FotoFest is pleased to present a conversation between In Place of an Index artist Regina Agu and writer, curator, and Digital + Media professor at RISD, Nora Khan. Agu and Khan will focus their conversation on their shared interests in the intersections of critical theory, art, and technology using Regina Agu’s scanned image/alt-text generator artworks as their point of departure.

Each image in Regina Agu’s scanned image/alt-text generator series is composed of gestures, movements, and repetitive actions that are performed while moving with the scanner beam. Some of these gestures are spontaneous, while others mimic gestures from historic photos and found images of Black figures in motion and in community. Each scan is fed into an alt-text generator to produce the title of each image. The alt-text generator, an artificial-intelligence tool meant to produce texts that increase accessibility in digital space, relies on computer vision that replicates the same biases against bodies of color inherited from the photographic and cinematic technologies of the past. Agu’s body inhabits each image as a site of resistance against being read, recognized, surveilled, translated, and interpreted.

Following the conversation, the guests will participate in a live Q&A with the attending audience. This event will be broadcast live on Zoom and YouTube live. Attendees are encouraged to register to attend the screening via the link below. Those who do not register can watch the program live on FotoFest’s YouTube channel by visiting the link below at the event’s start time.

For more information please follow the direct link.