Scanning: Ubiquitous Media, Image Processing and Automatons

This is the age of the unprecedented proliferation of expression through ubiquitous computing, life-logging and automatic imaging systems. Has human vision been machinized to such an extent that perception itself might be regarded as a technique of animation? The exhibition Out of Sight: Proof, was made by an automatic device, the Swedish designed, Taiwanese manufactured, ‘Narrative Clip’, attached to a body-tripod. It uses sensors to track daily movement and location and uploads geotagged and time-coded images to a server so they can be viewed on an iPhone or iPad. The process raises questions about the limits of privacy and the ethics of the image in its current metamorphoses. While framed by large conceptual issues, this research is centrally focused on new imaging methods and new methods of image analysis.

Professor Helen Grace is an artist and academic. She was the Founding Director of the MA Programme in Visual Culture Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is currently an Associate, Department of Gender & Cultural Studies and a Research Affiliate, Sydney College of the Arts, at the University of Sydney; as well as a Visiting Professor in the Department of English, National Central University, Taiwan.