local bazaar*

This past couple of weeks has proved interesting in regards to censorship, surveillance and social media, with the case of Patrick Wack and Kodak deleting Wack’s images of the change in Xinjiang over a spate of five years, from their Instagram account, after receiving ‘backlash’ from Chinese netizens. Ironically the backlash for deleting, effectively censoring Wack’s images has been equally bad that Kodak have had to turn off comments on their current Instagram posts. This tension between what can and can not be shared online, is something I seek to make people reflect on with Heretic – how pre-existing historical power hierarchies ultimately control the online as much, if not more than they do in the offline realm. The CCP’s censorship once confined to the ‘Chinternet‘ less than a decade ago, now breaches it’s own firewall demanding the wider web to capitulate to the demands of a fixed narrative, their ‘official authorised’ narrative. To deviate from the prescribed supported narrative even if it means to be simply factual is to be considered a political activist movement. Wack aptly summarises this stance:

“In my book, I have essays by a few journalists and academics, but none from activists. To make a political book about this, you don’t need to be an activist. Explaining the facts is enough. Telling the truth is enough. It’s a political object because everything with China is political. For example, by saying that the CCP has to honor the One Country Two Systems policy in Hong Kong, you’re saying something political. But it’s just the truth.”
Wack, P. [in] Weiss, B. (2021)

Although Orwellian dystopia, is a overused term when it comes to the context of talking about the internet, it’s hard to think of what has happened to Wack for simply sharing the change in Xinjiang as anything else. On the opposite side of the scale on internet surveillance and censorship, we have the case of the Plymouth shooter, a story which began to unveil as I was writing the early half of this post.

The fact the individual in question has, as per news reports been able to access and publish extremist content on the topic of hatred of women with no repercussions, aligns with my own observations made in late 2020 when I was working on The Mirror Hack’d, when I was exploring social media (primarily twitter) for misogynistic content to respond to and finding some explicitly graphic content had been up on the site for some years despite purportedly being against the terms and conditions of the site in question. These observations were the springboard foundation for the idea of Heretic in that I began this module questioning why such inequality persisted despite claims that things have improved for us women.

**Figure 2** Najafizada, L. / Tolo News (2021) *Man appeared to be whitewashing bridal adverts*

When I have spoken to friends in the past on the topic of the manosphere and incels, most my age have laughed it off as solely online banter by some ‘sad basement dweller’ despite previous terror attacks in other countries occurring that had explicit links to the manosphere or incel culture. I think this lack of interest in taking such comments on the web seriously, vastly overlooks history and how in the past similar ideologies that dehumanise women have spurned witch-hunts and even in some parts of the world today facing killings, beatings and stonings for failing to keep to strict rules. One only has to look at the images coming out from Afghanistan at the minute to see just how easy it is to strip freedom from a section of society and effectively censor their voices and visual identities, with Figure 2 being but the most literal visual outcome for what is currently going on for the women ending up under the rule of the Taliban again.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Wack, P. (2019) February 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Locals wait in line for ID check and body searches before entering the local bazaar. [Online] Available from: https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/bearing-witness-to-chinas-orwellian [Accessed 04/08/2021]

Figure 2 Najafizada, L. / Tolo News (2021) Man appeared to be whitewashing bridal adverts. [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/afghanistan-taliban-women-rights-adverts-b1902922.html [Accessed 16/08/2021]

Bibliography

Addario, L. (2021) The Atlantic: The Taliban’s Return Is Catastrophic for Women. [Online] Available from: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/08/the-talibans-return-is-awful-for-women-in-afghanistan/619765/ [Accessed 16/08/2021]

Bates, L. (2020) Men Who Hate Women. pg 164. London; Simon & Schuster UK.

Das, S.; Charters, C. & Al-Othman, H. (2021) The Times: Plymouth shooting: thousands of boys drawn to ‘incel’ sites urging them to kill women. [Online] Available from: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plymouth-shooting-incel-groups-radicalising-boys-as-young-as-13-8jzffqzn0 [Accessed 15/08/2021]

Giordano, C. (2021) The Independent: Ads depicting women ‘painted over’ after Taliban enters Kabul. [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/afghanistan-taliban-women-rights-adverts-b1902922.html [Accessed 16/08/2021]

Kwan, R. (2021) Hong Kong Free Press: Interview: Photographer Patrick Wack on the Kodak row, and documenting Xinjiang as night falls on its culture. [Online] Available from: https://hongkongfp.com/2021/08/01/interview-photographer-patrick-wack-on-the-kodak-row-and-documenting-xinjiang-as-night-falls-on-its-culture/ [Accessed 05/08/2021]

Murray, J. (2021) PHO705. Research: Complicit & Surveillance Censorship. [Online] Available from: https://jasmphotography.wordpress.com/2021/03/26/research-complicit-and-surveillance-censorship/ [Accessed 08/08/2021]

Solon, O. (2021) NBC News: ‘I will not be silenced’: Women targeted in hack-and-leak attacks speak out about spyware. [Online] Available from: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/i-will-not-be-silenced-women-targeted-hack-leak-attacks-n1275540 [Accessed 12/08/2021]

Townsend, M. (2021) The Guardian: Plymouth gunman ranted online that ‘women are arrogant’ days before rampage. [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/14/plymouth-gunman-ranted-online-that-women-are-arrogant-days-before-rampage [Accessed 14/08/2021]

Wack, P. [with] André Frère Éditions(2021) Dust. [Online] Available from: https://www.andrefrereditions.com/en/subscriptions/dust-patrick-wack/ [Accessed 04/08/2021]

Weiss, B. (2021) Bearing Witness to China’s ‘Orwellian Dystopia’. [Online] Available from: https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/bearing-witness-to-chinas-orwellian [Accessed 31/07/2021]

Research: The modern panopticon

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

“Even repression is integrated as a sign in this universe of simulation. Repression become
deterrence is nothing but an extra sign in the universe of persuasion. The circuits of
surveillance cameras are themselves part of the decor of simulacra.”
Baudrillard, J. (1995; 52)

The last few weeks I’ve been reading Bartlett’s The People Vs Tech, a book which in one chapter looks at the online world and social media as playing a part in fostering the notion of tribalism that drives a modern panopticon, a ‘participatory panopticon’ where everyone is both watching and being watched, constantly surveilled, ultimately leading to self-censorship. He argues that this the rise of automation, AI and the algorithmic online modern public space that is becoming increasingly authoritarian in it’s policing is eroding the notion of modern democracy and capitalism as we know it.

Bartlett isn’t the first in critiquing social media and it’s mask of ‘innocence’ in the role it plays in (self) censorship and participation, with the likes of Morozov’s The Net Delusion (2011) some years prior, although Morozov’s commentary was more on the rising levels of cyber-utopianism and authoritarianism regimes cracking down on western websites and social media. One thing I have noticed and others have noted is that the majority of books written under this genre are written by men, in a Guardian review in 2018 on The People Vs Tech Bell leaves on a decidely scathing note as to why she thinks books within this genre are written by ‘white men’ suggesting that women and minorities have never truly enjoyed “…the full advantages of a free press, functioning democracies and elite positions in society, the ongoing oppression of an out-of-control technocracy seems less of a surprise.” (Bell, E. 2018)

This ties to Sieghart’s theories in The Authority Gap (2021) that regardless of how powerful or high achieving a woman is, she won’t be vested with the same authority as a man of similar status instead being dismissed as “bossy”, “bitchy” and “abrasive”, simply for trying to have a voice. Personally the fact both the notion of utopia and dystopia internet theories and books are written largely by those who ultimately already have the power and voice really summarises Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacra, that we have already lost the distinction between nature and artifice, that the imbalances and benefits are already pre-set: no longer is there any distinction between reality and its representational reproduction; there is only the simulacrum left, and history repeats itself.

This can be seen even with cyberattacks in that manipulation is gained via social engineering influencing an individual to take action, with people repeating history falling effectively for modern day nigerian prince scams. The desire to participate and a fear of missing out (FOMO) ultimately encourages people to participate and produce content because everyone else is, Burbridge summarises this aspect in Photography After Capitalism (2021) as being part of the wider ethos of social media exhibitionism.

“The call to ‘participate!’ makes good use of the wider ethos of social media exhibitionism and the company’s ‘don’t be evil’ self-image to encourage people to produce photographic content for free because it seems like a neat thing to do.”
Burbridge, B. (2020; 9)

Interestingly Burbridge isn’t the first to make this observation either, and whilst from a decidedly un-highbrow source, in 2007 a Yukon journalist Fraser, noted that with a compact camera released at the time that came with smart filters (a precursor of the smart phone and AI editing apps), that individuals willingly participate in deleting themselves, obliged to fix more about themselves, doctoring physical flaws for the sake of a photo album, imprisoning ourselves via surveillance alone, via panoptic technologies, be that traditional CCTV in shops, via the lens of an amateur using a mobile phone or by ‘sousveillance’, the act of observing ourselves via the lenses of this technology, be that via selfies or through webcams. Whilst Fraser’s observations deviate from the perspective I’m exploring in Heretic, her comments align significantly with one of the other series I’ve produced under the MA, e-maGen (2020) in that the notion of how we curate ourselves.

Feedback

After the Portfolio Reviews and talking to Laura in my 1-2-1 the other week, I had an ‘aha’ moment on how I wanted to sequence my series and it’s narrative, which meant killing some of my ‘darlings’ from the series and shooting some new images to replace them, as I didn’t feel they were visibly as strong nor fit the narrative I was trying to convey. This subsequently led to the July 14th sequencing and output. On the 20th July I was fortunate enough to have a portfolio review with Clare Grafik the Head of Exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery, which was incredibly insightful and suprisingly positive. Like previous chats about my work it was mentioned that my work has a filmic gaze quality to it, a comment I ultimately find fascinating as this aesthetical style is arguably something drawn from my subconscious rather than something I am intentionally doing. I was pleasantly surprised as Heretic has now gone through quite a few iterations that the July 14th sequencing came across as an ‘accomplished series’ that was ‘fine-tuned’ with well thought out methodology and reading of the work, as up until recently I was still tweaking with the very narrative of this series. As well as discussing Heretic, my wider practice was discussed particularly how the constructed way of working in a studio lended itself to the mini narratives tackling ‘difficult themes’ and that it seemed as though each series provided me with learning that led me to my next topic, either from the research or the outcomes I had produced. I had never thought that this was what I was doing with my various series, but on reflection, the end of each series tends to leave me with questions that I then go onto address in my next.

References

Bibliography

Bartlett, J. (2018) The People Vs Tech. How the internet is killing democracy (and how we save it) pg 20. UK; Ebury Publishing.

Baudrillard, J. (1981) Simulacra & Simulation (Translated by Glaser, S. F. published 1995). pg 52. Michigan; MIT Press.

Bell, E. (2018) The Guardian: The People vs Tech by Jamie Bartlett review – once more into the digital apocalypse. [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/16/the-people-vs-tech-review-jamie-bartlett-silicon-valley [Accessed 16/07/2021]

Burbridge, B. (2020) Photography After Capitalism. pg 9. London; Goldsmiths Press.

Fraser, J. (2007) Yukon News: Modern photography is the woman’s Panopticon. [Online] Available from: https://www.yukon-news.com/letters-opinions/modern-photography-is-the-womans-panopticon/ [Accessed 17/07/2021]

McMullan, T. (2015) The Guardian: What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance? [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticon-digital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham [Accessed 15/07/2021]

Morozov, E. (2011) The Net Delusion. London; Penguin.

Sieghart, M.A (2021) The Authority Gap. Doubleday; Transworld Publishers Limited.

Social Engineer (2021) The Role of Empathy in Ethical Social Engineering. [Online] Available from: https://www.social-engineer.com/the-role-of-empathy-in-ethical-social-engineering/ [Accessed 18/07/2021]

Research & Project Development: Feedback & Potential Outputs

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

“You don’t have 1984. In fact, you never had 1984. There is no such book as 1984.“
Zittrain, J. (2021)

Feedback

This week has been a busy one in regards to gaining feedback, and suggestions on how I might improve my current work in progress, as well as how I might display them. Talking to Laura in my 1-2-1 this week, gave me a lot of insight in why I felt the June 29th post sequencing was still missing something (a more in-depth reflection on this feedback can be found at the top of the June 29th post). I subsequently added an additional image and tweaked my sequencing, in the evening after my meeting with Laura, in preparation for the two portfolio reviews I had on Wednesday, which also proved insightful, although the feedback I received did differ.

My review with Sharon Young, really made me rethink how I might sequence my work, in that my work ultimately has several armatures of historical taboo that direct relate to the modern contemporary issues. When I brought up about taking my work into the physical, both Colin and Sharon seemed surprised that I would do so, as to them it made more sense for the work to be an online interactive piece and would lend itself well to a website. Sharon suggested Adobe Sparks might be a potential source of output in that they offer a viewer led experience, where the images could be group together under subcategories or captioned, as the current sequencing was quite confusing and I might benefit in making a mind map and the philosophies certain images are referencing to, possibly hyperlinking to the researh underpinning the work, the choice in representation and stereotypes.

Colin mentioned in passing that my choice in branding didn’t fit the type of photographer I am today, in that it looked too commercial leaning, and to change my logo, which to be fair was an outdated relic from back when I did my BTEC in the early 2010s. Like Laura he advised me to start thinking about gathering critical feedback, particularly from individuals who specialise in curating digital content.

Although I had felt that my work had significantly changed topic from the last time Colin had seen my work in PHO704, though Colin disagreed that ultimately my work was still fundamentally about the control of women and women’s bodies, the digital means by which women are controlled by men and algorithms, the outcome may be different but it’s ultimately another aspect of a wider guide, a glossary of control as an antidote, to the dark side of the internet, and this is how I should place my work, linking back to previous modules. He advised I should focus in on what I’m truly interested in as the current series is going in to many different directions.

Potential Outputs

Figure 1 Godfrey, M. (2021) Laura Owens x Van Gogh Installation

In my meeting with Laura on Tuesday she mentioned I might find looking at Laura Owens’ digital book installations (Figure 1) in the Owens x Van Gogh exhibition at Arles interesting. I haven’t been able to find out much on the web how Owens’ made these ‘faux’ books exactly (as her website doesn’t seem to show their existence), however from looking at the videos I have seen from the exhibition on social media it looks like she has used an iPad sized display screen to play videos, hidden within a beautifully bound mock book with framing. Prior to opening these mock books the disguised outward appearance looks no different to a traditional book, with the digital element of the work being a ‘surprise’ found only upon opening.

Figure 2 Murray, J. (2021) Digital book test

My initial ideas in regards to a physical output in exhibition was to have projections, and digital screens as that is what I have traditionally seen as the vehicle of display for works like my own which incorporate moving elements in the stills, however seeing Owens installations at Arles, has inspired me to think about doing more than just placing a screen on a wall, but also a tactile experience in the form of a digital book, I have created a prototype of how I would display as a digital book upcycling an old tablet cover and using the same approach of using old newspapers as I did for the redacted backdrop (Figure 2).

Figure 3 Murray, J. (2021) Flipbook test

Other approaches I’ve been thinking about, is the notion of using sealed hidden pages as a means to expand on and widen the narrative back out from one type of censorship to another, however more recently I had been thinking about flip books as a potential method of display, in that viewers would end up invested in looking for the minute transitions, unfortunately upon testing this idea I found that the details are just so minute that in flipbook format it looks like nothing is happening at all (Figure 3). I was however impresed by how professional and easy it was to bookbind now I have the correct needle and hole-making tools.

**Figure 4** Murray, J. (2021) *Potential web output*

The other avenue for display that has been my fallback position is to display my work on a website (Figure 4), in the past I’ve usually stuck with using portfoliobox as my website of choice however, I felt that the options are quite limiting so I’ve been on a lookout for something which would allow more movability and customization. I noted recently that Molly Soda whose website I greatly admire as being a creative destination as well as a website uses hotglue.me, so I’ve been experimenting with the various options it offers. I’m pretty impressed by the fact you can host a website within a website.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Godfrey, M. (2021) Laura Owens x Van Gogh Installation. [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQRKH6FFi_C/ [Accessed 07/07/2021]

Figure 2 Murray, J. (2021) Digital book test

Figure 3 Murray, J. (2021) Flipbook test

Figure 4 Murray, J. (2021) Potential web output

Bibliography

Murray, J. (2021) PHO 705: June 29th. Project Development: Heretic. [Online] Available from: https://jasmphotography.wordpress.com/2021/06/29/project-development-heretic [Accessed 07/07/2021]

Zittrain, J. (2021) The Atlantic: The Internet Is Rotting. [Online] Available from: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB [Accessed 07/07/2021]

Research & Project Development: Lee Nutter

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

“Our modern panopticon doesn’t have just one watchman: everyone is both watching and being watched. This kind of permanent visibility and monitoring is a way to enforce conformity and docility. Being always under surveillance and knowing that the things you say are collected and shared creates a soft but constant self-censorship. It might not feel like that when people are screaming abuse on Twitter – but for every angry troll there are hundreds of quiet users, lurkers who watch but don’t post, for fear of the angry Twittermob, the data collectors, a nosy employer or the hordes of professional offence-takers who shark around the net waiting to be upset.”
Bartlett, J. (2018; 20)

**Figure 1** Nutter, L. (2015) *Projected Censorship*

Whilst researching this week I came across the work by Lee Nutter who between the years of 2015 and 2016 produced two different series on the topic of censorship in relation to social media’s censorship in relation to nudity with Nutter writing on his blog that the initial project Projected Censorship came about from wondering if the Zuckerberg empire’s ban “…might be affecting the way artists work, or at least the work they produce, share, and make their names with, and if artists gain popularity based on work they only produced in order to comply with the rules and regulations of the social networking service they used to gained popularity…” (Nutter, L. 2015) would mean they ended up pigeonholed in style, content and aesthetic.

This comment I found intriguing, as I have been thinking more broadly on the issues of social media’s armature of censorship specifically how we complicitly self-censor to avoid any form of confrontation, saying less and less as the years go by as cancel culture and internet censorship gains it’s foothold in the west, mirroring what has already happened in China with it’s censorship laws and the human flesh machine (the Chinese equivalent of doxxing combined with cancel culture).

**Figure 2** Nutter, L. (2015) *Projected Censorship book*

Nutter’s output for Projected Censorship, in the form of a hand bound book which contained masked transparencies photographs and the cinemagraphs presented in frame by frame presentations with an accompanying essay on social media censorship, opposite to the frame by frame presentation (Figure 2). Censorship Tears published under the name of Facebook Friendly which placed the original uncensored outcomes opposite ones that had been censored and obsfucated for social media via tearing, burning or otherwise damaging the prints to obscure the nudity (Figure 3). The ripping of the prints almost feels like a metaphor of how artists restrict their visual eye to conform to the restrictive community guidelines taking away any sense of natural on the spur creativity.

**Figure 3** Nutter, L. (2016) *Censorship Tears (Facebook Friendly)*

On the subject of Facebook, it has begun testing a variety of new features this week with the intention of combatting extremism (Figure 4). This development has divided opinion in how it is executed, in that not only is it picking up false positives, such as innocent craft groups, but it is also informing those friendly with the individuals that they may have been exposed to extremist content purely due to an individual being a part of a page that has been flagged for some reason. Much like Birdwatch, it seems as though Facebook has begun to allow AI combined with community policing without defining who the community is or their biases. This is not the only development from Facebook, a few months prior to this, the company started an experiment on upvoting and downvoting in groups and began outright banning misinformation articles, giving users who share such posts a 24 hour ban, though again this has encountered false positives from legitimate news from reputable sources being censored, such as the Independent (heard anecdotally from a friend who claims they received a 24 hour ban for attempting to share this article).

**Figure 4** Twitter/@thisisfoster and @RealKiraDavis [in] Gu, V. (2021) *Twitter screenshots of Facebook prompts asking if they know someone is becoming a terrorist or warning if they have been exposed to extremist content.*

KnownOrigin (potential method of display)

A couple of weeks back The One Show, featured Brendan Dawe’s work in a film about NFTs, highlighting the website KnownOrigin.io as an arena for exhibiting and selling NFT work. I was fortunate enough on Monday 5th July to make the next call for applications, I’m unlikely to hear anything for a while yet on whether I am successful, given I am but one of the 1500. However, I note from looking at the primary marketplace that they are not adverse to photography as a medium, other NFT art sites have little in the way of photography related work, so I possibly stand more chance than other curated NFT sites.

**Figure 5** Murray, J. (2021) *Screenshot of unknownorigin.io profile*

References

Figures

Figure 1 Nutter, L. (2015) Projected Censorship. [Online] Available from: https://leenutter.com/journal/projected-censorship/ [Accessed 29/06/2021]

Figure 2 Nutter, L. (2015) Projected Censorship Book. [Online] Available from: https://leenutter.com/books/ [Accessed 29/06/2021]

Figure 3 Nutter, L. (2016) Censorship Tears (Facebook Friendly). [Online] Available from: https://leenutter.com/work/censorship-tears/ [Accessed 30/06/2021]

Figure 4 Twitter/@thisisfoster and @RealKiraDavis [in] Gu, V. (2021) Twitter screenshots of Facebook prompts asking if they know someone is becoming a terrorist or warning if they have been exposed to extremist content. [Online] Available from: https://www.insider.com/facebook-asks-if-your-friends-becoming-extremists-2021-7 [Accessed 03/07/2021]

Figure 5 Murray, J. (2021) Screenshot of unknownorigin.io profile. [Online] Available from: https://knownorigin.io/profile/jasm [Accessed 04/07/2021]

Bibliography

Ahmed, A. (2021) Digital Information World: Facebook is working on another addition to its Up and Downvoting for comments in groups. [Online] Available from: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/04/facebook-is-working-on-another-addition.html [Accessed 03/07/2021]

Bartlett, J. (2018) The People Vs Tech. How the internet is killing democracy (and how we save it) pg 20. UK; Ebury Publishing.

Brancart, B. (2018) What’s on Weibo: After More Than a Decade, the Human Flesh Search Engine Is Still Raging Across Chinese Social Media. [Online] Available from: https://www.whatsonweibo.com/decade-human-flesh-search-engine-still-raging-across-chinese-social-media/ [Accessed 01/07/2021]

Branigan, T. (2010) The Guardian: How China’s internet generation broke the silence. [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/24/china-internet-generation-censorship [Accessed 01/07/2021]

Chen, R., & Sharma, S. K. (2011). Human flesh search—facts and issues. Journal of Information Privacy and Security, 7, 50–71. [Online] Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080%2F15536548.2011.10855905 [Accessed 03/07/2021]

Culliford, E. (2021) Reuters: Facebook asks: Are your friends becoming extremists? [Online] Available from: https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-asks-are-your-friends-becoming-extremists-2021-07-01/ [Accessed 02/07/2021]

Dawes, B. [in] Gazell.io (2021) BRENDAN DAWES | BBC ONE SHOW. [Online] Available from: https://gazell.io/news/brendan-dawes-bbc-the-one-show/ [Accessed 04/07/2021]

Gu, V. (2021) Insider: Facebook is trying to rout out extremism by asking users if they’ve been exposed to extremist content from their friends. [Online] Available from: https://www.insider.com/facebook-asks-if-your-friends-becoming-extremists-2021-7 [Accessed 03/07/2021]

Fletcher, H. (2008) Times Online: Human flesh search engines: Chinese vigilantes that hunt victims on the web. [Online] Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20090304053728/http://technology.timesonline.co.uk//tol//news//tech_and_web//article4213681.ece [Accessed 01/07/2021]

Lagerkvist, J. (2010) After the Internet, Before Democracy: Competing Norms in Chinese Media and Society. pg 60. Bern; Peter Lang.

Murray, J. (2021) KnowOrigin.io. [Online] Available from: https://knownorigin.io/jasm [Accessed 05/07/2021]

Wang, F. et al. (2010) “A Study of the Human Flesh Search Engine: Crowd-Powered Expansion of Online Knowledge,” in Computer, vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 45-53, Aug. 2010, doi: 10.1109/MC.2010.216. [Online] Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5551046 [Accessed 02/07/2021]

Zhang, Y., Gao, H. (2016) Human Flesh Search Engine and Online Privacy. Sci Eng Ethics 22, 601–604. [Online] Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-015-9672-y [Accessed 02/07/2021]

Research & Project Development: Cancel Culture

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

“Tis the age of the internet clapback. Within mere seconds, a celebrity or Popular Internet Person can find themselves pummeled with a slew of vicious hot-takes. Oftentimes, debate is warranted: one could argue that those who profit from the internet, should be held accountable by the internet. But debate is not the same as decimate.
Recently, I’ve noticed a worrying trend. When a male celebrity screws up, he is duly lambasted, before rising, a few weeks later, from the keyboard’s ashes. But when a woman screws up, her error is used as a calling card for her total erasure. Her mistake is no peccadillo; it is proof of her worthlessness.”
Sykes, P. (2019)

Despite coming from an article for Elle, now nearly two years old, Sykes commentary and observations on the double standards of cancel culture and ultimately online censorship resonate with my own observations, especially during my research last module which looked at the manosphere and misogyny, that a gender disparity exists in what repercussions are faced by those set to be ‘cancelled’ by the mob. For women especially the past few years have ultimately harked regressively backwards to a Victorian era notion of being seen, but not heard, to not take any risks or try anything new or look at the world critically beyond the notion of inherent goodness and inherent badness, where no one can make any mistakes or errors.

Last week Chimamanda Ngozi Adachie ‘sparked controversy’ (Alter, The New York Times 2021) and created a furor with a blog post critiquing the notion of cancel culture using her personal experience. Whether you agree or disagree with the comments deemed to be problematic from Adachie in the past, the blog post in question makes similar observations that resonate with comments and observations made by others on this topic, like Sykes that social media has become an incredibly polarised place, depending on the platform, with arguably secular cults of ideologies and positions.

For example, going back to my research done last module, Reddit is considered the platform of use for those who prescribe to the beliefs of the manosphere – a subgroup under this umbrella in 2014, pressured corporations to withdraw advertising from media outlets under the guise of ethics in journalism, that had previously criticized the lack of diversity in the gaming industry (Gamergate), as well as terrorizing female gamers and writers with rape and death threats. Adachie I feel aptly summarises the current situation of the past decade writing: “And so we have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow.” (Adachie, C. N. 2021)

I think for young women of my age and younger this is particularly truthful in that we grew up and came of age as Web 2.0. blossomed, and the manosphere rose, that we had to be careful in what we shared with others, furthered by instances such as Celebgate (The Fappening) and revenge porn. Fisher’s comments made in an article in 2013 about exiting the vampire castle have become all the more relevant as the polarisation of various internet tribes and subgroups has become more apparent, and arguably the best example of this polarisation in the UK in recent years has been the camps of Remain and Leave during the Brexit referendum.

Ultimately Fisher sums this best in that by using: “…identitarian classification, the Vampires’ Castle seeks to corral people back into identi-camps, where they are forever defined in the terms set by dominant power, crippled by self-consciousness and isolated by a logic of solipsism which insists that we cannot understand one another unless we belong to the same identity group.” (Fisher, M. 2013) or in regards to Web 2.0. as Jurgenson notes, and I have quoted before that the: “The infamous ‘New Yorker’ cartoon joked that “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” But then, as the story continues, social media became commercialized as it went mainstream; it got normal, and, along the way, spontaneous anonymity became replaced by a demand for consistent identity. Now that everyone knows you’re a dog, it’s difficult to be anything else.” (Jurgenson, N. 2019; 87)

Project Development

I’ve just started to feel myself again, the Pfizer vaccine knocked me out for the count that it’s taken me 2 weeks to feel well enough to experiment and shoot more and to catch up on my timetable schedule plan (I fell a little behind on my CRJ and CROP plans). As I mentioned last week I have re-edited Figures 5 & 9 in the last post (Figures 1 & 4 in this post). The re-edits I feel tackle the issues I had with the images and instead of feeling weak the images now are much stronger in their message of censorship and it’s pressures and in visual appearance. The images I shot this week Figures 2 & 3 reference more towards historical methods of censorship particularly to the era of witch trials in terms of a visual output, yet is in part a reference to the modern equivalent of cancel culture mentioned in this week’s research, how the repercussions faced by women are usually more permanent than it would be for the male counterpart.

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series *Heretic*

**Figure 2** Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series *Heretic*

**Figure 3** Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series *Heretic*

**Figure 4** Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series *Heretic*

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series Heretic

Figure 2 Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series Heretic

Figure 3 Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series Heretic

Figure 4 Murray, J. (2021) ‘Title TBA’ from the series Heretic

Bibliography

Adichie, C. N. (2021) It’s Obscene: A TRUE REFLECTION IN THREE PARTS. [Online] Available from: https://www.chimamanda.com/news_items/it-is-obscene-a-true-reflection-in-three-parts/ [Accessed 25/06/2021]

Alter, A. (2021) The New York Times: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Sparks Controversy in Online Essay. [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/books/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-essay-tweets.html [Accessed 25/06/2021]

BBC Newsbeat (2016) Meet the man behind the leak of celebrity nude photos, called the fappening. [Online] Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-35820521 [Accessed 25/06/2021]

Fisher, M. (2013) openDemocracy: Exiting the Vampire Castle. [Online] Available from: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/ [Accessed 25/06/2021]

Jurgenson, N. (2019) The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media, pg 87. London; Verso

Ministry of Justice (2015) Revenge Porn. [Online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenge-porn [Accessed 25/06/2021]

Mishan, L. (2020) The New York Times Style Magazine. Notes on the culture: The Long and Tortured History of Cancel Culture. [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/t-magazine/cancel-culture-history.html [Accessed 25/06/2021]

Sykes, P. (2019) Elle: The Internet Trend for ‘Cancelling’ Women Has To Stop. Addressing the era of trial by Instagram. [Online] Available from: https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/elle-voices/a26881483/pandora-sykes-on-cancelling-women/ [Accessed 24/06/2021]

TIME (2015) I’m Making the Case for Public Shaming. [Online] Available from: https://time.com/3995794/im-making-the-case-for-public-shaming-unless-you-publicly-shame-me-for-doing-so/ [Accessed 25/06/2021]

Research & Project Development: Jessica Ledwich; Jeremy Deller & Pieter Hugo

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

Reflection on Feedback

This week I was lucky enough to get a slot on the evening group critique with Dinu Li, which was incredibly insightful as an additional opinion and in regards to succinct pitching, in that the central position of my work comes from a feminist point of view with outbranching positions and subcategories of censorship, misogyny and transhumanity / artificial intelligence. A concern I have had throughout my MA, but most specifically within this module has been a worry that my images are better suited as a singular viewing experience, furthered by my feeling that the outcomes thus far have been ‘eclectic’ and visually individualistic. However, it was mentioned my work had a central axis, where my work splits into sub-stories within the framework, so perhaps the images being aesthetically diferent is not as important to the viewer as the overarching message in the wider scheme of the project?

A suggestion on how I might develop my series gave me food for thought, it was suggested I could further my snowglobe image, by adding a male hand rattling the globe to build the narrative I’m conveying with that image of the restrictions and self-censorship women face in the Web 2.0 realm, as well as a hint to the notion of the glass ceiling phenomenon.

It was mentioned by a fellow peer on the call that it reminded them of the Radiohead music video No Surprises, specifically the scene where the lead singer’s head becomes submerged in water coming into a diving helmet. This comparison was intriguing in that the helmet scene is arguably a depiction of lost hope, acceptance of mortality and of the status quo and arguably as a teen and a young woman growing up with and on the internet and times it has felt quite disparaging how much men can get away with saying versus what women can without bringing critique and the summoning of trolls.

Earlier in the week I had my 5th 1-2-1 meeting with Laura, where I also mentioned my concerns regarding the aesthetic outcomes of my work not being similar enough tonally or strength wise, prior attempts to make the images appear visually cohesive, such as the introduction of a blue tone did not I feel work for all my images and in some instances was not helped by the decided over literal approach such as with my image with the hand sanitizer which I had felt was the weak link to the images I currently have in the sequence. I agree with Laura’s analysis that the main issue with this image is that it is too literal and doesn’t provide the viewer with the same sense of intrigue. The work of Rob and Nick Carter was mentioned in regards to my presentation methods, particularly in how they portrayed their transforming still life paintings, into the physical realm or whether I would choose a more digital platform, at this moment of writing I’ve been considering how I might bring my work into the real, the physical space, as my work is pushing the boundaries on what photography is. Would it be too overwhelming to have a whole wall as a screen? Or would a more personal and intimate experience of viewing the work such as using a smartphone or tablet be a better solution in displaying my work.

Jessica Ledwich

“I am interested in creating immersive viewing experiences that motivate audiences to participate with my work.”
Ledwich, J. [in] Owen, A. M. (2015)

Dinu mentioned I might find the work of Jessica Ledwich interesting in that her work is largely feminist in approach. Her series Monstrous Feminine examines society through a critical lens on the value placed on vanity, consumerism and desire of perfectionism, through holding a mirror to the rituals several generations of women have engaged into conform to traditional gender roles and constructed stereotypes of feminine identity. Ledwich however takes these stereotypes further by turning ‘everyday’ beauty rituals as grotesque gruesome acts of mutilation as a means of challenging her viewers to reflect on just how transformative and pain these ideals and standards can be and are.

**Figure 1** Ledwich, J. (2014-) *from the series* *Monstrous Feminine*

In the case of Figure 1 Ledwich juxtaposes vacuuming at the same time as performing liposuction and injecting fillers, removing fat from the thighs to her lips. This unusual juxtaposition between the mundane second shift with the beauty ideal and the historical notion of womanhood hinted via the bottom of the frame of a print of the Birth of Venus being hung in the background, invokes questions on why we hold certain expectations on people based on their birth sex or gender. Ledwich herself makes an interesting comment that her series is more than a literal reference to cosmetic surgery but also a comment on technological developments such as beauty apps and filters for your selfie, she states:

“Digital technologies are more powerful in shaping our cultural attitudes than plastic surgery. Cosmetic technologies are merely reflecting the market. Social media platforms such as Instagram are the new mediums in which identities are formed. The notion of a ‘selfie’ is a construct in which to present yourself to the world for as many likes as you can get. When you see millions of images of ‘normal’ people looking a certain way or doing certain things, the pressure to conform is immense.”
Ledwich, J. [in] Arkoun, D. (2016)

Whilst significantly different to my current work in progress, Ledwich’s series resonates with my wider practice as well as work produced in a previous module e-maGen, in that this work too critiques the notion of a beauty ideal and how social media has imacted on making this a global phenomenon of unreachable ideals.

Jeremy Deller

**Figure 2** Deller, J. (2012) *Sacrilege*

Deller’s Inflatable stonehenge was also mentioned on the call and whilst his practice is vastly different in both output and topic the intent of critique and satirical nature resonates with me, as whilst I aim to highlight and critique the status quo, I want to do so in a satirical matter, that is more palatable to my viewers in the hope that they can reflect on their own interaction and use of technology, specifically social media as well as how they treat others within society, through the use of the uncanny. In an interview with Gosling in 2019 Deller states that he sees Sacrilege as a means:

“…to counteract what I felt was the pomposity of sport and the Olympics,” Deller said. “As it happened, it wasn’t so pompous in the UK, but the whole Olympics movement seems to be really full of itself, so I just thought, let’s do something about Britain that shows we have a sense of humour about our history and we’re willing to satirise ourselves almost and have fun with our history and identity.”
Deller, J. [in] Gosling, E. (2019)

This perspective resonates in that I feel that when dealing with topics that are arguably controversial in nature you have to bring along a sense of humour as a means of diffusing conflict and opening the floor to discussion. On reflection the reason I possibly have this approach and stance to my practice in general is based on my own personal life story and health issues, in that when you are unwell and unable to do what you used to take for granted you have to laugh at the irony of it all.

Pieter Hugo

**Figure 3** Hugo, P. [in] TPG (2012) *Deutsche Börse Photography Prize Installation at The Photographers Gallery for ‘Permanent Error’*

On my 1-2-1 with Laura mentioned I might find the display methods of Pieter Hugo insightful, as screen based display has been something I’ve been considering especially with the development of my work including .APNGs, particularly his installation for Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012 for his series Permanent Error, a series which focuses on young Ghanian’s who are burning discarded industrial rubbish specifically technological waste as a means to survive, ultimately a critique on the West’s fast cycle of consumption and disposal of functional technology, merely a few years old. The placement of two CRT TVs in the center of the room, juxtaposed by the prints adorning the walls depicting technological waste, the use of arguably old technology to display some of the series images furthers Hugo’s narrative and critique on how we as a society are arguably far too wasteful. Whilst his practice differs significantly from my own, the concept of upcycling old tech screens is something that resonates with one of my ideas – I’ve particularly been thinking of upcycling old tablets and phones as a means of mocking up an physical exhibition on a budget, due to Covid restrictions it seems unlikely I would be able to manage to exhibit in a space before my submission deadline however I could certainly mock up one on a smaller scale.

Project Development

I had hoped this week to shoot more images, unfortunately I only managed to shoot one, as I was left feeling decidely unwell after being vaccinated this week. Figure 4 (which admittedly is a composite of three frames to depict the hand grabbing the ‘glass ceiling’), is the outcome and a response and reflection on some of the feeedback I received this week about my existing images, adding the hand into the reshoot of my snowglobe scene, furthering the narrative of how under web 2.0 women are arguably more policed than ever on our views and those wth the power, the tech giant heads are overwhelming men, who see no issue in allowing toxic masculinity and misogyny to run riot on social media platforms, something I discussed in my series last module, whilst silencing women for minor indiscretions in comparison. The existing power imbalance persists despite theorists in the early days of the internet suggesting you can escape the boundaries of reality and power imbalances, by being whoever you want.

**Figure 4** Murray, J. (June 2021) ‘*Glass Ceiling’ from the series ‘Heretic’*

References

Figures

Figure 1 Ledwich, J. (2014-) from the series Monstrous Feminine. [Online] Available from: https://www.jessicaledwich.com/work/monstrous-feminine [Accessed 10/06/2021]

Figure 2 Deller, J. (2012) Sacrilege. [Online] Available from: https://elephant.art/stupid-artwork-ever-jeremy-dellers-bouncy-castle-stonehenge/ [Accessed 11/06/2021]

Figure 3 Hugo, P. [in] TPG (2012) Deutsche Börse Photography Prize Installation at The Photographers Gallery for ‘Permanent Error’. [Online] Available from: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/past-exhibitions/deutsche-borse-photography-foundation-prize-2012 [Accessed 13/06/2021]

Figure 4 Murray, J. (June 2021) ‘Glass Ceiling’ from the series ‘Heretic’

Bibliography

Deller, J. [in] Gosling, E. (2019) Elephant: The Most Stupid Artwork Ever? Jeremy Deller’s Bouncy Castle Stonehenge. [Online] Available from: https://elephant.art/stupid-artwork-ever-jeremy-dellers-bouncy-castle-stonehenge/ [Accessed 11/06/2021]

Ledwich, J. [in] Arkoun, D. (2016) Metal Magazine: Jessica Ledwich – Gore feminine beauty. [Online] Available from: https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/interview/jessica-ledwich-gore-feminine-beauty [Accessed 12/06/2021]

Owen, A. M. (2015) Art/ArtH 475: Contemporary Women Artists. Jessica Ledwich. [Online] Available from: https://sites.psu.edu/contemporarywomenartists/2015/11/10/jessica-ledwich/ [Accessed 11/06/2021]

The Photographers Gallery (2012) Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2012. [Online] Available from: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/past-exhibitions/deutsche-borse-photography-foundation-prize-2012 [Accessed 12/06/2021]

Research & Project Development: Maija Tammi, Infinite Objects & APNGs

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

Maija Tammi

“I know that some people believe very strongly that a portrait of someone shows the viewer a deep psychological insight of the person who isn’t in the camera,” Ms. Tammi said. “We make the story of what we see in the portrait.”
Tammi, M. [in] Shoe, D. (2017)

**Figure 1** Tammi, M. (2017) *One of them is human*

This week’s guest lecturer proved interesting in regards to her practice and particularly the series she opened the talk with. Maija Tammi uses photography and videography as a means to explore the intersections of disgust, fascination, death, decay, regeneration, science and art. Whilst she didn’t explicitly mention that One of them is human seeks to challenge the Uncanny Valley, the fact the series presents itself as three androids and one human, all photographed in the same manner, leaving the decision to the viewers to decipher. A foreshadowing on our current future where the distinction beween the real and the unreal are barely distinct, blurred not just with the arrival of androids, but also realistic sex dolls and deep fakes. The open narrative leaves the viewer to reflect on the potential probems of breaching the Uncanny Valley. What happens when we no longer have the unsettling feeling that what we are viewing is not a human?

**Figure 2** Tammi, M. (2017) *White Rabbit Fever, 白兎熱* book spread

Tammi’s wider practice often challenges the notion of the uncanny, in tackling controversial topics, this aspect of her practice is something that resonates with me, in that I want to tackle issues affecting my generation – the rise of AI, the continued rise of the manosphere and these topics are pretty controversial. Whilst Tammi’s wider practice challenges the notion of decay and regeneration, best shown with her series White Rabbit Fever and Leftovers/Removals which both tackle human mortality and cancer. Her more recent series White Rabbit Fever (2015-2016) contrasts life and death through sequences of decaying rabbits and immortal human cell lines (cancer cells). The accompanying book to the series sets the series in 4 different chapters to provoke thinking on death and immortality.

Infinite Objects

Figure 3 Soda, M. x Hervisions x Infinite Objects (2020) #NewProfilePic

When I was looking at Hervisions last week, I noted a collaboration with a firm called Infinite Objects who sell and collaborate with artists who produce artwork that is akin to a looping cinemagraph. The firm call these video prints, however given their is no sound and the display is designed to loop one video infinity, I would argue the concept is closer to cinemagraphs than to videography. The output reminds me of the modified digital photo frame I used back in 2013, for my Lost Youth series (I was fortunate to get ahold of a free digital photo frame via Freecycle, however I doubt this would be possible today). Infinite Objects seems a good method to sell editioned moving artwork, in a fuss free way in that you wouldn’t need to source digital screens or photo frames yourself, however in regards to exhibitions digital screens and photo frames are likely to remain easier to source in regards to cost and size options.

Project Development

This week I developed my images by introducing juddering, glitchy elements to my work, with the intent of highlighting the temperal, lossy reproduction of images on the web, to tie back to my work produced in previous modules. As well as replicating the low quality aesthetic of CCTV and surveillance images. However I think some of the outcomes work better than others and I have decided that the hand sanitizer derived images did not work in that they were too literal and simply not as strong, as the image where the female figure has a box on her head and the image with the figure placed in the bubble.

I also feel that I need to include some images in between the sequence that are not using this glitchy aesthetic to create better and stronger impact and carry the message and intent I want on sanitization and self-censorship. As I’m in the latter half of my FMP, I’ve begun to think about potential output, and one avenue I’ve been thinking on is physical exhibition spaces, how I might make my work visible one image at a time – censoring what the viewer gets to see. I’ve been thinking dividers that screen the other images so only one can be viewed at a time.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Tammi, M. (2017) One of them is human. [Online] Available from: http://www.maijatammi.com/#One_of_Them_Is_a_Human [Accessed 03/06/2021]

Figure 2 Tammi, M. (2017) White Rabbit Fever, 白兎熱 book spread. [Online] Available from: https://bromidebooks.com/publications/white-rabbit-fever/ [Accessed 04/06/2021]

Figure 3 Soda, M. x Hervisions x Infinite Objects (2020) #NewProfilePic. [Online] Available from: https://infiniteobjects.com/products/newprofilepic [Accessed 06/06/2021]

Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12 Murray, J. (June 2021) WIP: APNGs

Bibliography

Shoe, D. (2017) The New York Times: Do Androids Dream of Being Featured in Portrait Competitions? [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/arts/design/taylor-wessing-photo-portrait-prize-do-androids-dream-of-being-featured.html [Accessed 03/06/2021]

Tammi, M. (2014) Leftover / Removals. [Online] Available from: https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/maija-tammi-leftover-removals-978-3-86828-522-2 [Accessed 04/06/2021]

Tammi, M. (2016) White Rabbit Fever. [Online] Available from: https://bromidebooks.com/publications/white-rabbit-fever/ [Accessed 04/06/2021]

Warburton, N. (2017) The Observer: What does a portrait of Erica the android tell us about being human? [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/09/robot-human-artificial-intelligence-philosophy [Accessed 04/06/2021]

Research & Project Development: Gaia Tedone & Hervisions

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

“In 2013, Facebook conducted a research project about last-minute self-censorship, revealing their capability of being able to track even unposted status updates/posts/comments, including erased texts, or images. This “residual data,” which might be considered “waste material,” “digital exhaust,” or “data exhaust,” and yet this data is rich in predictive values. The implication is that Facebook is not only interested in capturing what you have posted, but also capturing your thought processes from residual data. It is sobering to think that data capture extends to the realm of imagination.”
Soon, W. & Cox, G. (2020; 113)

Reading a chapter in Aesthetic Programming – A Handbook of Software Studies this week, highlighted to me a study by Facebook in 2013, about self-censorship in relation to unposted content. The fact Facebook could access such content links back to surveillance driven censorship, and the reality that even in self-censorship, big tech firms know what you were thinking, tracking the data you willingly leave as residue data, data you thought you originally had kept only to yourself in the end. This realisation on the lack of transparency on what they do with data we feed to big tech, and what they collect to begin with, not only ties to my current work in progress intent, but back to the work I made at the start of the MA (Transhumane).

Gaia Tedone

“…the role of the algorithm is often paralleled to that of the online curator. This is because algorithms are accountable for the organisation and arrangement of visual content on the Web through activities such as searching, collating, grouping, sorting, analysing, visualising. Within online platforms, they sort out content according to criteria of relevance for users as well as manage the interactions between them.”
Tedone, G. (2019; 42)

**Figure 1** Tedone, G. (2016) *THIS IMAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY*

Tedone’s This Image is Not Available in Your Country (2016) is a body of work which begins with the artist finding in a charity shop a H&M T-shirt with the statement, which lead to her spending 6 months tracing the patterns and unstable presence of the t-shirt/image visual history as an object and H&M curating her own image as a result. Tedone’s commentary references censorship not just literally in the t-shirt’s visual statement, but also in her comments and article Tracing networked images: an emerging method for online curation which references to the project, as a method and experiment to examine the implications and conditions of image circulation in the online realm, it’s curation via algorithms and the issues faced such as aesthetical problems, interpretation and commodification. The transient nature of the existence of the t-shirt, is ironic in that just as the slogan depicts the transient nature of the internet where access of any data can be removed or censored at any time, by those in charge, leaving behind a wake of orphaned works, the modern day equivalent to the Orwellian notion of always being at war with Eurasia.

Zaiba Jabbar (and Hervisions)

**Figure 2** Jabbar, Z. x Hervisions (2019) *From Face-Up* (CANCELLED by @tabithaswanson_)

Another individual I have been looking at this week is Zaiba Jabbar who is best known for founding Hervisions, a multidisciplinary platform which features work that shares the intersections of art, technology and culture. Jabbar has also created several projects herself that are a critique on web 2.0. Her project Face-Up (a pop-up experience within the Tate’s The Lives of Net Art showcase), explored and challenged visual bias via the vehicle of face filters, a form of aestheticized notion of modern beauty created by Augmented Reality using Spark AR a programme created by Facebook. Whilst Face-Up‘s intent is more of a commentary on what technology is available to users today, rather than a critique of the technology per se. The project alludes to what we are trusting and freely providing these big tech corps data and preferences about ourselves, how we as a society might define future realities if given true freedom to experiment, scenarios and spaces independently.

**Figure 3** Gil, J. (2019-) *from the series ‘Nuestra Victoria, Our Victory’*

More recently Jabbar has been working on a curatorial project The Art of no Likes that explores the economy of likes, and the popularity brought with it, how we have been conditioned via web 2.0 to seek likes, whether we can exist without reliance on interaction in 3 phases. Phase 2: Scratch the Surface and I’ll follow you: Surveillance and Censorship at your Mercy tackles the topic of censorship in the act of image-making, it’s dissemination, it’s curation and digital communication. The works by Crisp & Gil offer a direct response to the themes of observation and suppression. Julieta Gil’s series Nuestra Victoria, Our Victory documents the Angel of Independence in Mexico City in a digital archive that preserves the protestors graffiti about violence against women and girls, that would have otherwise been a very transient existence given the government’s quick action in boarding up and restoring the monument mere hours afterwards erasing the marks and memories of violence documented.

**Figure 4** Crisp, S. (2019) *from the series ‘Data_scapes’*

Gil’s approach to commenting on censorship is fairly direct and literal in that she is highlighting the actions of those in power, masking and erasing political unrest for aesthetic beauty, Sandra Crisp’s approach is arguably less literal despite arguably being a wider critique on society and censorship. Perpetual browse_r for example uses found videos fragmented, cropped, collaged and edited into a new uncanny visual that mimicks the overwhelming experience of being inundated with information that is transient, quick to disappear as we trawl and travel from webpage to webpage; app to app. Crisp’s fragmentary approach in Perpetual browse_r is somewhat of an overarching hallmark in her practice in general, both Data_scape and Zoom images employ this method of aesthetic display. Data_scape like Perpetual browse_r uses found material, however with Data_scape the found material is images that she then distorts into visual fragments that are then deformed into towering yet fragile and unstable 3D structures to comment on the hidden algorithms tracking us behind the scenes be that via social media feeds or search engines that determine what we do and don’t get to see. This intent ties back into the more recent Perpetual browse_r‘s commentary and despite Crisp not mentioned censorship in the former work it is something subtly hinted at.

Project Development

**Figure 5** Murray, J. (May 2021) *WIP: Complicity*

This week lead to producing an outcome using my 00 gauge fence and figure again, however this time instead of the woman being trapped in a bubble where only within it she is deemed controversial, the image arguably follows on in hinting and alluding to what happens when you step out of societal norms and opinions as a woman contributing in Web 2.0. The outcome being a obvious pile on by more powerful figures usually, trolls and men from the manosphere who see women as mere objects will be the first to appear on a viral and controversial post made by a woman who has outstepped the invisible boundaries. Especially if its a commentary on feminism or men, within the hour one is sure to receive a variation of “not all men” with a derogatory slur or bashing the posters intellect thrown into the mix. My intent was to create an outcome that provides the viewer with a sense of foreboding and dread, to emphasise and reflect on how the smaller figure is outnumbered and ‘vulnerable’.

**Figure 6** Murray, J. (May 2021) *WIP*: APNGs

As I am at the halfway point of my FMP, I’ve begun to question and explore (again) on how I might wish to display my work. At the start of the module I looked at .apng and .webp formats, as a potential option of display if I sought to include moving elements to my images and this week I have returned to this method, to add tension to the image this week, I incorporated a slight glitch and jitter effect you might find when viewing CCTV cameras, in the hopes it would suck the viewer into the scene in question and really think about what is going on and their participation as a viewer of the work – that they are arguably a complicit accomplice in being a passive viewer. One of my main concerns in incorporating moving elements again to my work, is the limitations I would have in displaying my work, however when I was looking into Hervisions this week I found an interesting option I could explore in the event of a physical manifestation of my work. Infinite Objects is a company that ‘print’ video, whilst fairly pricey at around £80 an image, it may work out cheaper and easy that if I used upcycled digital photo frames (which was an earlier thought based on prior experience during my BTEC course).

References

Figures

Figure 1 Tedone, G. (2016) THIS IMAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY. [Online] Available from: http://www.gaiatedone.com/this-image-is-not-available-in-your-country.html [Accessed 24/05/2021]

Figure 2 Jabbar, Z. x Hervisions (2019) From Face-Up. [Online] Available from: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/talks-and-events/watch-screen-walk-zaiba-jabbar [Accessed 25/05/2021]

Figure 3 Gil, J. (2019-) from the series ‘Nuestra Victoria, Our Victory’. [Online] Available from: https://aos.arebyte.com/contents/hervisions-the-art-of-no-likes-phase-2-julieta-gil/ [Accessed 27/05/2021]

Figure 4 Crisp, S. (2019) from the series ‘Data_scapes’. [Online] Available from: https://aos.arebyte.com/contents/hervisions-the-art-of-no-likes-phase-2-sandra-crisp/ [Accessecd 28/05/2021]

Figure 5 Murray, J. (May 2021) WIP: Complicity.

Figure 6 Murray, J. (May 2021) WIP

Bibliography

Cabiscol, L. (2020) Clot Magazine: ZAIBA JABBAR, the mind behind the multidisciplinary platform HERVISIONS. [Online] Available from: https://www.clotmag.com/interviews/zaiba-jabbar-the-mind-behind-the-multidisciplinary-platform-hervisions [Accessed 27/05/2021]

Centre for the Study of the Networked Image (2015-) [Online] Available from: https://www.centreforthestudyof.net/ [Accessed 25/05/2021]

Dekker, A. & Tedone, G. (2019) Networked Co-Curation: An Exploration of theSocio-Technical Speciﬁcities of Online Curation. [Online] Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334306252_Networked_Co-Curation_An_Exploration_of_the_Socio-Technical_Specificities_of_Online_Curation [Accessed 27/05/2021]

Infinite Objects (2021) [Online] Available from: https://infiniteobjects.com/ [Accessed 29/05/2021]

Sauvik, D. & Kramer, A.D.I (2013) “Self-censorship on Facebook.”Presented at the AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM). [Online] Available from: https://research.fb.com/publications/self-censorship-on-facebook/ [Accessed 24/05/2021]

Soon, W. & Cox, G. (2020) Aesthetic Programming – A Handbook of Software Studies, pg 113. Open Humanities Press. [Online] Available from: http://openhumanitiespress.org/books/download/Soon-Cox_2020_Aesthetic-Programming.pdf [Accessed 25/05/2021]

Tedone, G. (2015-2019) Curating the Networked Image: Circulation, Commodification, Computation. [Online] Available from: http://www.gaiatedone.com/curating-the-networked-image.html [Accessed 26/05/2021]

Tedone, G. (2017) Tracing networked images: an emerging method for online curation. [Online] Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682753.2017.1305843/ [Accessed 26/05/2021]

Tedone, G. (2019) CITAR Journal, Volume 11, No. 2 · Special Issue: xCoAx 2019. Forging Strategic Alliances: the agency of Human–Algorithmic Curation under conditions of Platform Capitalism. pg 42. [Online] Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338226442_Forging_Strategic_Alliances [Accessed 27/05/2021]

Tedone, G. & The Photographers Gallery (2020) Screenwalk with Gaia Tedone. [Online] Available from: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/talks-and-events/watch-screen-walk-gaia-tedone [Accessed 26/05/2021]

Research & Project Development: Witchoria, Jake Elwes & Ivan M Delvasto

PHO705: Critical Research Journal

Victoria Siemer (Witchoria)

Siemer’s series Human Error stems from an accident of Photoshop crashing unexpectedly in the middle of working on another project, leading Siemer to take a screenshot with the intent of making a metaphor of a broken heart. She says in an interview with Brooklyn magazine that part of her reasoning behind the series is based on observations she has made about society’s obsession with technology, the permanence of digital footprints and states: “I do believe that technology has affected human relationships quite a bit. Technology gives us the idea that we are hyper connected to the world around us, when in reality there is a huge disconnect. People don’t talk to people anymore. If I want a pizza, I use an app. If I need to see the doctor, I use an app. Hell, if I want a boyfriend I can use an app. Dating in New York is insane. OKCupid often becomes OKIvemadeahugemistake.” (Siemer, V. [in] Richardson, N. 2014)

**Figure 1** Siemer, V. (2014) *‘Loading Existential Crisis’ from the series ‘Human Error’*

This manipulation blurs the notion of documentary in that the Polaroids combined with the error messages comments on the artists own emotions, own heartbreak and relationship issues. Siemer’s work is arguably the opposite in intent to my own in that she aims to produce images which are very uncensored, discussing elements of her private life through metaphors. However, the methodology and inclusion of text reminds me of work I have produced in previous modules, and the layering of error bars has made me reflect and think about whether my current work needs accompanying inclusion of words to assist the narrative or whether this would be an overkill.

Jake Elwes

The Zizi Show (2020-) is an online deep fake generated virtual drag cabaret. More than just GAN imagery Elwes The Zizi Show is an interactive piece of web art that allows you to pick deep fake avatars and the song you want them to perform, that may belong to another drag act. The deep fake performance is not perfect at times glitching (as per Figure 2) and this assists Elwes’ overarching narrative that the identities are constructed forms. Elwes’ wider practice has an overarching theme of exploring representation and diversity of GAN training datasets used by facial recognition systems highlighting pre-existing bias. Elwes’ states on his website that another project in the series The Zizi Project’s intent is to combine drag and AI stating “Drag challenges gender and explores otherness, while A.I. is often mystified as a concept and tool, and is complicit in reproducing social bias.” (Elwes, J. 2019)

**Figure 2** Elwes, J. (2021) *The Zizi Show* *– deepfake training process for drag queen Lilly Snatchdragon*

Elwes approach is vastly different in approach to my own, whereas Elwes looks to assist in filling the data gaps AI is missing, I am hesitant of the developments of datasets even with the additional data, as it likely will persist in perceived biases just because of who ultimately controls the tools creation. For example despite women not being as under represented as a group, as other groups outside of the default white men, what data that has been inputted carries bias, that often associates women with sexualisation. A good example of this is a study conducted last year by Barsan for Wunderman Thompson data on what AI identified when seeing women wearing face masks, registering the mask as either having their mouths covered by duct tape (Google AI) or wearing a gag, restraint or chains (IBM Watson). Barsan’s comments on why these systems perpetuate such stereotypes, aligns closely with my own opinion – the issue with expanding representation is that if it’s not done without correcting the prexisting skewed male gaze then you end up repeating the inequalities, Barsan states:

“We are not suggesting that a data scientist at Google maliciously decided to train the computer vision model on twice as many images of women whose mouth is covered with duct tape as compared to men. And we’re almost certain no one at IBM thought it would be a smart business decision to suggest a woman in PPE is being restrained and/or gagged. But do you remember Tay, the Microsoft Twitter chatbot that started posting racist slurs? Neural networks trained on biased textual data will at best sooner rather than later embarrass its makers, and at worst they will perpetuate harmful stereotypes. The same holds true for machines that learn to see through a skewed lens. That lens, of course, is our very own culture, offline as well as online—a culture in which violence against women, be it fictional or real, is often normalized and exploited. Consider this seemingly silly example—a simple image search of “duct tape man” and “duct tape woman” respectively revealed images of men mostly (though not exclusively) pictured in full-body duct tape partaking in funny pranks, while women predominantly appeared with their mouth duct-taped, many clearly in distress.”
Barsan, I. (2020)

Iván M Delvasto

**Figure 3** Delvasto, I.M. (2020) *The Censorship Square*

Another artist I’ve looked at this week is Delvasto, particularly his project The Censorship Square a photographic and typographic experiment that uses the act of censorship as an educational tool on visual memory, using iconic photographs of notable people of the 20^th century. Delvasto states on his website that it’s purpose is to challenge “…the user to explore rapid and accurate recollection techniques…” and “…to aid education through recognition techniques and play.” (Delvasto, I. M. 2020) Whilst the digital rendition of the work on his website are ever changing GIFs, Delvasto also produced a book of the project (Figure 4) which provides a short visual history of censorship and Delvasto’s process and thoughts in developing the outcome of the project shown on his website. This output method is something that might be suitable when it comes to displaying my own work, as similarly my practice and my current work in progress heavily draws on research, history and philosophy on the reasons why throughout time we seek to censor.

**Figure 4** Delvasto, I.M. (2020) *The Censorship Square* *book*

Delvasto’s wider practice is largely focused on graphical works, however a 2019 series Ocular tales of unorthodox love and trends aligns to my own practice in the choice of using inanimate objects, dolls as a vehicle to create a surreal space that questions reality of the scene via the uncanny use of scale. His work differs however in that the fictional reality and depicted narrative of impossibility is a homage to editorial fashion photography and exploring and commenting it’s meaning through Barbie figures. The obvious unreality, provokes a question on the images we the consumer consume uncriticality from designer fashion labels, that we seek to aspire to and emulate, despite being an impossible ideal. This questioning narrative aligns to work I produced earlier in the course e-maGen, however the questioning of reality of what we consume is arguably also a factor in the notion of censorship.

**Figure 5** Delvasto, I.M. (2019) *Ocular tales of unorthodox love and trends*

Project Development

**Figure 6** Murray, J. (May 2021) *WIP: Aftermath Sanitized*

Carrying on from the image I created last week of a miniature figure soaked with sanitizer gel, the image produced this week is an aftermath to the ‘experience’ – initially I took this image solely to document the effect in relation to last week’s image, however upon taking the image I realised in a way the outcome denotes the risks women face if we do not sanitize and self-censor ourselves in the realm of non-offense – we risk losing who we are, whitewashing our personalities, our very self. But also, the risks faced if we do go beyond the safe zone and say something that might anger and cause violence, such as acid attacks.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Siemer, V. (2014) ‘Loading Existential Crisis’ from the series ‘Human Error’. [Online] Available from: https://www.bkmag.com/2014/05/27/victoria-siemer-on-her-human-error-series/ [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Figure 2 Elwes, J. (2021) The Zizi Show – deepfake training process for drag queen Lilly Snatchdragon. [Online] Available from: https://agoradigital.art/blog-jake-elwes-queer-deepfake-ai-art/ [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Figure 3 Delvasto, I.M. (2020) The Censorship Square. [Online] Available from: https://www.ivandelvasto.com/the-censorship-square-project [Accessed 19/05/2021]

Figure 4 Delvasto, I.M. (2020) The Censorship Square book. [Online] Available from: https://www.ivandelvasto.com/the-censorship-square-project [Accessed 19/05/2021]

Figure 5 Delvasto, I.M. (2019) Ocular tales of unorthodox love and trends. [Online] Available from: https://www.ivandelvasto.com/ocular-tales-of-unorthodox-love-and-trends [Accessed 19/05/2021]

Figure 6 Murray, J. (May 2021) WIP: Aftermath Sanitized

Bibliography

Barsan, I. (2020) Wunderman Thompson Data: Quantifying the accuracy of vision/facial recognition on identifying PPE masks. [Online] Available from: https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/ai-and-gender-bias [Accessed 18/05/2021]

Delvasto, I.M. (2020) The Censorship Square book. [Online] Available from: https://issuu.com/idelvasto/docs/the_censorship_square_book [20/05/2021]

Elwes, J. (2021) The Zizi Show – deepfake training process for drag queen Lilly Snatchdragon. [Online] Available from: https://agoradigital.art/blog-jake-elwes-queer-deepfake-ai-art/ [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Elwes, J. (2019-) Zizi – Queering the Dataset. [Online] Available from: https://www.jakeelwes.com/project-zizi-2019.html [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Elwes, J. (2020) Zizi & Me. [Online] Available from: https://www.jakeelwes.com/project-zizi-and-me.html [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Elwes, J. (2020) The Zizi Show. [Online] Available from: https://zizi.ai/ [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Lohr, S. (2018) New York Times: Facial Recognition Is Accurate, if You’re a White Guy. [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/technology/facial-recognition-race-artificial-intelligence.html [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Matyszczyk, C. (2020) ZD Net: Technically Incorrect. Google’s AI thinks women wearing masks have mouths covered with duct tape. [Online] Available from: https://www.zdnet.com/article/googles-ai-thinks-women-wearing-masks-have-mouths-covered-with-duct-tape/ [Accessed 18/05/2021]

Siemer, V. [in] Richardson, N. (2014) Brooklyn Mag: Victoria Siemer On Her ‘Human Error’ Series. [Online] Available from: https://www.bkmag.com/2014/05/27/victoria-siemer-on-her-human-error-series/ [Accessed 17/05/2021]

Wagley, C.G. (2015) Artist Victoria Siemer Shatters Expectations. [Online] Available from: https://creativecloud.adobe.com/discover/article/artist-victoria-siemer-shatters-expectations [Accessed 17/05/2021]