Tag Archives: Agency

08.12.19 > Current Thinking & Sustainable Prospects

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Current Thinking is a study of the prevalent underlying structures and spatial constructs on the human concept of space revealed through the results of algorithmic thinking.

The images which the algorithm reveals are a visual surface of algorithmic thought at a given point in space and time.

In my recent photographic study Current Thinking (November 2019) I used twelve Google search queries on the concept of space, before scraping a series of images from the streamed videos which appeared in the search results.

I used analogue photography to pull the images from the datasphere into tactile reality, revealing not only the underlying pixilation which documents the digital DNA of the image, but also my photographic intent which was to explore how search algorithms view the human concept of space.

In parallel, I also used a body mounted digital camera with a wide-angle lens to scrape  images from the streaming videos, exploring in this way the human-machine collaboration and the power of photographic apparatus to alter interpretation.

This secondary image allows the viewer to question the intent of, and hence to deconstruct, the primary image.

The pixelated and slightly out of focus images push the viewer to focus on the underlying structure of the image and give insight into the meaning of the spaces within the imagery and the human interaction with the stage created by that physical space.

As a work in progress, Current Thinking is a research approach to visualisation, where the images are the result of the research process, and informs my final research project with working title The Digital Divide.

24.11.2019 > Human Agency and the Power to Dream

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As part of the Sustainable Prospects module of the Master of Arts, I’m collaborating with a group of fellow MA students on a ‘live brief’ for a company that develops unique design, information and wayfinding solutions to integrate people, movement and places.

Our collaboration on the Sustainable Prospects ‘live brief’ culminated in a pitch to our client on 20 November.

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Fig.1 James Welling, 2016. ‘1538’, from the series Choreographs

My final contribution in the last stages of that collaborative effort was to inform our ideas through research into colour theory (Fig.1) and produce a conceptual image which visually expresses what it means to be human: that is, the capacity to think, decide, act, and to dream.

“Collecting images of work that you admire and keeping them in plain sight (on a pinboard, in a scrapbook, or even on your computer desktop) can be incredibly useful for boosting your own creativity.” [Fordham 2015: 86].

Collaboratively, we’d used this approach not to copy the work of other photographers, but to understand where artists are located in the development path of photographic thought, both technically and critically, or within different schools of photographic thought, so that our own collaborative work could contribute to that development.

How elements of other photographers work are emulated or incorporated into our own work is a valid artistic statement when applied in our own creative manner.

To produce my own visual contribution, I expanded a previous exploration of the concept of social capital by mining my back catalogue (photographic archive).

Flagey Market & Transit Station Blend

Fig. 2. Gordon Sutherland, 2019. Unpublished Photographic Sketch, archival blend from the series Market Values (2016)

Using two images from my 2016 series ‘Market Values’, I strove to express that agency in a smart city is not simply about having access to smart technology, but also about the use of that technology to choose and co-create the city that we want to live in (Fig. 2).

Rather than wayfinding, to get from one point to another, as a team we’ve considered these decisions in the context of human questions. What do I need to get done today? How do I want to enjoy myself? How can I be the co-creator off the city I live in? And when I want to get away from it all for a while, what do I dream of, and how do I get there before returning home again?

To anchor the visual storytelling in the future we’ve chosen to steer away from the trend of micro-storytelling around portraiture of individuals in their urban environment today. We suggest to move beyond that trend of ‘everydayness’ into an unknown space: the urban space that people dream of.

To do this we avoid introducing the viewer to individuals; preferring to allow the viewer to enter the image. They can imagine agency they posses in a place where they interact with others and also meet themselves.

 

Sources

Egeland, V. (2018) James Welling on his photo ‘1538’. Available at https://www.documentjournal.com/2018/06/james-welling-on-his-photo-1538/ [Accessed 10 November 2019]

Fordham, D. (2015) What they didn’t teach you in photo school: what you actually need to know to succeed in the industry. London: Octopus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78157269-6

04.11.19 > Collaboration Works

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As part of the Sustainable Prospects module of the Master of Arts, I’m collaborating with a group of fellow MA students on a ‘live brief’ for a company that develops unique design, information and wayfinding solutions to integrate people, movement and places.

buzz scan street 1

Fig.1 Christoper ‘Buzz’ Mathews, 2019. Test image for Sustainable Prospects ‘Live Brief’ Collaboration

During this module I’ve focused on practicing sustainable photographic collaboration through the ‘live brief’ project. In previous modules I’ve worked closely with my tutors and participated in the weekly webinars with fellow students. For this module, I’ve opted to participate in weekly meetings with the collaborative team working on the live brief.

Since our first meeting in early October this teamwork has been, in reality, a kind of weekly group tutorial. A genuine team spirit emerged (as we formed, stormed, normed, and performed) and we managed to keep each other going through the tough times. There was always one of us on the up, which kept the team motivated.

This type of collaboration is what photographic collaborative practice is really about, and why my personal approach to long-term collaborative business relationships prefers the use of LinkedIn as one of my digital communication channels. Together with my portfolio website and twitter account, these social media channels embody my principle of long-term partnerships and exchange on professional photography and the socio-political issues which drive me to create photographic images.

“The photo industry runs on word of mouth, so you must strive constantly to develop an excellent reputation” [Fordham 2015: 32]

It’s therefore necessary to treat every job as the pitching opportunity to get the next one, and every collaboration as a professional one.

Here I present my contribution to the team effort which culminated in a presentation of our preliminary thoughts about the ‘live brief’ to our module leader and course coordinator on 1st November.

We’d been discussing colour segregation as a means of visualizing agency in the cityscape.

But how does such an image and collaborative effort across time zones evolve? It evolves both structurally and organically.

During our discussions Amy had suggested using 35mm run through a medium format camera as a technique and Buzz had scouted locations and registered a number of test images (Fig. 1).

I then used one of the images taken by Buzz to explore the application of colour theory in the development of the digitalized images. The concept of colour segmentation was intended to express individualism, agency and inclusivity in modern society through the use of the seven colours of the rainbow.

buzz scan street 1-Edit-Edit-1

Fig.2 Christoper ‘Buzz’ Mathews and Gordon Sutherland, 2019. Test Application of Colour Segmentation for the Sustainable Prospects ‘Live Brief’ Collaboration #1

As an alternative creative approach – again picking up on an idea suggested by Amy that we could emulate line drawings – I developed an offset image, with a view to accentuating the outline of the individuals and an architect’s sketch like rendering of the urban landscape [Fig. 3].

buzz scan street 1-Edit-Edit-2

Fig.3 Christoper ‘Buzz’ Mathews and Gordon Sutherland, 2019. Test Application of Colour Segmentation for the Sustainable Prospects ‘Live Brief’ Collaboration #2

The concept would not make the final cut of our pitch to the client, as other ideas were emerging, and overall we agreed that the images with the film sprockets would become repetitive: elements of the client brief were emerging and the images would be used to accompany a series of essays on agency in a smart city future, and we agreed that while interesting, we needed to follow another approach.

Since the book would act both as a reference document for the client’s business sector, as well as providing visibility, helping to establish our client’s position at the forefront of wayfinding in the urban environment we wanted to explore further the concept of agency in the SMART city.

That meant we would need to communicate the essence of what it means to be human: that is, the capacity to think, decide, act, and to dream.

 

Sources

Fordham, D. (2015) What they didn’t teach you in photo school: what you actually need to know to succeed in the industry. London: Octopus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78157269-6

07.10.19 > Visualising Agency through the Photographic Medium

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As part of the Sustainable Prospects module, I’m collaborating with a group of fellow MA students on a ‘live brief’ for a company that develops design, information, and wayfinding solutions to integrate people, movement and places. Their main clients are city administrations and large campuses such as universities, arenas and festivals.

We are responding to the company’s brief “What does agency look like in the context of a smart city future?”

Initial discussions within our small collaborative team of four photographers [Amy Eilertsen / Christopher “Buzz” Matthews / Marco Montalto / Gordon Sutherland] provided insight into a possible vocabulary for defining or describing agency.

I chose to collaborate on this pitch because it can also directly inform the development of my research project work which explores the concept of digital space in smart cities, which started by exploring the portals in society through which we enter the datasphere and is intended to lead to documentation, representation, and probing of life in a smart city. GS

In particular, Marco – with his background in social sciences – was instrumental in seeding our early discussions with underpinning words such as intentionality, automatism, willfulness, awareness, to name just a few.

From this collaborative discussion, we concluded that advancements in information technology are expected to become prevalent in smart cities, in particular artificial intelligence, which turned our discussions towards concepts of freedom and control. Our conclusion? Whereas artificial intelligence is developed as a benefit for humankind, it is a double-edged sword.

With these discussions in mind, my personal contribution revolved around two aspects of visual language: firstly, how other forms of visualization, such as infra-red photography, can be use to represent one or other side of that sword and, secondly, how a word cloud could help us to define a starting point for a mutually agreed concept of agency for us to work with. From the concept of a word cloud, I proposed that each of us research 5-6 images which – taken from our own understanding of the photographic language which we individually speak – we personally consider as an expression of agency.

The following images and annotation describe my contribution to that group discussion.

Bad_dreams_bression_ayesta

Fig. 1 Carlos Ayesta & Guillaume Bression (2011-2016). From the series ‘Bad Dreams?’

One of the challenges of finding a visual vocabulary for agency, or indeed anything which cannot be seen or felt, is to make the invisible become visible.

In their series Bad Dreams? (Fig. 1) Carlos Ayesta & Guillaume Bression asked how they could “depict something not seen or felt” [Thessaloniki Museum of Photography 2018: 124].

“Instead of adopting a documentary approach to this project, we decided to stage the photographs using plastic bubbles and cellophane wrap to reveal the ‘invisible’. Here, fiction reveals reality, not vice-versa.” Carlos Ayesta & Guillaume Bression (idem)

With this project, Ayesta & Bression are asking former occupants of Fukushima to come face to face with the invisible barriers that prevent them from returning home, and for whom “the affected communities, countryside and forest are actually divided between those now accessible and those to which entry remains prohibited (idem).

Abstractly, however, this has connotations for agency and wayfinding, regarding where and how you are guided to where you may go, or away from areas where you cannot go.

“Considering the invisible digital blocks and nudges that could direct human flow and shape decision making processes, and hence shape human agency in the smart city, I imagined physical representation of wayfinding through installations. This concept emerged as a natural parallel to the imaginary digital cloud I had introduced for my series ‘The Broken Places’ (Sutherland 2019).” GS

 

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Fig. 2 Photographer uncited. Date unknown.

Contemporary street photographer Eric Kim manages to stir emotions and cause debate around both his photography and his commercial success. Kim is prolific, vocal and visible. An online search for ‘eric kim photographer’ will produce a mixture of comparisons with Gilden and Parr, accompanied by vocal rants and raves about Kim’s work and his success (Quillinan n.d.).

Kim uses social media and open source information to communicate his vision of photography and lifestyle, as well as delivering workshops at academic establishments or in global locations [Kim 2019a]. In terms of sustainable prospects, Kim makes a living from photography by commercializing a niche [Kim 2019b].

However, his work and writings are not purely commercial, but also topical, as well as philosophical.

In his article on photography and artificial intelligence he reflects on the future of humanity (Kim 2018) and what could otherwise be called a “comingled evolutionary path” (Prabhackar 2017) between humans and machines, as the distinction between humans and machines becomes imperceptible.

Kim explains that his interest lies in “how we can use computer vision (how computers see images, objects, and the real world) to augment (increase) our own human vision- to see the world more vividly, and to ultimately make better photos.” (Kim 2018). Within his post he considers the idea of image segmentation technology (Fig. 2) as one of the ways in which computers see.

In considering image segmentation, I imagined what the application of colour theory could means in terms of human agency. The breakdown of the spectrum of colour as a visual marker of individualism, collectivism, collaboration, support, ecology, health, spectatorship, participation, to name a few of the inclusive elements that can be imagined as benefits of a future smart city lifestyle. GS

Screenshot 2019-10-06 at 16.25.28

Fig. 3. Annie Tritt – The New York Times. 2012. Shotspotter Headquarters, California

Photographer Annie Tritt established herself through photojournalism, today focusing more on portraiture in entertainment and arts, corporate portraiture, as well as social and personal projects, such as ‘Transcending Self’ which explores transgender and gender expansive youth.

Tritt’s clients have included Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Paper, INC, Fortune, Backstage, London Guardian, London Telegraph, Fader, M Le Magazine du Monde, Wired Italy, Der Spiegel, Stern, Interscope Records, Sony Records (Tritt n.d.).

The photographer, author and publishing executive Rick Smolan orchestrated over 100 photographers and researchers to collate the images for “The Human Face of Big Data”, a book which uses photography to visualize how “life is changing in a world filled with a never-ending stream of data”. Smolan has remarked that “big data will have a bigger effect on humanity than the Internet” since data allows for anticipation and problem solving through knowledge about the world (Sloan 2012).

One of Tritt’s images for The New York Times, depicting a monitoring station for the Shotspotter system, is included in Smolan’s book (Fig. 3). Shotspotter uses acoustic sensors located around neighborhoods to record the blasts of gunshots. The system triangulates the sounds, pinpointing the sources of the blasts on a map, thus helping authorities to rapidly locate crime scenes. Using the information from the sensors, high-speed telecoms and number crunching, the staff at the company’s headquarters can remotely pinpoint the shots to a precise location in seconds, so that “instead of police arriving on the scene a half-hour later, they can be there in under two or three minutes”. (ITBusiness 2013).

Tritt’s image (Fig. 3) is representative of how authorities in highly digitally connected societies can use data flows to adapt public services and infrastructure to the dynamics of city life: it is a photo-documentary approach to raising questions around human agency and the role and responsiveness of city administrations and public authorities.

 

Tom Drahos

Fig. 4. Tom Drahos (1986). From the series ‘Paris suburbs, peri-urban spaces of the Paris region’

Photographic commissions in the form of preservation photography visually document an epoch. In a country characterized by innovation and industrial development, indeed a country which is one of the multiple birthplaces of photography, the French Délégation à l’Aménagement du territoire et à l’Action régionale (the Inter-ministerial Town and Country Planning and Regional Action Delegation) dispatched 29 photographers of different photographic slants into the field to “document the French landscape of the 1980s” (Bibliothèque nationale de France n.d.).

Commonly known as The DATAR Photographic Mission, it was a descendent of the great photography missions such as the 1851 Heliographic Mission and the 1935-1942 Farm Security Administration’s portrayal of the Great Depression (idem).

In representing the cityscapes of the Paris suburbs, Czech photographer Tom Drahos presented an alternative vision of these urban landscapes, “anchored in time, but free floating in space” (idem). His concept of framing space, but not the compositional image itself, reveals an exploded landscape that refers at once to the multi-foiled individual experiences of the urban landscape, as it does to the co-existent societal perspectives. Each of these perspectives holding its own truth. GS

This concept of co-existence of viewpoints and experience resonates closely with the dynamic promised by technology in smart cities, touching again on the key words identified such as individualism, collectivism, awareness and conscious decision making.

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Fig. 5 Tommy Vohs. Date unknown. From the series ‘In Transit’

“I took to iphoneography like batter on a fish stick…a cohesive relationship only made stronger over time. It was natural and free flowing and came at a time in my life when I needed a distraction” Tommy Vohs (Carter 2012)

Vohs is a railroad careerist turned mobile photographer and has exhibited extensively in Canada where she resides (Idem). Vohs maintains her career on the railroads as well as exhibiting and selling her limited edition prints which are characterized by layers and saturated colours. Her images have been awarded in the field of mobile, iphotography and iPhoneart (Vohs n.d.).

I discovered the work of Tommy Vohs through Smart Cities Dive, part of Industry Dive (Industry Dive n.d.), a private sector business journalism platform that helps decision-makers stay ahead in competitive industries to spark innovation and growth in industry. GS

Smart Cities Dive researches visual material to “find photos that fit our content, reflect the human content of our work, and are dynamic, colorful, interactive, transformational, local, natural, and realistic, too” (SMARTCITIESDIVE n.d.).

As a business provider, Smart Cities Dive Managing Editor (formerly TheCityFix) identified the innovation in Vohs work and how it met their vision in terms of communicating the spirit of integrated mobility, a key component of smart city developments, with the likes of multi-modal integration of mass transport, cycling and walking. The use of Vohs’ work in editorial context is an example of corporate culture using art as a business media content.

“Vohs’s photography exemplifies this necessity for shared streets that cater to the needs of road users across diverse modes of transport. With an emphasis on public transport, Vohs’s work often features double exposures that juxtapose everyday scenes of urban mobility with bold color schemes.” Smart Cities Dive Managing Editor (idem)

The images presented in this post are taken from a series of images I put forward to inform our collaborative group work whilst we explored our individual ideas on the visual ‘definition’ of agency in the smart city of the future.

Each of them is representative of perspectives as seen by different practitioners, whether those working on commercial street photography, photo-documentary, art photography or commissioned preservation photography. These photographs represent the editorial use of photographic image from the perspective of research into social sciences and humanities or commercial business interests. As such, they represent aspects of the sustainable prospects of the individual practitioners.

In parallel, the images were selected to directly inform the development of my research project work exploring the concept of digital space in smart cities, which started by exploring the portals in society through which the population enters the datasphere, and is intended to lead to documentation, representation, and probing of life in a smart city.

Sources

Carter, J. (2012) A Day in the Life of Tommy Vohs – An Intriguing, Liberating and Inspiring Mobile Photographer. Available at https://theappwhisperer.com/2012/11/a-day-in-the-life-of-tommy-vohs-an-intriguing-liberating-and-inspiring-mobile-photographer/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

EMBARQ Network https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/friday-fun-photographer-captures-spirit-integrated-transport/219991/

Industry Dive (n.d.) About Industry Drive. Available at https://www.industrydive.com/about/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

ITBusiness (2013) 11 amazing images show ‘The Human Face of Big Data’. Available at https://www.itbusiness.ca/slideshows/11-amazing-images-show-the-human-face-of-big-data [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Kim, E. (2018) Brave New World of Photography and AI. Available at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2018/09/24/brave-new-world-of-photography-and-ai/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Kim, E. (2019a) Eric Kim Workshops. Available at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/workshops/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Kim, E. (2019b) Photography Entrepreneurship Tips and Ideas. Available at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2019/07/16/photography-entrepreneurship-tips-and-ideas/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Prabhakar, A. (2017) The merging of humans and machines is happening now. Available at https://www.wired.co.uk/article/darpa-arati-prabhakar-humans-machines [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Quillinan, B. (n.d.) Is Eric Kim full of sh*t? Available at https://onedgestreet.com/is-eric-kim-full-of-sht/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

SMARTCITIESDIVE (n.d.) Photographer Captures Spirit of Integrated Transport. Available at https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/friday-fun-photographer-captures-spirit-integrated-transport/219991/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Sutherland, G. (2019) Beyond the broken places. Available at https://gordonsutherland.home.blog/2019/06/05/05-06-19-beyond-the-broken-places/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Sloan, P. (2012) Big data gets its own book: ‘The Human Face of Big Data’. Available at https://www.cnet.com/news/big-data-gets-its-own-book-the-human-face-of-big-data/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]

Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (2018). Capitalist Realism: Future Perfect, 28/09/2018 – 27/01/2019 (Curated by Penelope Petsini). Thessaloniki: University of Macedonia Press. ISBN-978-618-5196-35-6

Tritt, A. (n.d.) Website of photographer Annie Tritt. Available at (http://www.annietritt.com/ [Accessed 6 October 2019]