Session 1 · Tool Lab · Lesson 01
AI as an Interpretive System
This is not tool training, and it is not prompt optimization. AI is treated as a collaborator, not a generator — and photography as translation, not capture.
Concept
- Photography has always been mediated: optical index → chemical process → digital signal → probabilistic inference.
- Meaning shifts from seeing to inferring.
- Loss of index, gain of abstraction.
What changes when meaning shifts from seeing to inferring?
Slides
- 01
AI + Liminal Systems
- Photography Between Human and Machine Perception
- Session 1 — Machine Perception, Misreading, and Interpretation
- 02
Session Objectives
- Reframe AI as an interpretive system rather than an image generator
- Examine how machine perception interprets photographs
- Identify misreading as productive artistic material
- Introduce interpretive workflows
- Prepare for system-based work in Session 2
- 03
Workshop Frame
- This is not a tool training session
- This is not about prompt optimization
- This workshop focuses on perception, mediation, and process
- AI is treated as a collaborator, not a generator
- Photography is approached as translation, not capture
- 04
Why This Matters for Photography
- Photography has always been mediated
- Optical index → chemical process → digital signal → probabilistic inference
- Contemporary images are increasingly shaped by systems
- Artists must understand how images are read, not just produced
- 05
From Capture to Interpretation
- Cameras record light
- AI predicts patterns
- Meaning shifts from seeing to inferring
- Loss of index, gain of abstraction
- New territory for photographic practice
Student activity
15:00
- 01Bring one photograph you know well. Write two sentences on what you believe it shows.