ARTIST TALK WITH LISA BARNARD

Inspired by the echolocation of bats, she looks at how sensory data is translated into machine action—and how artificial intelligence learning programs such as “You Only Look Once” change our own perception and view of the world. At a time when the climate is in crisis, she raises the question of how technologies can be developed that are not only efficient but also sensitive to the world they are intended to capture.


In the Artist Talk with Vera Tollmann, Lisa Barnard provides insights into the genesis of her extensive project as well as the background to her research and artistic practice.



Vera Tollmann has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Digital Cultures since 2024. Prior to that, she was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM) at Leuphana University Lüneburg from 2021. From 2019 to 2022, she was a research assistant at the University of Hildesheim and from 2015 to 2017 at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2023, her book Powers of Ten and Image Politics of Verticality was published by Spector Books. Her research interests include theories of visibility, feminist technology criticism, image politics of remote sensing, and AI in digital cultures. 


Lisa Barnard (b. 1967, United Kingdom) is a British artist and lecturer whose photography focuses on real events. In her projects, she combines classical documentary methods such as photography, audio, video, and text with contemporary visual strategies and digital technologies. She brings together her interest in aesthetics and current debates on the materiality of photography with political questions surrounding new ecological efforts, technological developments, science, and the industrial military complex. Barnard is an associate professor and head of the online masters in documentary photography at University of South Wales.



IN GERMAN