Synthetic Vision / Images of Power Conference | 27-28 June | Framer Framed (Amsterdam)

We are thrilled to invite you to the conference Synthetic Vision / Images of Power – Truth, Evidence, Labour & Knowledge in the Age of AI which explores the transformations induced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the interplay of power, knowledge, and images.

Presenters will focus in particular on the unprecedented possibilities of these systems to generate synthetic vision, that is, the ability to “see” algorithmically, and synthetic image generation, or the ability to create new images through prompts. These transformations affect three key dimensions of the image. Firstly, in what we term image-truth, we are interested in the truth-value of images within contexts such as authentication, or recognition, in domains such as facial, emotion and crowd recognition. But it also concerns the generation of synthetic images to mimic reality in large datasets necessary to train other algorithms. In our second exploration, we focus on image-evidence, specifically addressing the capacity to recognize or generate images for evidentiary purposes. This dimension holds relevance in the realms of journalism, with considerations surrounding information, propaganda, and the identification of ‘fake news,’ as well as within the legal sphere, encompassing both the utilization of images as judicial evidence and their role in event reconstruction. Third, we are interested in the figure of image-labour, i.e., computer vision as a result of a visible and often invisible labour on the image, of programmers, annotators and operators.

Programme

Day one: Thursday 27 June 2024

15:00 Introduction (Francesco Ragazzi)

15:30 Opening Talk: Terror Element (Anna Engelhardt & Mark Cinkevich)

16:00 – 18:30 Mapping Synthetic Vision

• 16:00 Mapping as a critical method for Security Vision (Francesco Ragazzi)
• 16:20 Documenting and Visualizing Unknowns and Uncertains in Security Vision (Francesco Luzzana, Erica Gargaglione)
• 16:40 Synthetic Battlefield in the Time of Dynamic Maps (Svitlana Matviyenko)
• 17:00 Cutting through algorithmic violence (Rocco Bellanova)
• 17:20 Discussion (chair: Donatella Della Ratta)

DAY TWO | Friday 28 June 2024

9:30 – 12:00 Synthetic Images in Conflict

• 09:30 Tracklets: the synthetic present of movement tracking (Ruben van de Ven)
• 09:50 From AI to paper: de-materializing and re-materializing evidence  (Kevin B Lee)
• 10:10 Synthetic Realism: Exploring the Aesthetics and Politics of Generative AI in a time of widespread violence (Donatella Della Ratta)
• 10:30 AI in Gaza: Image-evidence, digital suspicion, colonial history (Adi Kuntsman and Rebecca Stein)
• 10:50 Discussion (chair: Francesco Ragazzi)

Afternoon

13:00 – 15:30 Strategies of Resistance

• 13:00 AI to Subvert and Expose Evidence (Paolo Cirio)
• 13:20 Synthetic Vision for Subversion (Jonathan Luke Austin & Maevia Griffiths)
• 13:40 Image-Life (Shintaro Miyazaki)
• 14:00 Mobile Lies: A Kinopolitics of Emotion Datasets (Cyan Bae)
• 14:20 Discussion (chair: Rocco Bellanova)

16:00 – 18:30 Strategies of Resistance II

• 16:00 A Tale of Two Data Centers (Marloes de Valk)
• 16:20 Permacomputing in the arts (Aymeric Mansoux)
• 16:40 Algorithmic accountability (Evaline Schot)
• 17:00 Social media: Catalysts or obstacles to war crimes investigations? (Maria Mingo)
• 17:20 Discussion (chair: Rebecca Stein)

18:30 -18:45 Concluding remarks (Donatella Della Ratta)

Scientific Coordination

Francesco Ragazzi Donatella Della Ratta Rocco Bellanova Rebecca Stein