A photograph’s genome?
by Mark ~ September 12th, 2008. Filed under: composition, creativity, philosophy, wonder.
Apple recently updated their iTunes software to include a new Genius feature. . This smart playlist maker analyzes your music collection and makes playlists of songs that ‘go together.’. . It also suggests songs that you don’t have in your library that you may like. . It is all very similar to one of my favorite music services – Pandora. . Pandora is based upon the Music Genome Project.®, which breaks down songs to their most basic elements and tries to match them up with similar songs, ultimately leading to other songs you may like. . . I have discovered a lot of new artists through these types of services, although sometimes I admit to “what the heck were you thinking” moments for particular songs. . But it seems rather silly to have that argument with a computer program doesn’t it?. . But overall, I am generally quite amazed at the accuracy of the recommendations.
As with many things in the music world, I always think about parallels when it comes to photography. The Apple Genius release just got me thinking again about the concept of genome matching and applying it to photographs. . Aside from the general categories of say macro photography or landscape photography that may attract us, there are usually certain elements in a photograph’s design that make it have a stronger appeal over others. Perhaps it is a certain color signature, certain elements of composition, or a unique visual style that trigger that part of our brain to say “I like this.”. . With enough study and analysis of these trends, perhaps it would then be possible, like the genome of a song, to characterize the genome of a photograph.
From there, the possibilities are really endless Think about the amount of time it takes sifting through images on the internet, books, or a walk through an art show. Your brain is constantly sorting what you see into categories – I like this, don’t like that, that’s OK, etc Similarly, it takes a long time to sort through all of the music available to find something you like. . Should the possibility exist to make these similar genomes of a photograph,. it could become incredibly valuable to anyone looking for other images they may like Think about the application to something like interior design, art dealers and consultants, and photo editors. Photographs of a common theme, color palette, or composition may be a few clicks away.
Is there a danger in having our choices preselected for us?. (Edit note: OK poorly worded – no danger in having recommendations offered to you!). For as many recommendations I have received in the music along the same lines of what I already have, I have had just as many that led me off on a slightly different path only to discover new and interesting artists. . . I would have never found them by chance.
September 13th, 2008 at
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.
I took a lot at your blog and the photos are so gorgeous! It makes me think that I need to travel and see more of the world!
September 13th, 2008 at
I think this is a fascinating idea. The potential downside is that the music genome or photo genome would become the equivalent of a marketer’s focus group or politician’s opinion poll, and music/art would tend to the pop mean. But I’m loving Pandora and think something similar for photos would be great.
September 13th, 2008 at
Hey Mark,
I think I’d rather explore the world as it is, where possible, rather than via some preset abstractions. I’m not completely dismissing what you’re talking about here, though I believe it points us in a direction that removes valuable experience. It’s like finding a partner via a ‘match up the dots’, statistic-based, computer selection versus meeting and experiencing actual people. Kinda.
Cheers
Carl
September 13th, 2008 at
I noticed something along the lines of this post just last night, myself. I’d gathered 3 paintings together for an upcoming exhibit I’m participating in. Then I noticed their similarities, not only in color, but in the lay of the brushstrokes, themselves. Still, I think they work well together, so off they went today…
September 14th, 2008 at
Hi Mark, although this might be true that you still have the freedom of choice there also lies a great daner in the detail because it influences your subconscience. To say it more bluntly – this kind of pre-choice sounds to me like a kind of brainwash. My argument is that in general we have different feelings and emotions each day and accordingly we react to images as well as to music. Additionally it is quite easy to follow your own “trend” because it relieves you from the responsibility to choose. What about dislikes? I have discovered whole new genres through dislikes i.e. while I was requesting myself to analyse an image, painting or whatever that I disliked for the “why” I began to look really close and discovered so many astonishing things that I changed my mind completely about a lot of things. Same is applicable for any other instrument, be it image, music or any other medium that influcences human senses.
September 14th, 2008 at
I’ll need to think about this more, but I suspect I’m with you in that it sounds like a good thing. Less hard to decide on is that I really like this image.
September 14th, 2008 at
I think it’s a fascinating topic, Mark. A couple of things don’t quite sit right with me, however. The first is that little note telling me that “Turning on Genius will send information about your iTunes library to Apple.” That alone killed it right there for me.
The other concern, perhaps more relevant to this discussion is the fact that some of the greatest and most enlightening revelations in my own life came from re-examining beliefs, from daring to try new things on a whim, from making a conscious decision to open myself to new experiences and discovering the things I don’t know. Limiting one’s horizons to the safety of life-long conditioning is a sure way to miss a lot of opportunities for personal growth.
Life is all about choices. Make your own. If you let someone or something else make them for you – you’re giving up what I believe is THE most important freedom of all.
Sure, it may seem overblown when we’re just talking about music, but the lines become blurry very quickly.
Guy
September 15th, 2008 at
I suppose I should have reworded my question on the dangers of choices being preselected for us. I can see where that raised some alarms with you folks.
I wouldn’t want to give anyone total control over any choice. I still listen to what I want to, look at what I want to. But I can’t deny these types of services have introduced me to musicians I would have NEVER found on my own, and can only imagine it would do the same for images. There just simply isn’t enough time in a day…
September 15th, 2008 at
Hey Mark,
I’d agree with Guy – the ’sending info to Apple’ reeks of something disingenuous to me.
On the other hand, maybe it’s not that different to listening to the radio – we don’t choose what songs they play, but we listen to radio stations that we find typically play music we might like. And this is simply a new way of the ’station’ discerning what we like.
That said, I think I’d like to see less of this kind of thing in the world – you wrote on another post about our information overload, etc .. and I’m not sure that these kinds of things can exist, on the whole, separately. If I get one more email from Amazon telling me what I would love to read (and I’m sure I will), well, I’ll delete it as fast as I turned off the Genius thin on iTunes.
Cheers
Carl
September 15th, 2008 at
A thousand apologies! I’ve posted the photo I’d mentioned previously; http://lucidflora.blogspot.com/2008/09/beauty-everywhere.html
September 17th, 2008 at
When people start buying and collecting photos the way they do music, this will be a great marketing tool.
September 19th, 2008 at
This blog has been included in this weeks FIVE FOR FRIDAY on AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles. I hope you like the image I featured, and I hope this sends many your way.
http://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2008/09/five-for-friday_19.html
September 19th, 2008 at
Definietely a lot of potential to explore this. I’ll have to update my iTunes, so that is what I keep putting off…
If a computer program could do a good photo edit for us then that would really be something.