Seeing like an algorithm: operative images and emergent subjects

• Published in: AI & society Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 1233 - 1241
• Main Author: Uliasz, Rebecca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01.12.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algorithms; Artificial Intelligence; Automation; Biometry; Computer applications; Computer Science; Control; Cybernetics; Decision analysis; Decision making; Digital imaging; Engineering Economics; Entanglement; Eye (anatomy); Face recognition; Human subjects; Logistics; Marketing; Mechatronics; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Organization; Original Article; Pattern recognition; Performing Arts; Robotics; Vision; Big data; Algorithmic vision; Algorithms; Operational image; Machine learning
• ISSN: 0951-5666; 1435-5655
• DOI: 10.1007/s00146-020-01067-y

Algorithmic vision, the computational process of making meaning from digital images or visual information, has changed the relationship between the image and the human subject. In this paper, I explicate on the role of algorithmic vision as a technique of algorithmic governance, the organization of a population by algorithmic means. With its roots in the United States post-war cybernetic sciences, the ontological status of the computational image undergoes a shift, giving way to the hegemonic use of automated facial recognition technologies towards predatory policing and profiling practices. By way of example, I argue that algorithmic vision reconfigures the philosophical links between vision, image, and truth, paradigmatically changing the way a human subject is represented through imagistic data. With algorithmic vision, the relationship between subject and representation challenges the humanistic discourse around images, calling for a critical displacement of the human subject from the center of an analysis of how computational images make meaning. I will explore the relationship between the operative image , the image that acts but is not seen by human eyes, and what Louise Amoore calls an “emergent subject,” a subject that is made visible through algorithmic techniques (2013). Algorithmic vision reveals subjects to power in a mode that requires a new approach towards analyzing the entanglement and invisiblization of the human in automated decision-making systems.