Contemporary art consumption is predominantly online, driven by algorithmic recommendation systems that dictate artwork visibility. Despite not being designed for curation, these algorithms’ machinic ways of seeing play a pivotal role in shaping visual culture, influencing artistic creation, visibility, and associated social and financial benefits. The Algorithmic Pedestal was a gallery, practice-based research project that reported gallerygoers’ perceptions of a human’s curation and curation achieved by Instagram’s algorithm. This paper presents a technical analysis of the same exhibit using computer vision code, offering insights into machines’ perception of visual art. The computer vision code assigned values on various metrics to each image, allowing statistical comparisons to identify differences between the collections of images selected by the human and the algorithmic system. The analysis reveals statistically significant differences between the exhibited images and the broader Metropolitan Museum of Art digital collection. However, the analysis found minimal distinctions between human-curated and Instagram-curated images. This study contributes insights into the perceived value of the curation process, shedding light on how audiences perceive artworks differently from machines using computer vision.

中文翻译：

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机器走进展览：艺术​​策展的技术分析


当代艺术消费主要是在线的，由决定艺术品可见性的算法推荐系统驱动。尽管不是为策展而设计的，但这些算法的机械观看方式在塑造视觉文化、影响艺术创作、可见度以及相关的社会和经济效益方面发挥着关键作用。算法底座是一个基于实践的画廊研究项目，报告画廊观众对人类策展的看法以及通过 Instagram 算法实现的策展。本文使用计算机视觉代码对同一展览进行了技术分析，提供了对机器对视觉艺术的感知的见解。计算机视觉代码为每个图像分配各种指标的值，从而允许统计比较来识别人类选择的图像集合和算法系统之间的差异。分析显示，展出的图像与更广泛的大都会艺术博物馆数字收藏之间存在统计上的显着差异。然而，分析发现人工策划的图像和 Instagram 策划的图像之间的区别很小。这项研究有助于深入了解策展过程的感知价值，揭示观众如何与使用计算机视觉的机器不同地看待艺术品。