The Observer’s Distance : scopic regimes in the Age of Intelligent Machines

Thepaperaimsatcontributingtobuildatheoreticalandcriticaltoolkit to define and handle what could be considered contemporary homologous of Jay’s “scopic regimes of Modernity”. It starts from a possible classification of forms of representation which is valid from Modernity to today, based on their genealogies and technological development: perspectivism, centered on the human eye, on the one hand; maps, sorts of god eye’s views, on the other. Two relevant concepts emerge, one linked to the first, the other to the second, both fundamental for today’s science and design and for discussing their future at the light where they come from: (land)scape, and weather. Some possible crossing points between these two paths are exposed, not only in the visual domain but also in the aural, to hint towards critical artifacts that could be able to keep together the human point of view, unavoidable for humans, and non-anthropocentric observations, which the spread of big data, of AIs and of big and fast changes in the Earth’s atmosphere are urging to consider.