Xastol – LookingOutwards07

A project that I’m particularly interested in is Lev Manovich’s “SelfieSaoPaulo” (2014). In this project, Manovich collects thousands of selfies taken from individuals living in Sao Paulo, Brazil and displays them on a building within the city. Although his collection of mass data is intriguing, I’m particularly interested in how he is able to further his audience by involving people of the city. Additionally, the topic of facial recognition still interests me, as his program is able to recognize thousands of selfies (with varying quality of photos).

Another project of his that seems connected to “SelfieSaoPaulo” is his most recent piece, “Inequiligram”. In his project, he collects social media data from New York City, New York and finds patterns of inequality. How he is able to recognize these patterns in such a large concentration of data is astonishing and sets the current bar for mass data collection.

SelfieSaoPaulo: http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2014/06/selfiesaopaulo-new-project-by-moritz.html

Inequiligram: http://inequaligram.net/

Lev Manovich: http://manovich.net/