Carola Lampe

Tell me what to see” investigates the impact of new technologies on human behaviour and experience. In search of the future, the project focuses on data, algorithms and artificial intelligence.

Our life is getting increasingly controlled by algorithms as vast amounts of data are being created, captured and analyzed. 

They can save lives, simplify things and structure chaos. However, there is great concern that they may place too much control in the hands of corporations and governments, reinforce bias, create filter bubbles, cut choices and lead to greater social imbalances.

Artificial intelligence is trained on data which comes from the past.

 “…Historic prejudices are deeply encoded in our data sets, which are the frameworks on which we build contemporary knowledge and decision making.

We will not solve the problems of the present with the tools of the past” (James Bridle, “New Dark Age”, 2018) 

The rise of artificial intelligence amplifies those concerns, because of its reliance on historical information.

Those systems or machines are never neutral and therefore are prone to error or dysfunction.

On the other hand, new technologies are developing so rapidly that we increasingly find ourselves in simulated environments. It is becoming difficult to distinguish between real and fake.

What is reality? Are we constructing another reality?

How and what does a machine see? How is it different to our view?

Does data mean knowledge or is it just information?

“Tell me what to see” revolves around these questions. It explores the juxtaposition of reality and artificiality and the tension between the human and the machine.

The images have been created in 3 different approaches: taken in physical space, by observing everyday life, artificially constructed in the studio and generated by AI.

“Tell me what to see” is an installation which merges photography, AI generated text and sound. It plays with the construction of a “new” reality in an attempt to make the invisible visible.

Carola Lampe, is a Berlin-based artist working with photography, installation and performance. She graduated from Osnabrück University with a master’s in Fine Arts, has studied Dance and Choreography at Laban Centre London and Photography at Ostkreuzschule Berlin. Carola’s work has been exhibited at galleries and institutions in Germany, Greece and Italy. Her performances have been shown in Germany, the UK and Japan. She has been shortlisted for the Athens Photo Festival and some of her recent photography projects have been featured in Der Greif online exhibition and dienacht magazine. She is currently interested in the implications of technology on the human being. By observing everyday life and by investigating boundaries of what is real and what isn’t, her art shifts between documentary and fiction.