The role and position of the documentary street photographer is examined in the context of other forms of contemporary visual survey, including Google Street View. The Street View methodology is critically examined and related to the methodologies of other visual artists, including street photographers Peter Black and Robert Frank. Comparisons are drawn between the methodological restrictions imposed by Street View and those imposed by the photographers in the course of their practice. The issue of authorship is discussed and the lack of specific authorship of Street View is related to its inability to augment the viewer's personal sense of space. Wainuiomata, a suburb of Hutt City in Wellington, New Zealand, is introduced as a location for the author's research into how documentary photography might operate. The author's own phenomenological history is considered, and it is proposed that Wainuiomata may act as a mirror which reflects a sense of place derived from personal history, triggered by the visual landscape. The author's installation work The 1 p.m. Project is discussed and contextualised as a response to the author's research findings.

Šiandien gausu technologijų, kurios suteikia galimybę paprasčiau bendrauti, dalintis informacija bei įspūdžiais, kitos, tikėtina, atlieka prevencinę funkciją prieš nusikaltimus, apsaugant mus ir mūsų nuosavybę. Tačiau tokia technologijų plėtra iškėlė grėsmę pačiam asmeniui, sumažindama teisę išlaikyti savo privatumą. Konkrečiau kalbant, turima omenyje tik tas technologijas, kurios susijusios su asmens atvaizdu ir jo paviešinimu. Viena iš tokių technologijų yra 2007 metų gegužę Jungtinėse Amerikos Valstijose pristatyta Google Street View paslauga – jos pagalba galima virtualiai keliauti po pasaulį ir matyti aplinką 360 laipsnių kampu. Pasirodžius minėtai paslaugai kilo didžiulis sąmyšis dėl intervencijos į asmens privatumą, nes įgyvendinant užmanytą šio projekto tikslą, kartu su gatvių ir pastatų vaizdais buvo užfiksuoti ir žmonės. Todėl šiame darbe pateikiama minėtos paslaugos ir jos poveikio asmens privatumui analizė. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – išsiaiškinti, ar Google Street View pažeidžia teisę į privatų gyvenimą. Siekiant minėto tikslo pirmoje darbo dalyje analizuojama teisės į privatų gyvenimą samprata pagal tarptautinę ir nacionalinę teisę, toliau analizuojamas minėtos paslaugos įgyvendinimo atitikimas valstybių iškeltiems reikalavimams. Antroje darbo dalyje analizuojami du privatumo pažeidimo atvejai: gatvėje ir privačioje teritorijoje. Paskutiniame darbo skyriuje pateikiama atliktos apklausos analizė, kuria buvo siekta atskleisti privatumo vertinimo įvairovę Google... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Today there are numerous technologies, that allow to have easier communication with each other or to share information, the other part of them are likely to perform preventative function againts crimes, in order to protect person and his property. The advancement of new technologies is changing the world, however, it raises the threat to the person by reducing his right to maintain his privacy at the same time. More specifically are meant only technologies that deal with person’s image and its disclosure. One of such technologies is Street View project of Google, which was introduced in May 2007 in United States of America. Street View makes possible to take a virtual travel around the world and viewing and navigating within 360 degree scenes of street-level imagery. Its realization caused huge commotion because of intervention to privacy – the cameras of Google vehicles captured images not only of buildings, automobiles but even passersby. The aim of this thesis is to ascertain whether Google Street View violates the right to the private life. The work is devided into three chapters. In first chapter of thesis the conception of the right to privacy according to international and national law is discussed. The realization of Google Street View under the standarts defined by States is also included into this chapter. The second one analizes two cases of privacy violation: on the street and in the private area. And in the third chapter the results of survey accomplished with... [to full text]

Cette recherche porte sur les manières dont les entités dominantes du web fabriquent le visible. Pour ce faire, la thèse examine les liens entre les aspirations utopiques de Google, Facebook et de la vision artificielle, les algorithmes spécifiques qu’ils développent, la relation qu’ils entretiennent avec les images, principalement photographiques, et leurs façons de moduler les visibilités. Afin de mener l’enquête sur les modalités de production, de présentation et d’acquisition du savoir visuel dans le web, l’approche théorique et méthodologique employée s’inspire de la sociologie de l’acteur-réseau, de l’étude féministe des sciences et inscrit des œuvres d’art dans le rôle d’analyseurs. L’œuvre hypermédiatique Image Atlas (2012) de Taryn Simon et Aaron Swartz installe l’examen de Google et de Google Images qui reconduisent les aspirations à l’accès universel, tandis que les captures d’écran de la série street view (2009) de Michael Wolf sont l’occasion de poursuivre l’étude de cette fonction photographique de Google Maps. L’exposition « After Faceb00k: Okanagan Valley » (2014) est le point de départ de l’examen de l’utopie facebookienne de la communauté planétaire. Le dépliage des éléments de l’œuvre vidéo The Future is Here! (2019) de Mimi Ọnụọha pose ensuite les éléments nécessaires à l’analyse du développement de l’apprentissage machine de la vision et des aspirations à l’automatisation radicale que ces programmes intensifient. Diverses modalités du visible sont ainsi mises au jour : la pertinence, l’autorité et la localisation, les affinités et le partage, la reconnaissance et la prédiction sont autant de stratégies par lesquelles Google, Facebook et la vision artificielle fabriquent le visible pour le rendre opérationnel plutôt que représentationnel. La thèse vient ainsi révéler, en suivant les œuvres, l’opérationnalisation de la photographie, en tant qu’objet et que notion, dans l’établissement et le maintien d’un capitalisme cognitif parasitaire produit par les assemblages sociotechniques à l’étude. / This research addresses on the ways in which internet's dominant entities fabricate the visible. To do so, the thesis focuses on the links between the utopian aspirations of Google, Facebook and computer vision, the specific algorithms they develop, the relationship they have with images – mainly photographic – and how they modulate visibilities. To investigate the modalities of production, presentation and acquisition of visual knowledge online, the theoretical and methodological approach used is inspired by the actor-network sociology, the feminist study of science, and inscribes artworks in the role of analyzers. Taryn Simon and Aaron Swartz's hypermedia work Image Atlas (2012) installs the examination of Google and Google Images that re-conduce aspirations for universal access. The screenshots from Michael Wolf's street view series (2009) are an opportunity to further investigate this Google Maps' photographic function. "After Faceb00k: Okanagan Valley" (2014) is the starting point for the examination of Facebook’s utopia of the global community. The unfolding of elements from Mimi Ọnụọha's video The Future is Here! (2019) then lays the groundwork necessary to analyze the development of machine learning of vision and the aspirations for radical automation intensified by these programs. Various modalities of the visible are thus uncovered: relevance, authority and localization, affinity and sharing, recognition and prediction. These are all strategies by which Google, Facebook and computer vision manufacture the visible to make it operational rather than representational. Following the artworks, the thesis thus comes to reveal the operationalization of photography, as an object and as a notion, in the establishment and maintaining of a parasitic cognitive capitalism produced by the sociotechnical assemblages under study.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) or Brain Machine Interface (BMI) provides direct communication channel between user’s brain and an external device without any requirement of user’s physical movement. Primarily BCI has been employed in medical sciences to facilitate the patients with severe motor, visual and aural impairments. More recently many BCI are also being used as a part of entertainment. BCI differs from Neuroprosthetics, a study within Neuroscience, in terms of its usage; former connects the brain with a computer or external device while the later connects the nervous system to an implanted device. A BCI receives the modulated input from user either invasively or non-invasively. The modulated input, concealed in the huge amount of noise, contains distinct brain patterns based on the type of activity user is performing at that point in time. Primary task of a typical BCI is to find out those distinct brain patterns and translates them to meaningful communication command set. Cursor controllers, Spellers, Wheel Chair and robot Controllers are classic examples of BCI applications. This study aims to investigate an Electroencephalography (EEG) based non-invasive BCI in general and its interaction with a web interface in particular. Different aspects related to BCI are covered in this work including feedback techniques, BCI frameworks, commercial BCI hardware, and different BCI applications. BCI paradigm Steady State Visually Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) is being focused during this study. A hybrid solution is developed during this study, employing a general purpose BCI framework OpenViBE, which comprised of a low-level stimulus management and control module and a web based Google Street View client application. This study shows that a BCI can not only provide a way of communication for the impaired subjects but it can also be a multipurpose tool for a healthy person. During this study, it is being established that the major hurdles that hamper the performance of a BCI system are training protocols, BCI hardware and signal processing techniques. It is also observed that a controlled environment and expert assistance is required to operate a BCI system.

Objectivity and neutrality of current makers of online maps is hampered by the fact that the most important of them who form the public opinion are largely commercial giants. Sensitivity of approaches is desirable especially in specific situations involving territorial disputes. The textual part of the thesis brings theoretical insights to the problematics of map makers policies and their preservation or violation. At the same time is describes critical cartography as a current opposition against governmental and cooperative mapping, of which counter-mapping processes are regularly used in art, too. Practical outcome attempts to reflect specific approaches of map makers depending on particular territorial disputes. It takes place mostly in online environment, using the functions of Google Street View or Google Earth and forms of counter-mapping on the OSM platform. The goal is to bring alternative realities complicating map makers policies and governing apparatus to map projects with the international coverage.