D+A part of EU Horizon 2020 Innovation Programme

MediaFutures, a new data innovation hub bringing together startups, SMEs and artists to solve challenges in the media industry, with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, has today announced the first projects to join its startup and artist support programmes.

One of the selected projects is Soft Evidence, by Ania Catherine and Dejha Ti.

Soft evidence is a series of slow visual scenes that never happened – films manipulated by machines trained to lie. The pervasive misinformation in our lives is as pernicious as it is because our tech literacy cannot keep up with technological advancements and our use of personal technology. The artists use synthetic media (when used maliciously, commonly referred to as deepfakes) as art – normally a highly politicised form, here purposely apolitical, to provide neutral ground for conversation about AV manipulation. The emotions and questions invoked by the series guide the viewer in new directions, providing tools and strategies for how to navigate this digital terrain. Soft evidence contributes to the global discussion about the unequal privilege to invent “truths” – the increasingly complicated field of ‘visual evidence’ demonstrates that communities on the margins of society, furthest from financial, technological, and political cores of power, are made increasingly vulnerable.