What the Robot Saw

Does the Internet suck? Or do just the parts we get to see suck?

Who doesn’t get seen on the internet? In the new world order of robots and talking heads, a reality exists that’s part life, part cinema, and part algorithm. But as the robot curators silently curate, an alternate reality also emerges, starring the humans who win at losing the losing social media game. A secret cinematic world, seen only by robots. 

‘What the Robot Saw’ is a perpetually-generated robot documentary live stream and durational online performance and  archive. It’s a Sunday drive through the awkward intersections of performance, surveillance, voyeurism, and robots — in the age of the talking head. The Robot uses contrarian ranking algorithms to curate some of the least attention-grabbing new videos on online media — videos hidden by commercial social media ranking algorithms, which may usually only be seen by robots. Using face and image analysis algorithms to curate videos and study their subjects, ‘What the Robot Saw’ assembles its film and identifies its performers — as the Robot saw them. 

Revealing a mix of underacknowledged media makers, performed selves, and obsessive surveillance algorithms, ‘What the Robot Saw’ enters into the complicated relationship between the world’s surveillant and curatorial AI robots and the humans who are both their subjects and their stars. It’s not a video about how robots actually see. It’s a response to processes of representation in the contemporary collision of performed selves, screen-centric perceptions — and robots.

Source: https://what-the-robot-saw.com