Framing Vision

My work revolves around manifesting algorithmic perception – illuminating how our systems, our devices (the systems in our devices) see the world we’ve put them in. Are they omniscient or dim- witted, clever or flawed?

In this series, we see compressed moments culled from photos compiled by my iPhone traveling throughout Metro Tokyo. Its panoramic function is an interesting analog to human perception, scanning the world, trying to stitch together a coherent picture of the place it passes through. Yet the system fails. The result is a distorted compression of time and space – somewhat like the experience we have while absently gazing out a train window. But human and algorithm recall this passage of time and space quite differently. The tension between these two ways of ‘perceiving’ is intriguing.

This difference also highlights another aspect of my work that speaks to the way in which the digital tools we incorporate into daily life have changed the way we ourselves inhabit this world. Compression of time is a hallmark of our restless digital world. These photos reflect that fact. We see the world moving faster and being disjointed. We routinely integrate information flowing from multiple disparate sources in our work, our lives, rapidly switching from one frame to another and back at a moment’s notice. In these algorithmically generated images you see this too, and we sense the influence of the digital sea in which we swim.