Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This paper proposes the possibility of using computer vision, particularly the kind that is applied within the film and entertainment industry, not merely as a tool-set for content production, but as a habit that can contribute towards committed viewership from artists, implying that a context of image overexposure demands new habits of observation that may materialize in significant artistic project within the field of digital media. This thesis is presented alongside practice-based research developed during the past four years: projects such as “A Mother Grieves for Her Son,” “Glorias,” “Ghosts of Concordia,” and “Followers of the Flood,” which to a large extent embody and push forward the conceptual research that supports this paper. As a conclusion, the paper proposes possible relations between this mode of active observation as creative practice, with ancestral ways of recollecting and telling stories, such as the Navajo string games and the Inca Quipu, where image making and story telling are indeed acts of creative recollecting and not passive consumption. From this point, the paper suggests that the shift in content creation, particularly 3D graphics, towards real-time imaging, as seen in the entertainment industry and apps such as Apple’s Animoji, might imply a shift towards the performative and therefore, towards new modes of image consumption and art making that aim to be radically active and present.