The course discusses the process of machine learning from its subfield known as computer vision. Starting from its images, which are clustered in training datasets, we will understand their imagery content as indexes to see beyond - including the processes performed by countless humans that organize and make the "magic" of Artificial Intelligence (AI) happen in a (supposedly) automatic way. The practices related to these images will also be put into a historical perspective so that we can understand them as a larger part of a capitalist process that extracts, segments, and decontextualizes long before the advent of computers and the AI fad. This path of unraveling part of machine learning will be done from artistic experiences that help us unravel some of the opacity so characteristic of contemporary hegemonic technology.
First, you will learn a little about the field of AI, including the problematics of that name. Next, you'll learn a little more about the use and general processes present in the subfield of computer vision. In a second class, we will look at these training images from various modes and scales, including here artistic experiments by myself and other artists. In the third class, we will understand that these images should not just be seen, but understood as part of an increasingly complex system of precarious labor and diverse decontextualizations. Finally, in the last class, you will be invited to understand the content offered in the previous classes from a bigger picture than AI, understanding what was taught as part of a continuity of a historical process much bigger than contemporary technology.
No prior knowledge, program, or specific tool is required. Anyone interested in the subject can take the course.
Bruno Moreschi is a researcher and visual artist. He is a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), PhD in Arts at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with a residency at the University of Arts of Helsinki (Kuva Art Academy). Senior researcher at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (CAD+SR) and member of the project Decay without mourning: future thinking heritage practices. His investigations are related to the deconstruction of systems and the decoding of social procedures and practices in the fields of arts, museums, visual culture, and technology. Her projects have been recognized by grants, exhibitions and institutions such as ZKM, Van Abbemuseum, 33rd São Paulo Biennial, Rumos Award and Funarte.
