#IXD104 Week 9

For this class Paul discussed the state of the modern digital world and how the use of false reality is taking over the digital world through augmented reality, filters and artificial intelligence.

I was really interested in the deep fakes Paul showed us about Tom Cruise as it showed us how technology of AI has improved since the mid 2010s. I found this very interesting (and slightly worrying) about the depth and detail that went into his deep fakes to create an almost realistic Tom Cruise. It was interesting to see how it was done such as capturing countless screenshot photos of him in different angles throughout his movie career then facial mapping his face to create a fully rendered model on someone else. This is also worrying as I can definitely see the potential in fake news and the use of manipulation especially through top tier political figures in the not so distant future.

“We shape our tools and there after our tools shape us.”

I’ve saw this quote many times before through Wilson Miner’s speech that he had in Belfast. This was derived from Winston Churchill’s quote, “We shape our buildings and afterward our buildings shape us”. The fact is human progress is altered by the changes we make, more specifically what we create. This defines our culture and who we are. Returning back to our human roots for example, we have the power to create offspring but eventually our offspring will change who we are whether we like it or not.

This class was about not everything you witness online is the truth and this counts for anything digital. Everything is refined and manipulated whether that be the narrative of words or in this case the visual aspect of the lens. It was an interesting class to see how manipulation can occur and the different ways ‘designers’ do it.

An example of this would be an old political cartoon which shows a person running away from another person with a knife but in this case the lens focuses on the middle and manipulates the narrative/visuals to make it look like it’s the opposite.

I found this class really interesting and has made me better understand how powerful the lens can be for both good and bad.

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