Click to enlarge imageArtist Taryn Simon and 'technologist' Aaron Schwartz have collaborated on a new project that questions the idea that images can form a universal language. Called Image Atlas, the website allows users to type in a term or phrase and then see an index of top image results across local search engines throughout the world. For example, if you type in the phrase "America," some of the top results in Iran are quite different from the ones in Israel (a ghoulish Lady Liberty compared to a beautiful cityscape at night) -- perhaps not surprisingly. The site illustrates that while there are similarities across nations when it comes to how we visualize ideas, many images remain tinged with cultural associations, opinions and stereotypes. The site also exposes the limits of technology and search engines in particular. In a Q&A over at The New Yorker, Simon describes what happened when she typed in the word "Jew" in the search box:
[I]n Germany it was all photos of Jude Law, because Jew in translation is "jude," and clearly "jude law" is getting more hits than "jew" within those borders right now. As people mover farther away from verbal communication (Instagram, etc.), it's worth questioning if visual communication is subject to the same issues of translation and misinterpretation found in verbal communication.The project was conceived during Rhizome's Seven on Seven Conference at the New Museum last spring and you can read the rest of The New Yorker Q&A HERE.