Trevor Paglen photographs the hidden political geography of our times. His art tries to capture places that are not on any map – the secret air bases and offshore prisons from which the war on terror has been fought – as well as the networks of data collection and surveillance that now shape our democracies. Paglen’s latest body of work comes from his research into computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI) and the changing status of images. In CLOUDS, a skyscape is overlaid with lines that show what four different computer vision algorithms are seeing in the images. The algorithms are looking for unique areas of interest and are attempting to simplify the photograph into sections. The algorithms shown here are used in object-recognition and in technologies such as guided missiles, surveillance systems, and 3-D modelling.
TREVOR PAGLEN (American, 1974)
Dye sublimation metal print
121.9 x 168.9cm
Acquired in 2018
