Algorithmic visuality: artistic explorations of automated perception
Abstract
We currently live in a post-photographic visual avalanche, a mass production of images that exceeds our consumption capacity. However, their nature has evolved: no longer just objects of passive contemplation, they now play a fundamental role in visual automation processes mediated by artificial intelligence (AI). Today's image is rapidly processed rather than contemplated by a human viewer. These concepts are analyzed through the work of researchers such as Joanna Zylinska, Juan Martín Prada, and William J. Mitchell, among others. Given this new ontology of the image, we pose a central problem: the contemporary image, mediated by AI, is conditioned by the evident erosion of the human gaze—a phenomenon profoundly reflected in contemporary artistic creation.
KEYWORDS: artificial vision, algorithm, post-photography, visual crisis, digital privacy.
Downloads
References
Ars Electronica. (s. f.). What a Ghost Dreams Of. https://ars.electronica.art/center/en/what-a-ghost-dreams-of/
Benjamin, W. (1989). “Pequeña historia de la fotografía”. En Discursos interrumpidos I (pp. 63–91). Taurus. (Trabajo original publicado en 1931)
Buolamwini, J., & Gebru, T. (2018). Gender shades: Intersectional accuracy disparities in commercial gender classification. En S. A. Friedler & C. Wilson (Eds.), Proceedings of the Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT 2018) (pp. 1-15). Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 81. https://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a/buolamwini18a.pdf
Fontcuberta, J. (2016). La furia de las imágenes: Notas sobre la postfotografía. Galaxia Gutenberg.
Flusser, V. (2017), El universo de las imágenes técnicas: Elogio de la superficialidad. Caja Negra Editora.
Garzo Camón, T. (2025). Ética y privacidad en la era digital desde la perspectiva de la creación de espacios seguros. Arte, tecnología y ética. Artnodes, 35. https://doi.org/10.7238/artnodes.35.428540
Giannetti, C. (2023). Inteligencia Artificial y Posrepresentación. Las cajas negras no tienen hambre. Sendemà Editorial.
Martín Prada, J. (2023), Teoría del arte y cultura digital. Ediciones Akal, S. A.
Merchante, I. [@isamerchante] (2025, 17 de febrero) Cada mes que pasa, este robot podría generar miles de ingresos en una cadena de producción industrial. En cambio, está en @lacasaencendida , observando atardeceres. [video y texto descriptivo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/DGLuJznKQO_/
Mitchell, W. J. (1998). The reconfigured eye: Visual truth in the post-photographic era. The MIT Press.
Ortuño Mengual, P., & González Díaz, P. (2025). Arte figital y vigilancia. El cuerpo compartido en la era de las cámaras y la inteligencia artificial (IA). Revista Prâksis, 1, 73–94. https://doi.org/10.25112/rpr.v1.4028
Reinhuber, E. (2024). Outsmarting the algorithm or leaving the grid through surveillance artivism. En C. Fernández-Castrillo & D. Mantoan (Coords.), Media Artivism (Artnodes, 33). UOC. https://doi.org/10.7238/artnodes.v0i33.418372
Steyerl, H. (2018) Arte duty free: El arte en la era de la guerra civil planetaria. Caja Negra.
Virilio, P. (1998). La máquina de visión. Ediciones Cátedra, S.A.
Zylinska, J. (2023). The Perception Machine. Our Photographic Future between the Eye and AI. The MIT Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
