HANNA WENTZ
Digital images should not be understood as reflections of human vision,
but outputs of machinic systems with their own sensory logics.
Cameras are computers that record, compress and classify.
They do not see as we do,
we must move beyond
I was thinking about this since our talk and while reading your papers. I keep thinking about what you are really trying to capture through these systems and cameras. Is it the image itself, the process of seeing, or the way the machine perceives?
In an era shaped by data-driven automation, images no longer function as passive representations of
the world. Instead, they operate as active participants in technical, social, and epistemological
systems. Digital images are uploaded and optimized to circulate within predictive computational
infrastructures. Increasingly, they are made by machines for machines, often without human viewing
in mind. As image-making becomes governed by software defaults, hardware constraints, and
algorithmic operations, the stakes of photographic practices shift. What matters now is not only what
is shown but how and when visibility itself is constructed