Cinema and Machine Vision

Daniel Chávez Heras is a Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing at King’s College London. He specialises on the computational production and analysis of visual culture combining critical frameworks in the history and theories of cinema, television, and photography, with advanced technical practice in creative and scientific computing, including applied machine learning technologies.Daniel has worked extensively in interdisciplinary design and creative industries, in Mexico and in the UK, with cultural institutions such as The British Council, and the BBC. He is a member of the Creative AI Lab, in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery, and part of the Computational Humanities Research Group at King’s College London.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart One: Data-Images: Philosophy of Photography and Technologies of VisionChapter 1. Between Archive and DatasetChapter 2. Inductive VisionChapter 3. Machine Learning and the Philosophy of PhotographyPart Two: Pixels in Motion: The Calculation of Cinematic TimeChapter 4. Statistical Distance and Emotional Closeness in Film StyleChapter 5. Computational Analysis of Continuity EditingChapter 6. Duration, Motion, and PixelsPart Three: AI and Criticism: Aesthetics, Formats, and InteractionsChapter 7. Algorithmic Films as Data AnalysisChapter 8. Aesthetic Judgements and Meaningful DissensusChapter 9. AI as MediaConclusion: Machines Made of ImagesReferencesIndex

Cinema and machine vision rescaled the world, from cell to pixel, detail to data. Daniel Chavez Heras shows us the parallel and diverging ways they have become worldmaking. A wonderful and necessary book that starts the story of AI where it should be started: in much earlier technical imaging practices of cinema.