Trevor Paglen, CLOUD #902 Scale Invariant Feature Transform; Watershed (detail), 2020, wallpaper. © Trevor Paglen. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York

The third iteration of the Hillman Photography Initiative (HPI), a CMOA project committed to exploring new ideas about photography, launches this year. The initiative will present an exhibition of work by artist Trevor Paglen, a publication, and an interdisciplinary podcast.

With the development and advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), there has been a radical change in the way that surveillance systems capture, categorize, and synthesize photographs. Mirror with a Memory explores the many ways artists probe the intersections of photography, surveillance, and AI—their past, present, and future—to underscore concerns about implicit bias, right to privacy, and police monitoring embedded in corporate, military, and law enforcement applications.

The exhibition will include a new site-specific commission as well as a sculpture that doubles as a WiFi hotspot and photographs that reveal how AI analyzes and labels photographs of people and places. These works will be placed in three areas within the museum, inviting visitors to encounter Paglen’s insightful perspective in different contexts.

Trevor Paglen: Opposing Geometries is organized by Dan Leers, curator of photography, with Taylor Fisch, curatorial assistant.