How is technology changing the way we see? The artist James Bridle reimagines John Berger’s Ways of Seeing for the digital age and asks if we can make machines without prejudice.

“If the new language of images were used differently, it would, through its use, confer a new kind of power.” (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In the third episode, Digital Justice, James reveals how certain outdated attitudes and prejudices seem to have been hardwired into today’s technology. How can we all work towards reshaping the machines we use every day? Artists Morehshin Allahyari, Stephanie Dinkins and Zach Blas explain how they’re reimagining our digital tools to better represent us all.

Producer: Steve Urquhart
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4

Photo: Morehshin Allahyari Show less