Algorithmic photography: a case study of the Huawei Moon Mode controversy. (May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Yuxing
• Other Names: Guzman Andrea L guest-editor.; Natale Simone guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Media, culture, and society. Volume 44:Number 4(2022)
• Page Start: 690
• Page End: 705
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Subjects: algorithms -- artificial intelligence -- Huawei -- human-machine communication -- smartphone photography -- visuality; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/01634437211064964
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0163-4437

Abstract

Moon Mode, an algorithmic program pre-installed on Huawei's flagship smartphone P30 Pro, intelligently detects and enhances images of the moon captured by the phone. A heated social media discussion was triggered after a Chinese tech critic interpreted Moon Mode as photoshopping/superimposing details onto the original shot. The controversy centered on the line between AI enhancement and superimposed alteration when black-boxed algorithms stand between the user/viewer and the world viewed. The controversy is analyzed, together with Huawei's marketing materials. Drawing on MacKenzie and Munster's idea of distributed invisuality, AI-enabled photography is examined as a multiplicative data-processing event that traverses hardware and software, eliding any singular, meta-observational position. The author argues that algorithmic photography can be understood as a dynamic event of algorithmic processuality, indicating a new form of human-nonhuman entanglement in meaning-making practices, which cannot be discussed under the rubric of indexical representation.