Patterns of Activation (gardens of the galaxy) is a GIF assemblage of images from various datasets the artist indexed on a citizen science platform, where volunteers are asked to index, draw on, and categorize images from various datasets, usually with the goal of training image processing AI algorithms. The images Novitskova worked on mostly include wildlife cam photos, astronomy, snail embryos, and monkey blood cells. If the overabundance of instrumental, machine-readable images may cheapen any meaning or aesthetic value, Novitskova actively digs some poetry out of these datasets. Such poetry comes from a combination of technology and the reality that it attempts to capture: glowing eyes of animals that reflect the flash-light of the camera, digital low resolution artifacts, accidentally stunning compositions of galaxies and forests, etc. The GIFs mechanical speed is faster than the usual human perception—it is functional to the machine gaze, but in itself it creates a new type of poetic image, too.

Text by Domenico Quaranta

Made for Feral File, curated by Domenico Quaranta