Watch: John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing,’ updated algorithmically to our times, using augmented reality
‘Ways of Seeing Algorithmically’ will virtually update your copy of Berger’s 1972 book to address the politics of ‘automated vision’.
Building the first chapter of my new project Ways of Seeing Algorithmically, an augmented reality app designed to virtually update John Berger's 1972 book Ways of Seeing into a primer on the politics of automated vision. pic.twitter.com/HpyT1M3LWH
— Lewis Bush (@Lewis__Bush) October 29, 2019
The 1972 BBC television series Ways of Seeing and book of the same name, both written by John Berger, dramatically changed the way people thought about visual culture and had immense impact on the popular discourse surrounding art.
Lewis Bush, a photographer, author, researcher, artist and PhD in the intersection of visual journalism and artificial intelligence, has decided to updated Ways of Seeing to accommodate the modern day shift to “computer vision.” He argues that “humans no longer hold a monopoly on interpreting, understanding and acting on what they see.”
A short video (seen above) gives a glimpse of what this ongoing project, Ways of Seeing Algorithmically is like. Through augmented reality, when the eventual app is pointed at a page of Berger’s Ways of Seeing, the user can view, new text, imagery and video overlaid on the original pages.
Bush hopes to “help audiences understand how these technologies are made and work”, and to provide them with the “knowledge to better understand the risks and challenges that automated systems represent” – similar to the way Ways of Seeing once helped educate audiences on how we perceive and interpret art.
