ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, we further develop the concept of camera consciousness, positing it as an effective way of accounting for the social changes involved with the increasing autonomy and intelligence of camera technologies and image processing. We begin with the visual anthropology of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead, and use the concept of camera consciousness to develop an analytical framework, with the aid of William James, Gilles Deleuze, Jane Bennett and other contemporary theorists. The chapter considers the “ways of seeing” and altered visuality of new “intelligent” camera technologies and explored the growing value of visual data. A central claim of this chapter is that a new camera consciousness is needed now to realize the visual knowledge generated by distributed, mobile, aerial and autonomous cameras and our modes of acting with them. Developing a keener sense and understanding of the new camera consciousness at play is key, and it involves ongoing social research and technical, cultural, experiential and political-economic elaboration and analysis.
