Interactive: Explore How Code Can Change The Way We See Art

How can technology change the way we look at art? Ivo Dinov’s class "Data Science and Predictive Analytics" looks at this question closely, as they use computer programming and coding to manipulate images.

While computer assisted image processing can be done with any image or set of images, Dinov's class takes a particular interest in image processing as a way to interact with art objects specifically. The typical museum experience has historically been defined by wandering through exhibitions, using our senses to take in works of art. Technology used in Dinov's class asks us to consider alternative experiences. Is a work of art's meaning limited to what we can comprehend with the naked eye?

Using UMMA’s collection, Dinov’s students engage with the pieces using coding skills as a form of critical thinking. Even if you aren’t a computer science enthusiast, the process is fascinating. Below is a 'choose your own adventure' guide that examines how students might change a work of art, and therefore change our interpretation of the piece. 

Click on the Curriculum / Collection logo below to begin. Then select different types of manipulation to see both how that manipulation is accompilshed, and the final result. As you peruse the different results of the coding manipulation on “Winter in Ann Arbor” by Khaled al-Saa’i, ask yourself how seeing the piece this way affects or does not affect your interpretation of the work. What is different? What stays the same? 

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