Study of Systems | May 7-9, 2026
The workshop was an introduction to the visual literacy methods necessary for tackling the topic of visual misinformation. Drawing on her experience as an artist, 3D designer, and forensic researcher, Martyna Marciniak introduced the participants to a range of techniques for identifying synthetic images and their characteristics: from basic strategies of image verification to critical media theory and forensic visual analysis. These skills were later applied to selected case studies, further informing the development of a vocabulary of visual tropes and aesthetic qualities that are associated with visual evidence, and which are simultaneously used to fabricate trust. In the final stage of the workshop the participants turned selected ‘deep-fakes’ into ‘deep realities’ by constructing a network of new images, which validate the original fake. This exercise employed mostly analogue tools in the image-making process, to more visibly heighten the visual components of aesthetics of (non)fact: the visual biases, media lapses...