II. The Promises of the Machine
Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel & Nicola Carboni
How to study globalization through images?
The Visual Contagions project examines the globalization of images since the era of the illustrated print. It does so by using computational methods.
So-called computer vision is applied to large, digitized corpora (illustrated prints, artworks, social network images). The team then returns to more traditional methods in art history and visual studies.
The computational approach makes it possible to track images and their circulation, from one time, place and medium to another, right up to the present of social networks and post-digital cultures. Starting from the very schematic points of view that computers can provide, it is then possible to attempt finer analyses and interpretations, with the usual tools of the human sciences. The following lines explain what the team is doing.