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Thumbs up Walker Evans! Sorry Diane Arbus!

posted on May 15, 2009 at 3:11 PM MT, by Rixon Reed

Our bookstore staffer Ben Lerman pointed me to this new picture rating system just announced by Penn State University.

"An online photo-rating system developed at Penn State is the first publicly available tool for automatically determining the aesthetic value of an image, according to a Penn State researcher involved with the project."

Read more

Now you can upload an image and have a computer instantly "read it" and then "rate it" based on its or more accurately, the programmed picture aesthetic.

We tried the service by uploading an FSA Walker Evans portrait and a Diane Arbus iconic image. Evans passed with flying colors (73.1/100), but the Diane Arbus portrait of the twins (the classic cover image of her Aperture monograph) didn't fare so well (22/100).

In computer thy trust.

Related Categories: Picture Rating Systems,
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Given the rising admission costs for first tier museums, how about we just send in robots programmed to determine the aesthetic value of the museum's Evans, Weston, and Steiglitz icons as against the museum's Sherrie Levines. Well Dang Wang it, I still like Arbus even if I'm wrong on the old alleged scientific scale. When shoe manufacturers can't even make a size 10= a size 10, what lasts?
Posted By richard gordon | 5/16/09 11:17 PM
This sounds crazy but fascinating. I cannot see how it could take the emotional subject matter of the image into account, such as in an image which contains humour, passion, fear or desperation.
Posted By David Day | 5/30/09 4:55 PM
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