Industrial Revolutions: Algorithmic Outputs: 1-5
I became fascinated with the ideas that I am again facing an industrial revolution, brought to me through the smartphone screen. Much like the First and Second that came before it, the very reality of daily life has been and will be changed by it.
I realize I find it difficult to remember a year or two ago, let alone five, after constantly interfacing with technology, I am faced with a near complete loss of memory. It has fragmented the way I record and recall information, memories fall into the aesthetics of digital forgetfulness; fragments of small-sized files, not containing enough information to discern a whole or accurate conjuring of the past in my mind.
Using a computer program developed in collaboration with data scientist Jamie Gavis, images from The Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914) (sourced from The New York Public Library Digital Collection) are analyzed and reconstructed using pieces of other images depicting similar or related events. The program attempts to align these fragments based on correlation of color and value but is unable to see the work in its entirety, instead relegated to looking at it in pieces. The images become fragmented, identifying with digital visual language, they’re original archival purpose fades into obscurity.
-Owen Gavis
See more of the this artist's work: owengavis.com
