One face, millions of faces: Computer vision as hyperobject

Abstract

Borrowing Timothy Morton’s notion of hyperobject, this article explores questions of network and scale in generative adversarial networks (GAN) images. In this context, the term network refers to the omnipresence of algorithmic images today and their significant impact on our lives. Such images are massively distributed in time and space beyond any sensible human-scale. Scale, in this context, denotes the relations between different operational layers of algorithmic images, such as the pictorial layer in contrast to the data layer. An algorithmic image is simultaneously a visual image, a symbol, a data point and part of a mass visual milieu. Its meaning is thus polymorphic and can, arguably, never be exhausted. The article explores these terms through analysis of the website www.thispersondoesnotexist.com.