Visual Literacy in the Age of Machine Vision

In the summer of 2026, I spent a week at an Anderson Ranch master class with Trevor Paglen, diving into just how much computer vision and artificial intelligence have changed visual culture. And what it means that there has been a seismic shift from humans looking at photographs to machines using images to track and manipulate our world.

Against my better judgement, I also learned how to “vibe code” using Claude Code, an equal-parts miraculous and frustrating process.

What I came away with is an even stronger conviction that visual literacy skills are vital for our survival as a species (yes, really). And that the least I could do was use my new AI-wrangling skills to create something that both informs and questions.

The “something” that Claude and I created is an interactive tool that allows you to choose a photograph, describe and interpret it the way a person actually would, then see how a computer vision model reads the very same image.

It takes about ten minutes, using your own photo and briefly your webcam to gauge where your attention goes. Nothing is stored or saved.