Artificial Images

Catalog description

What is an image in the age of generative AI? What is its relation to truth or artifice? To better understand the paradigmatic shift heralded by DeepDream hallucinations and algorithmic vision, this seminar explores past and current ontologies of the image. Reflecting on the politics of seeing in a world saturated by images, we will move from early film theory and art history to today’s debates on synthetic media and algorithmic aesthetics, and trace how thinkers and artists have challenged common understandings of the visual. Through close readings and screenings, we will explore such key concepts as operational images (Farocki), poor images (Steyerl), and discorrelated images (Denson), to develop the analytical tools necessary to think with, rather than about, images across media. In English. Students may also count this course toward the new certificate program in "European Critical Thought" (ECT).