Glocal (global + local) is an immense, collaborative and multifaceted digital art project that examines the making, sharing and exhibiting of images in the 21st century. Working out of the Surrey Art Gallery's TechLab, the artists behind Glocal pose questions about the nature of photography at this point in our history: What is a photograph? What is a camera? What is a photographer?In the context of Glocal Project, Digital Artist Jer Thorp has produced 2 abstract search tools to visually navigate through Glocal's large database of photos. The first image represents the latest tool created by Jer, entitled Glocal Similarity Map Engine, which shows the compositional similarity between a particular image (shown in the center) and other images in the Glocal Pool. The second image is from Glocal Image Breeder, a tool that allows users to breed images - and look for 'children' that may contain common elements from both images. The result is a non-goal-oriented search engine that takes the user through a myriad of possible 'relational maps' within the Glocal Database. As additional people use the Image Breeder, more and more relationships between images are exposed.
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