Machine Learning and Stock Images

Machine Learning and Stock Images (2021) is a collaborative project between BBC R&D and SSS, supported by the Kubrick Archives. This project is currently ongoing - please get in touch to learn more!

BBC R&D have identified that the images found in stock image libraries such as Getty, and which are used to illustrate media stories about ML and AI are frequently clichéd and stereotyped, perpetuating misleading ideas around these emerging technologies.

For this project, SSS are running a cross-course brief on this subject in Spring Term 2021 across the Design and Media Schools. Participating courses include: BA Interaction Design Arts, BA User Experience Design, MA Interaction Design, MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, and MA Illustration and Visual Media.

In parallel with the course briefs we have also run workshops on ML tools; and a lecture series with leading practitioners and academics whose work engages with the ML aesthetics. Guest lecturers include: Lewis Bush (LCC); Maya Indira Ganesh (Leuphana University); Chris Baker (Concept and storyboard artist for A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Gravity, and Skyfall); Georgina Orgill (Kubrick Archives); and Ramon Amaro (UCL).

.