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Selling pictures. Pictorial Economy and Commoditization 1820–2020
This project will place the current discussions concerning AI-generated images in a historical context, comparing it to two previous technological breakthroughs that have affected the use of pictures for commercial purposes.
Anna Näslund
I am professor of Art History at Stockholm University and researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies. My research focuses on visual culture, picture theory and digitization. The project Selling Pic traces the genealogy of contemporary AI-generated image hype over 200 years of promoting technologies for the production, reproduction, and circulation of pictures on a mass scale. It aims to understand the historical role of pictures not merely as commodities but as agents of commerce. The project focuses on emerging picture techniques in the 1820s, 1920s, and 2020s, examining iconographic and discursive patterns in pictures of mass reproduction (metapictures) and comparing vernacular picture theories—expressed in advertising copy and trade journalism—with canonical picture theories. Rooted in historical material practices, the project seeks to clarify and expand our understanding of how and why pictures play a central role in the work of selling in modern and contemporary societies.
David Sumpter: Reasons why we should NOT worry about fake news, echo chambers, filter bubbles and Cambridge Analytica
David Sumpter, Professor of Applied Maths at Uppsala University Abstract Much of the recent media reporting about social media has revolved around the potential dangers. Terms such as fake news, filter
