Research doc.

Forward/Introduction

(tell us about yourself and your practice)

First let me introduce myself, I’m Sanne Schilder a fourth year photography student. Like a novel, I wanted photography to be an extension of myself. Collecting images of time and space where I was tempted to press the shutter. Throughout my study those thoughts soon disappeared completely.

My urgency lies within the image. Ever since I was little, I was fascinated on how the image was a mediator between the world and myself. It was an entrance to make the world imaginable. It did not take long before I wanted to harvest my own images of the world. So in order to collect and appropriate the image, photography was the medium that I grabbed on to. At the beginning I made snapshots for my own satisfaction. But that seemed to disappear partly over time. I missed the craft and the possibilities to explore the material. I experiment with photosensitive films and papers, chemicals and webcams. But I was looking for a different kind of knowledge. Photography, as we all traditionally known, had undergone a transition. The further I came to realize that, the more I wanted to dissociate myself from its tradition. The deluge of images, the saturation, has prompted me to ask if it still makes sense to photograph in his existing framework. Everyone with a camera these days can make pictures without knowing about the complex processes.

So as an image-maker in the digital age I think about new ways of seeing. When the world changes, the image together with it. Today, in the age of smart phones, Google Earth, satellites and CCTV, image practices become all pervasive. The definition of photography expands. Opening new possibilities. Fred Ritchin once remarked: “Photography, as we have known it, is both ending and enlarging, with an evolving medium hidden inside it as in a Trojan horse, camouflaged, for the moment, as if it were nearly identical: its doppelganger, only better.” Without question, the photographic landscape and image-making devices will change and it will play a fundamental role in many basic elements of our lives. The development makes me very curious and that is why I do not abandon mine practice. I haven’t seen anything yet.

Abstract

(in 250 words or less, explain the essence of your research project)

Not only humans perceive the world, as an audience I turned my attention to machine vision. This research offers ways of thinking about photography that may enlarge our skill to explore and perhaps even improve image-making. The developments of the medium has always been closely linked with technological capabilities of a culture. Now we have entered the digital age, something unthinkable has happened. Images become disconnected from human acting and human vision. I attempt to see from their perspective; how do machines perceive the world and can they be a legitimate voice in the discourse of photography? No doubt this innovation will affect visual culture and transform society. Through this project I will explore in what way machine perception can expand the field of photography, open our view of external reality and aesthetic integration.