Envisioning Future Realities

With her project Tell Me What to See, german artist Carola Lampe investigates the impact of data, algorithms and artificial intelligence on human behaviour and experience.

In her project Tell Me What to See, German artist Carola Lampe captures a series of abstract images as a means to investigate the impact of data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence on human behavior and experience.

“By encoding our ideas and intentions into machines, we make them literal constructors of the world” (James Bridle, New Dark Age, 2018)

Our life is getting increasingly controlled by algorithms as vast amounts of data are being created, captured and analysed. They can save lives, simplify things and structure chaos. However, there is great concern that they may place too much control in the hands of corporations and governments, reinforce bias, create filter bubbles, facilitate mass surveillance and lead to greater social imbalances. It is humans who shape the world and create new technologies. And it is humans who decide which data is used for AI systems. The project explores what the world might look like when all aspects of our lives have been redesigned and re-constructed.

The images of the project have been created in 3 different approaches:

(1) Taken with a camera in physical space by observing everyday life and searching for images that seem to reveal the impact of technology, as well as searching for images that show the intervention of man on the environment. (2) Staged and constructed images created in the studio that look like they were computer-generated and (3) images generated by AI.

I have chosen this approach to generate an archive of the future with which I tell an associative story. I play with the question of what is real or fake. Who is tricking whom and who has sovereignty over the machine. But it is also about perception and digital viewing habits. How and what does a machine see? Who creates the better digital images, the machine or me in the studio. Who is in control?

Words and Pictures by Carola Lampe.

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Carola Lampe is a German artist working with photography, video, installation and performance. She holds a Master's degree in Fine Arts and studied Photography at the Ostkreuzschule Berlin. Carola’s work has been exhibited internationally at festivals, galleries and art institutions. Her work investigates the implications of digital technologies on human beings. By observing everyday life and exploring the boundaries of what is real and what isn’t, her art shifts between documentary and fiction. Find her on PhMuseum and Instagram.

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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PHmuseum curators.

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