The algorithmic turn: photosynth, augmented reality and the changing implications of the image (2011)

Abstract The digital turn, and with it increased use of location-aware technologies, has yielded innovative image applications and posed new questions about the status and value of the image. These applications rely on algorithmically defined relations between the viewing subject and the world viewed, offering robust alternatives to the visual economies of the past. If we take seriously Heidegger's insights regarding the Welt-bild as a metaphor for the modern era, the algorithmic reconfiguration of subject-object relations in this emerging visual regime potentially offers insights through which we can reflect upon the current era – and a metaphoric alternative. This article uses two entry points to explore this possible reconfiguration and, with it, the question of value. Downloadable applications such as Photosynth aggregate location-tagged photographs into a near-seamless whole, and offer a way to consider such issues as collaborative authorship of the image, unstable points of view and the repositioning of subject-object relationships – all elements that fundamentally challenge western representational norms dominant in the modern era. In this new regime, the spatial referents of greatest value are points of uniqueness sought out and built upon by the program's algorithms – and not those perceived by the viewer. The viewer is in turn free to explore an extensive and dynamic image space unconstrained by (and, indeed, without access to) an authorised or 'correct' viewing position. A second case, built upon certain augmented reality applications, works by 'recognising' particular spaces and, through the use of computationally enhanced viewing screens, superimposing new images over real space. In this case, a system of virtual spatial annotation depends upon the 'correct' positioning of the viewer (and portable computing device) in the world. The two cases stand in a roughly reciprocal relationship, turning on different notions of algorithmic intermediation and subject-object relations and dynamics for the generation of meaning and value. Notes [1] 'Nothing is more boring than an unnamed landscape' (Culler 1990 Culler, J. 1990. Framing the sign: Criticism and its institutions. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press http://www.scribd.com/doc/36984937/culler1 (http://www.scribd.com/doc/36984937/culler1) [Google Scholar], 6). [2] A long and interesting history of efforts to work with algorithms pre-dates the computer era. The work of Leibnitz (1956) and Harsdörffer (1971 Harsdörffer, Georg Philipp. 1971. Poetischer Trichter; Die Teutsche Dicht – Und Reimkunst, Ohne Behuf Der Lateinischen Sprache, in VI. Stunden Einzugiessen, Hildesheim and New York: G. Olms. [A poetic funnel for infusing the art of German poetry and rhyme in six hours, without benefit of Latin language] [Google Scholar]), among others, greatly complicates the simple bifurcation I have heuristically asserted in this article. For a compelling discussion, see Trettien 2009 Trettien, W. 2009. Computers, cut-ups, & combinatory volvelles: An archaeology of text-generating mechanisms. MSc thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://whitneyannetrettien.com/thesis/ (http://whitneyannetrettien.com/thesis/) [Google Scholar].