A Filter Theory of Photography

Filters – both technically and in a wider sense of the term – provide a new way of theorizing photography. Most obviously, filters sieve things, persons and data out of flows; more specifically, they are key to the non-optical formations at work in image production based on neural networks in machi...

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Main Authors: Ina Blom, Matthew Fuller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Simon Dawes, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) 2024-06-01
Series:Media Theory
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Online Access:https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/1070
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author Ina Blom
Matthew Fuller
author_facet Ina Blom
Matthew Fuller
author_sort Ina Blom
collection DOAJ
description Filters – both technically and in a wider sense of the term – provide a new way of theorizing photography. Most obviously, filters sieve things, persons and data out of flows; more specifically, they are key to the non-optical formations at work in image production based on neural networks in machine learning. In this essay, we argue that theorizing photography from the perspective of filtering reconfigures photography as the entire field of material elements and processes involved in the production of an image and presents the photographic image itself as a distribution across a field of perception that includes various forms of technical sensing and formation. Ultimately, attending to filtering as the technical realities as well as aesthetic propositions in recent art projects allows us to understand photographic conditions as a wider and more general set of environments in which image-events occur with many kinds of causality and manifestation.
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publishDate 2024-06-01
publisher Simon Dawes, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)
record_format Article
series Media Theory
spelling doaj-art-142248be975743aa9bea219df4e2fc8d2025-08-20T02:41:02ZengSimon Dawes, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)Media Theory2557-826X2024-06-018110.70064/mt.v8i1.1070A Filter Theory of PhotographyIna BlomMatthew Fuller Filters – both technically and in a wider sense of the term – provide a new way of theorizing photography. Most obviously, filters sieve things, persons and data out of flows; more specifically, they are key to the non-optical formations at work in image production based on neural networks in machine learning. In this essay, we argue that theorizing photography from the perspective of filtering reconfigures photography as the entire field of material elements and processes involved in the production of an image and presents the photographic image itself as a distribution across a field of perception that includes various forms of technical sensing and formation. Ultimately, attending to filtering as the technical realities as well as aesthetic propositions in recent art projects allows us to understand photographic conditions as a wider and more general set of environments in which image-events occur with many kinds of causality and manifestation. https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/1070filtersconvolutionmachine learningWalead Beshtyphotography
spellingShingle Ina Blom
Matthew Fuller
A Filter Theory of Photography
Media Theory
filters
convolution
machine learning
Walead Beshty
photography
title A Filter Theory of Photography
title_full A Filter Theory of Photography
title_fullStr A Filter Theory of Photography
title_full_unstemmed A Filter Theory of Photography
title_short A Filter Theory of Photography
title_sort filter theory of photography
topic filters
convolution
machine learning
Walead Beshty
photography
url https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/1070
work_keys_str_mv AT inablom afiltertheoryofphotography
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