ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS
ITERATIVE_BODY_SYNTHESIS | Credits: Michael Wallinger
ITERATIVE_BODY_SYNTHESIS | Credits: Michael Wallinger
ITERATIVE_BODY_SYNTHESIS | Credits: KevinDaryl Ferdinandus
ITERATIVE_BODY_SYNTHESIS | Credits: Michael Wallinger
ITERATIVE_BODY_SYNTHESIS | Credits: Micael Wallinger
The media installation ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS is the research infrastructure to an experimental online investigation as well as the neural backend and monitoring interface to sisi.spec, a virtual identity on Instagram. In a long-term accumulating virtual performance of continuous body transformations generated in a feedback-loop between the installation and different Instagram environments, Sisi's appearance and choreography converges to the most consistent patterns between body characteristics and online in-/visibility.
Contextualized by a video documentation, insights into the methodology, data representation, sampling and evaluation, it traces questions on algorithmic prioritization and discrimination of body representations on this social media platform.
Exploring potentials of synthetic data, a specially developed software architecture samples, scans and cross references the influence of Instagram's content recognition systems and algorithmic decision-making on the over- and underrepresentation of body images. Hence, it monitors and documents how this platform might influence contemporary and future body aesthetics, choreography, iconography and authenticity, while engaging with broader questions on accountability for algorithmic agency and its implications for mental autonomy and health.
Seeking to tempt our desires, thus influence consumption decisions and maintain user engagement, these platforms analyze our affects based on continuously sampled visual media. Reversing this practice and identifying algorithmic "affects" towards specific body characteristics, casts a virtual hyper-embodiment of Instagram's affective economies and notions of integrity. With this, ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS explores technological possibilities for developing a digital infrastructure that empowers citizens to collectively monitor algorithmic systems that moderate, filter, and verify our media realities.
The media installation ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS is the research infrastructure to an experimental online investigation as well as the neural backend and monitoring interface to sisi.spec, a virtual identity on Instagram. In a long-term accumulating virtual performance of continuous body transformations generated in a feedback-loop between the installation and different Instagram environments, Sisi's appearance and choreography converges to the most consistent patterns between body characteristics and online in-/visibility.
Contextualized by a video documentation, insights into the methodology, data representation, sampling and evaluation, it traces questions on algorithmic prioritization and discrimination of body representations on this social media platform.
Exploring potentials of synthetic data, a specially developed software architecture samples, scans and cross references the influence of Instagram's content recognition systems and algorithmic decision-making on the over- and underrepresentation of body images. Hence, it monitors and documents how this platform might influence contemporary and future body aesthetics, choreography, iconography and authenticity, while engaging with broader questions on accountability for algorithmic agency and its implications for mental autonomy and health.
Seeking to tempt our desires, thus influence consumption decisions and maintain user engagement, these platforms analyze our affects based on continuously sampled visual media. Reversing this practice and identifying algorithmic "affects" towards specific body characteristics, casts a virtual hyper-embodiment of Instagram's affective economies and notions of integrity. With this, ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS explores technological possibilities for developing a digital infrastructure that empowers citizens to collectively monitor algorithmic systems that moderate, filter, and verify our media realities.
Software development: Instagram API integration: Alina Huber
Video contextualization: concept, cinematography, post-production: Kevin Daryl Ferdinandus
Video documentation: concept, narration: Claudia Strate
Project communication: editorial: Claudia Strate
Michael Wallinger:
Project: Artistic direction, artistic implementation
Software development: backend & frontend design, machine learning architecture, evaluation algorithm, system implementation
Video documentation: concept, animations
CGI visualizations: animations & automation
CGI visualizations: Texture painting: Enrico Zago
ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS is part of the MediaFutures project.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s framework Horizon 2020 for research and innovation program under grant agreement No 951962.
Content Vienna Award 2022 (Vienna Business Agency)
The Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.
Michael Wallinger (AT) is a media artist whose practice strives to fathom the performative, communicative, and symbolic dimensionalities of data-driven technologies. Michael's work has been presented at various venues and events, including HEK Basel, 37C3, Ars Electronica Festival, Seoul Biennale, SXSW Texas, Kh-Kassel, European Forum Alpbach, FC Linz, CIVA, and Museums Quartier Vienna. In 2023, Michael Wallinger was awarded by the International Press Institute, was an Artist in Residence at MediaFutures (S+T+ARTS) in 2022, and received the Content Vienna Award in the same year.
Michael Wallinger (AT) is a media artist whose practice strives to fathom the performative, communicative, and symbolic dimensionalities of data-driven technologies. Michael's work has been presented at various venues and events, including HEK Basel, 37C3, Ars Electronica Festival, Seoul Biennale, SXSW Texas, Kh-Kassel, European Forum Alpbach, FC Linz, CIVA, and Museums Quartier Vienna. In 2023, Michael Wallinger was awarded by the International Press Institute, was an Artist in Residence at MediaFutures (S+T+ARTS) in 2022, and received the Content Vienna Award in the same year.
ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS is a technical project, a social experiment, and a work of art in itself. It explores the human form and what it means for a body to not only be beautiful, but even to be acceptable in our modern digital world, filled with photoshopped images of picture-perfect bodies. The project offers a critical commentary on the invisibility of certain body types in digital spaces, perpetuated by invisible black box algorithmic decisions that shape our media realities and, in turn, our perceptions of ourselves and those around us.
ITERATIVE BODY SYNTHESIS is a technical project, a social experiment, and a work of art in itself. It explores the human form and what it means for a body to not only be beautiful, but even to be acceptable in our modern digital world, filled with photoshopped images of picture-perfect bodies. The project offers a critical commentary on the invisibility of certain body types in digital spaces, perpetuated by invisible black box algorithmic decisions that shape our media realities and, in turn, our perceptions of ourselves and those around us.