Seeing Like an Artistic Computer
When we see something we don’t really see everything. Our eyes take in the light waves and produce some representation of that. When a computer ‘sees’ something, it likewise takes in some representation of it. Artists render some representation of something, which our brains can interpret in various ways. Likewise, a computer artist creates from the computer’s representation.
The shirt above is created by a computer, and is one of the most popular shirts on roarshockbrands.com. The machine learned from pictures of different of animals. It learned what the visual form of an animal looked like. It never went to a petting zoo. It never had a dog. It just learned from the pictures it saw. What you see is a representation of how it learned to draw these animals.
When we consider an object, we must consider how we have come to know about something. We have the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. All of these senses can influence our understanding. Even if we rely mostly on sight, when we see an animal by our experiences of touching and smelling different animals. Further, our intuitive knowledge of movement and physics, can influence how we perceive the different visual forms.
When we have a computer which only receives a limited sensual representation, it is restricted in what forms it can use. The full sensual and sense-making apparatus of humans is not present. This allows for an interesting and unique representational form. We are able to strive for understanding the essence of a visual representation of some thing. We may then consider both the amazing power and limitations of the visual form.
