IDEM220 When Images Remain - The art and science of reading pictures

In the history of images, art and science are intertwined. The production of images has been influenced by technological innovations ranging from oil paint and perspective to VR and generative AI. The reception of pictures has been studied and theorized among art historians, philosophers and psychologists. And we should not forget the artist, who mastered new technologies and created novel world views and experiences. In short, images are where many branches of science and art meet.  

Today, we live in a visual-centric world. Images are significant carriers of extensive, often invisible, information and in this course we explore the evolving role of visuals in human-machine knowledge transfer and creation. The course unfolds the histories of image-making on a local and global scale, considering images as windows to the past and future, reflecting societal changes, technological advances (e.g. artificial intelligence), and evolving values. 

This course delves into the visual design of images through three distinct perspectives. First, it engages in a theoretical analysis of existing image collections (see our archive), incorporating insights from art history, design, perception, and computer science. This analysis focuses on the combination between formal elements (texture, light, colour, space, material) and contextual factors. The formal elements are inspired by perception theory, while the contextual factors encompass theories like semiotics and memetics. Second, the course integrates empirical investigations on human perception. Students learn to conduct visual experiments, analyze data, and visually represent findings. As a counterbalance to human vision, the third perspective explores machine vision: how computers interpret images, emphasizing the contribution of computational analysis to visual research and paying attention to ways in which visual research findings are shared and communicated.