Content aware

2022. Action.

Image Mediation Agreement. Photograph processed with deep learning neural networks and printed on paper (70x50cm). Methacrylate plate. Photos and video processed with deep learning neural networks posted on the Maristany Art Center social media between February 7 and May 14, 2022.

Antibiography Exhibition. Maristany Art Center, February 18 – May 14, 2022. Curator: Alexandra Laudo.

“An automation of anonymity based on the automation of detection, an act of disappearance through being erased, a photograph of the presence without the distraction of resemblance, a documentation without people for the circulation through networks and likes ”. (Estampa)

Throughout the Antibiography exhibition period and also previously, during the process of assembling the exhibition, Estampa is carrying out an action that is made public through the social profile of Instagram @centredartmaristany and @art.santcugat. Estampa, as the mediating part; Aida Mestres, as the hostess, representing Maristany Art Center; and Alexandra Laudo, as curator, have signed a contract granting Estampa the ability to remove all people who appears in the photographs and videos documenting the exhibition. The consent began to take effect immediately after signing the contract, as evidenced by the photograph taken after the signing ceremony, which took place on January 25, 2022 in Sant Cugat.

Using deep learning neural networks that automatically detect and delete all human figures that appear in an image, Estampa is intervening in the exhibition documentation and Antibiography activities removing any human presence. The possibility of deleting people from photographic and video documentation means that the artificial intelligence used by Estampa first identifies them as such. Anonymization, therefore, requires a prior detection process. The project activates a reflection on the contemporary production of images and on the paradoxical relationship between control and anonymity in the digital sphere.

(Text of the of the exhibit label – Alexandra Laudo)