Recognized / Not Recognized,
A comparative analysis of popular and unpopular news images
‘The unforeseen has a hard time happening because it is not yet in the database.’
Hito Steyerl, ‘Politics of Post-Representation’, Dis-Magazine, 2014
As a visual artist I conduct systematic studies revealing mechanisms happening in our visual
culture. I use quantitative research methods such as A/B testing, software for eye-tracking and
image recognition. My latest project Recognized / Not Recognized revolves around the
question: ‘What features determine ‘successfull’ news photos?’
From a selection of worldwide press agency databases (which include amateur witness photos)
I scraped all the news photos in relation to the ten events that received the most coverage in
the past five years. This resulted in a database of approx. 850.000 images. By using image
recognition software from Google (and some proxies), I determined how many times an individual image exists on the google indexed internet. In other words, the reproduction rate of each
image is calculated to measure the succes factor. Press photos from a big news event have a
wide range of variables but are in a way very uniform - since they are all witness photographs
–, therefore my database consists of an ideal set for a cross-sectional study.
We need to see images not just as inert objects that convey meaning but as animated
beings with desires, needs, appetites, demands, and drives of their own. ( ‘What do
Images Want?’, 2005 van W.J.T Mitchell)
The analyses of this cross-sectional study finds its way in several visual presentations.
The core presentation is a movement study. This choreography for nine dancers is designed
by Marjolein Vogels based on the characteristics of ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ news images, and will be presented in a two-channel video installation. Following the ten selected events – that range from the protests in Kiev to the refugee crisis – the database is devided in a
‘machine vision manner’. For example, Variation 1 is a single person surrounded by others (e.g.
the arrest of a person or a victim being carried away); Variation 2 is a strong body movement of
one or more people (e.g. running away or throwing a stone); Variation 3 shows a certain
stillness in posture (e.g. waiting or mourning).
Examples of photos the movement study is based on. Left successful, right unsuccessful
Coralie Vogelaar | Recognized / Not Recognized | 2016
Seen/Unseen, a comparative analysis of popular and unpopular news images, still from video, 2016
Dance pose based on a successful and unsucessful news photo taken at the same time and place
Coralie Vogelaar | Recognized / Not Recognized | 2016
The two channel video installation places a choreography based on successful images in
conjunction with a choreography based on unsuccessful images. All original photographs were
taken at the same moment, on the same spot. By juxtaposing these two series of images, as
captured by dancers, they form a parallel choreography in which the dancers move from one
frozen position into another position. The sequences are shown in six phrases (3x2) that loop
in different lengths as a never-ending study in movement on news photography.
Follow this link to sketches of the fragments: http://coralievogelaar.com/imagerecognition.html
Be aware there is need for color correction, montage and the sound still need work.
In conjunction with the video installation this comprehensive study is also going to be presented
in other forms. An average of one third of the news photos in my database are nowhere to be
found on the google indexed web: they only seem to exist behind the login wall off a press agency. Based on this fact I produce a series of glass boxes reflecting a so called ‘news residue’.
News Residue #1, photos from the Kiev protests on 02-20-2014 that are not indexed by Google, 2016.
150 photo prints of 7,5 x 5cm, plexiglas box 60 x 60 x 7 cm. Part of a series.
Sketch, Looking for something in between Dance Notation and Machine Vision. 2016
Coralie Vogelaar | Recognized / Not Recognized | 2016
A third work can consist of drawings and sketches I have made to distill the compositional lines
and focus points in ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ photographs. This process gives insight in
the transformation from the actual image to the choreography. From both sets of photos, lines
and faces that grab attention have been analyzed by photo filters and eye tracking software.
This research could be presented in a variety of forms.
The process of distinguishing a successful news images from the unsuccessful ones, is an
interesting matter that could become the basis of a built in algorithm for the camera. With face
and body movement recognition, the software itself – just like the smile detection software in
recent consumer cameras – could deduct a successful composition and automatically
decides to take the picture (or automatically filter the right still from moving imagery).
You could say that with the use of Machine Vision as a technology and method, I am analysing
and studying the news image by applying a particular dance notation in reverse to deconstruct
its desired features.
From the enormous sea of photographic data, we tend to choose and therefore find those
images that suit our eye and affirm the Western compositional tradition we are surrounded by.
The google algorythm is already built on the validation of certain presets and stereotypes. At
the moment – with a little bit of effort – unsuccessful photos can still be found behind a login
wall. However in the future these images would not even be registrered by the camera, and if
the camera delivers them than it is very unlikely they can be retrieved. Unsuccesful news
images are then being considered as dirty data and are simply wiped from the system.
biography
Coralie Vogelaar (1981) is a conceptual artist with a graphic design background. She is
inspired by quantitative research methods from the social sciences like market research,
pilot testing and archiving existing data.
This approach has led to a diverse body of work. Dearest Tinkebell, a book of hate mail
addressed to Tinkebell revealing its senders. A Free Ai Weiwei shirt printed in China
including a publication of the correspondence between all companies who declined
and MyPolarIce with pieces of Polar ice sold as a souvenir to keep in your freezer.
Her projects have drawn the attention of a diverse range of international media, from
Gizmodo to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Vogelaar graduated in 2007 at the Design Department of the Sandberg Institute and
completed a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, both in Amsterdam.
She teaches Design Research at the Art Academy ArtEZ in Arnhem.
www.coralievogelaar.com
instagram.com/coralievogelaar
twitter.com/coralievogelaar
Coralie Vogelaar | Recognized / Not Recognized | 2016
Seen/Unseen, a comparative analysis of popular and unpopular news images, still from video, 2016
Dance pose based on a successful and unsucessful news photo taken at the same time and place