MACHINE LEARNING

Made in 2022, Machine Learning uses my photographs of industrial and rural landscapes as prompts for early generative AI, asking how machine-made variations shift the way we see and understand authorship.

A tall, weathered concrete building with a window and a small opening, surrounded by leafless trees and dry grassy field under a clear blue sky.

A tall, weathered concrete building with a window and a small opening, surrounded by leafless trees and dry grassy field under a clear blue sky.

An exterior scene of a house with a large tree in front and a grassy yard, under a clear blue sky.

An exterior scene of a house with a large tree in front and a grassy yard, under a clear blue sky.

A large, dark grey concrete building with small, vertical windows. Surrounding trees with leafless branches and grass with patches of green and brown.

A large, dark grey concrete building with small, vertical windows. Surrounding trees with leafless branches and grass with patches of green and brown.

An old brick chimney or tower with small square openings, standing outdoors in a rural area with green grass and leafless trees under a clear blue sky.

An old brick chimney or tower with small square openings, standing outdoors in a rural area with green grass and leafless trees under a clear blue sky.

"Original"

"Original"

A large granite surface with an old, rusty red cable or hose laying on it. The background shows a distant, flat landscape under a clear sky.
An old, red combine harvester working in a field of crops, with a clear sky and some clouds above.
An old, red and metal boat on dry land with a clear blue sky above and a flat, open field in the background.
A red tractor working in a large wheat field on a sunny day.
A red combine harvester working in a field of cereal crops under a clear blue sky.
A tall multi-level sign for a restaurant called Dürk Mack Mank with letters in red, blue, and black on a yellow background against a blue sky.
A tall sign with three sections, the top one with a yellow background and red and orange text, the middle with a white background and green text, and the bottom with a black background and red text. The sign is against a blue sky, with a smaller stre
A tall Signpole with Community Signs attached. The signs are in various colors including yellow, white, and red, displaying text in a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. The specific text on the signs is not entirely visible or legible due to the
A roadside sign with a red background and a yellow oval shape on top, part of a larger sign below that reads 'LOT' and 'WILTE' with some characters partially visible at the bottom.
Tall outdoor sign for Auto-Truck and El Mart, with Subway and restaurant advertisements, set against a clear blue sky.
Cover of The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener
Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings.
1950 edition. Cover image: Open Library.

REFERENCE POINT #1 — NORBERT WIENER

“Feedback is a method of controlling a system by reinserting into it the results of its past performance. If these results are merely used as numerical data for the criticism of the system and its regulation, we have the simple feedback of the control engineers. If, however, the information which proceeds backward from the performance is able to change the general method and pattern of performance, we have a process which may well be called learning.”

Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (1950).

Explore the book — Open Library

A scene of a city street with various buildings, electrical poles, and a clear blue sky. The photo is taken from a slightly tilted angle, capturing the corner of a building on the right with a green roof, and another building on the left with arched
Empty street with buildings, utility poles, and objects like a weather station or dumpster in the background, under a clear blue sky.
The image shows the rooftop of a building with water tanks, an antenna, and a chimney against a clear blue sky.
Multiple buildings with flat roofs, some with antennae on top, under a clear blue sky.
A small pink building with a USPS mailbox and a bench in front, next to an empty sidewalk and street, with residential and industrial buildings in the background under a clear blue sky.
Empty parking lot with yellow parking lines, brick and stucco buildings, utility poles, and wires against a cloudy sky.
A city street with buildings, utility poles, and power lines under an overcast sky.
Empty street corner with buildings and power lines under an overcast sky.
A small empty parking lot with buildings, utility poles, and silos in the background under an overcast sky.
A street view showing several buildings and utility poles with power lines against an overcast sky.
Nighttime view from a moving vehicle showing blurred railings and a power pole on the side of the road with a dark sky in the background.
A dark room with a window showing a bright light outside, a ladder, and some furniture including a chair with a yellow object on it.
Night scene with fog, illuminated streetlights, and railway tracks.
Nighttime view of railroad tracks with a foggy atmosphere and a distant bright light.
Nighttime view of an industrial building with scaffolding and safety barriers. Fog or mist obscures the background and ambient lighting creates a dim, moody atmosphere.
Cover of Towards a Philosophy of Photography by Vilém Flusser
Vilém Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography.
Book cover: Reaktion Books, 2000 edition.

REFERENCE POINT #2 — VILÉM FLUSSER

Flusser’s account of photography asks how the apparatus shapes what a photographer can make. In Machine Learning (2022), an experiment with early generative AI, the photograph becomes a prompt for another image-making system. The question of authorship extends from choosing what to photograph to negotiating the possibilities of a model.

Explore Towards a Philosophy of Photography — Reaktion Books

Large outdoor poster featuring a man in a black and white striped shirt and blue pants holding a large inflatable pink flamingo. The poster is against a white wall with rooftop and chimney structures, next to a tall lush green tree. Cars are parked a
A large cartoon-style statue of a person with black hair, glasses, and a red tie, holding a large brown staff, located outdoors on a sidewalk in front of a building and a tree.
A yard with a large cartoonish statue of a young boy holding a baseball bat, with painted facial features and clothing. There are trees, cars, and a house in the background.
A mural of a young male cyclist wearing a blue and red jersey is painted on the side of a building. The mural is situated in front of a bright blue sky and a large green tree. Small flowers are planted at the base of the mural, and a street runs in f
A large statue of a man with black hair, wearing a red shirt, blue pants, and black boots, holding a large hot dog, standing on a sidewalk in front of trees and a brick building with a mural and a blue sky overhead.
Destroyed red truck with melted and burned parts, likely from an accident, sitting on a dirt surface under a partly cloudy sky.
Damaged red and black ride rental car, loaded on a flatbed truck at dusk, with the sky and clouds visible in the background.
A damaged red fire truck with extensive front-end destruction, parked outdoors under a blue sky with clouds.
A row of disassembled red machinery parts with some wheels underneath, set outdoors on a dirt ground against a clear blue sky.
A farm implement or machinery with a red frame and large black tires, equipped with various hydraulic hoses and metal parts, parked outdoors on a gravel lot under a partly cloudy sky.
Close-up of a traffic light pole with multiple black traffic lights against a bright blue sky, with a red center pigmented reflector.
Red traffic lights on a railway crossing with a blue sky background.
A traffic light showing red, with a clear blue sky and a red billboard or sign in the background.
Close-up of a railroad crossing signal with red lights, a white pole, and warning signs in the background against a blue sky.
A red road closure sign with white text reading 'ROAD CLOSED' and a yellow and black sticker labeled 'MIRRORS' in the lower left corner. Above the sign, there are traffic lights attached to a white pole, which is partly damaged and rusted. The sky is
Trevor Paglen’s Lake Tenaya, a landscape overlaid with machine-vision lines and detected features
Trevor Paglen, Lake Tenaya, 2016.
Maximally Stable External Regions; Hough Transform.
Image reproduced in The New Inquiry.

REFERENCE POINT #3 — TREVOR PAGLEN

Paglen’s Invisible Images examines images processed by machines and the systems that shape their interpretation. His Lake Tenaya makes that difference visible within a landscape. Alongside Machine Learning, it opens a question: what happens when a photographed place becomes material for computational interpretation and the production of new images?

Read “Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You)” — The New Inquiry, 2016

A red semi-truck with an empty flatbed trailer parked outside on a snow-covered surface with overcast sky.
A semi-truck parked outdoors in winter with snow covering parts of the vehicle and ground. The truck is red with silver details on the trailer.
A large industrial grain silo with a conveyor system extending from it. The scene appears to be winter, with snow on the ground and a cloudy sky.
A glass building with a visible cargo elevator on the side, a red pickup truck parked below, and overcast sky.
An industrial facility with large metal storage tanks, metal framework, and a construction vehicle in front, set against a snowy ground and overcast sky.
Multiple small drone-like objects flying around large wind turbines in a field on a clear day.
White wind turbine rising above a flat field under a blue sky.
Wind turbine tower in an open field against a clear blue sky.
Wind turbine tower and fragmented forms against a blue sky.
Wind turbines in a flat, open landscape with a dirt path in the foreground and a clear blue sky above.

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