Anna Ridler (UK/US)
Myriad (Tulips)
C-type digital prints with handwritten annotations, magnetic paint, magnets, 2018
Myriad (Tulips) is an installation of thousands of hand-labeled photographs of tulips; these photographs were later used as the dataset for Mosaic Virus 2018 and Mosaic Virus 2019. By choosing to make the dataset an artwork it draws attention to the skill, labour and time that goes into constructing it, whilst also helping to expose the human element in machine learning, usually hidden by algorithmic processes. By creating my own dataset, it forces me to examine each tulip and subsequent image, and inverts the usual process of creating this type of large dataset, which are usually built using mechanical turks and imagery that has been scrapped from the internet.
Anna Ridler is an artist and researcher who works with systems of knowledge and how technologies are created in order to better understand the world. She is particularly interested in ideas around measurement and quantification and how this relates to the natural world. Her process often involves working with collections of information or data, particularly data sets, to create new and unusual narratives. Her work has been exhibited widely at cultural institutions worldwide including the Barbican Centre, Centre Pompidou, HeK Basel, The Photographers’ Gallery, the ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
