How is technology changing the way we see? The artist James Bridle reimagines John Berger’s Ways of Seeing for the digital age, assessing the reliability and power of images.

“The camera, by making the work of art transmittable, has multiplied its possible meanings and destroyed its unique original meaning.” (John Berger)

In 1972, Berger’s seminal TV series and book changed perceptions of art and set out to reveal the language of images.

Of course, that was before the internet, smartphones, and social media took hold.

How do we see the world around us now? And, who are the artists urging us to look more closely?

James Bridle writes about the development of technology on our lives. His work has been exhibited at the V&A, the Barbican, in galleries worldwide, and online. In this series of four programmes, he updates Berger’s Ways of Seeing, inviting contemporary artists to explore how the technology we use every day has transformed the ways in which we see and are seen.

In this second episode, Machine Visions, James reveals the true meaning of images today. In an era of face-swap and video generation technologies, fake news and conspiracy theory, how has digitisation altered the nature, reliability and power of images? Artists Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, Constant Dullaart and Adam Harvey explore how digital images have become so much more than mere pictures.

Producer: Steve Urquhart
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