REAL-TIME DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS FOR MULTIPLE OBJECT TRACKING AND SEGMENTATION ON MONOCULAR VIDEO

The paper is devoted to the task of multiple objects tracking and segmentation on monocular video, which was obtained by the camera of unmanned ground vehicle. The authors investigate various architectures of deep neural networks for this task solution. Special attention is paid to deep models providing inference in real time. The authors proposed an approach based on combining the modern SOLOv2 instance segmentation model, a neural network model for embedding generation for each found object, and a modified Hungarian tracking algorithm. The Hungarian algorithm was modified taking into account the geometric constraints on the positions of the found objects on the sequence of images. The investigated solution is a development and improvement of the state-of-the-art PointTrack method. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated quantitatively and qualitatively on the popular KITTI MOTS dataset collected using the cameras of a driverless car. The software implementation of the approach was carried out. The acceleration of the procedure for the formation of a two-dimensional point cloud in the found image segment was done using the NVidia CUDA technology. At the same time, the proposed instance segmentation module provides a mean processing time of one image of 68 ms, the embedding and tracking module of 24 ms using the NVidia Tesla V100 GPU. This indicates that the proposed solution is promising for on-board computer vision systems for both unmanned vehicles and various robotic platforms.

CULTURAL RAMIFICATIONS OF THE FOUND OBJECT IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART

Arguably Found Object genre represents the most dominant form of contemporary artistic expression with unlimited possibilities of material exploration and conceptual ideation. However, Found Object discourse institutionalized in European art history is exclusively western and dismisses those of other cultures as mimesis and time-lag. This paper aims to prove that the dominant contemporary discourse of „Recyla Art‟ which many African sculptors have been absorbed into, problematically blurs the conceptual and ideological differences in European and African exploration of discarded objects in art creation. Using a triangulation of Formalism, Iconography and Interviews as methodologies, this paper subjects the works of El Anatsui, Delumprizulike, Nnena Okore, Bright Eke, Olu Amonda and others to formalistic and interpretative analysis to establish the postcolonial context of the found object in contemporary African art. Findings demonstrate that European and African appropriation of discarded objects in art differs according to societal context in form and content. The paper therefore concludes that found object art is culturespecific and defined by unique cultural ramifications, thus, to fully understand the dynamism of this art genre, a culture-specific or localized reading is required because the context of its emergence in Europe stands in contradiction to its conceptualism in contemporary African art-space.

Investigating Visual Crowding of Objects in Complex Real-World Scenes

Visual crowding, the impairment of object recognition in peripheral vision due to flanking objects, has generally been studied using simple stimuli on blank backgrounds. While crowding is widely assumed to occur in natural scenes, it has not been shown rigorously yet. Given that scene contexts can facilitate object recognition, crowding effects may be dampened in real-world scenes. Therefore, this study investigated crowding using objects in computer-generated real-world scenes. In two experiments, target objects were presented with four flanker objects placed uniformly around the target. Previous research indicates that crowding occurs when the distance between the target and flanker is approximately less than half the retinal eccentricity of the target. In each image, the spacing between the target and flanker objects was varied considerably above or below the standard (0.5) threshold to either suppress or facilitate the crowding effect. Experiment 1 cued the target location and then briefly flashed the scene image before participants could move their eyes. Participants then selected the target object’s category from a 15-alternative forced choice response set (including all objects shown in the scene). Experiment 2 used eye tracking to ensure participants were centrally fixating at the beginning of each trial and showed the image for the duration of the participant’s fixation. Both experiments found object recognition accuracy decreased with smaller spacing between targets and flanker objects. Thus, this study rigorously shows crowding of objects in semantically consistent real-world scenes.

BARANG SEHARI-HARI SEBAGAI METAFOR DALAM PENCIPTAAN SENI PATUNG

Barang Sehari-hari Sebagai Metafor dalam Penciptaan Seni Patung sebagai judul pada tugas akhir. Ketertarikan penulis dengan barang sehari-hari karena penulis merasa setiap barang yang ditemuinya mempunyai nilai estetik dan mempunyai karakter bentuknya yang menarik untuk diwujudkan ke dalam karya seni patung. Karena itulah penulis tertarik menggunakan material barang sehari-hari sebagai sumber ide penciptaan karya seni patung. Barang sehari-hari yang digunakan penulis adalah barang yang sering ditemui penulis seperti barang yang sudah tidak terpakai, found object atau objek temuan dan barang yang tersedia oleh alam. Barang-barang yang dipilih akan diolah menjadi karya seni patung melalui proses penggabungan dan metafor sehingga memiliki bentuk dan pemaknaan yang baru. Sebuah karya seni patung dapat diwujudkan menggunakan material barang sehari-hari yang telah melalui proses pengolahan estetik dan metafor. Barang dipilih untuk diolah dan digabungkan menjadi bentuk baru dengan nilai fungsi yang berbeda. Nilai fungsi yang berbeda pada barang yang dimaksud penulis karena adanya proses pengolahan metafor pada barang sehari-hari menjadi sebuah karya seni patung yang mempunyai maksud dan nilai ungkap yang akan disampaikan oleh penulis. Sehingga dalam karya ini, penulis mencoba merubah bentuk dan menggabungkan barang sehari-hari yang awalnya bersifat fungsional atau non fungsional menjadi sebuah karya seni patung.Kata kunci : Barang sehari-hari, found object, metafor.

When Co-Creation meets Art for Social Change: the Street Beats Band

This chapter explores the interface between the concept of Co-Creation and the ‘Art for Social Change’ movement, taking the case of the Street Beats Band, a community-based percussion band in Vancouver, Canada. Local community members in the band collaborated with professional musicians, to perform a commissioned work at an International Contemporary Music Festival, on ‘found object’ percussion instruments that had been curated by members of Vancouver’s ‘binner’ community. The chapter illustrates that a Co-Creative process such as the Street Beats Band can empower and build community, as well as confront conventional thinking and trouble received narratives and expectations. However, while the methodology of Co-Creation holds critical potential as a tool to challenge stereotypes and marginalisation, it nevertheless operates with the structural constraints of deeply embedded power hierarchies that dominate discourse around urban disadvantage. The chapter also highlights the potential tensions and dilemmas that are embedded within a Co-Creation process, due to different visions, interests and inevitable power hierarchies. These issues should be acknowledged, addressed and negotiated by those involved, for Co-Creation to achieve its potential.

Creating Object-Based Learning for the Anthropocene: A Critical Reflection

The Anthropocene is the human age. Its undeniable significance has been ascribed across disciplines from geology, to cultural studies, to fine art. Through reflective analysis, this paper explores the role and significance of creative practice, the found object, and the use of object-based adventures in teaching the Anthropocene. It also considers the role of virtual object-based learning in a digital age through a “Gallery of Late Humanity”, through the reflexive lens of a lecturer who teaches both environmental sciences and cultural geography. These methods successfully encouraged learning across and beyond the disciplinary boundaries of geography and fine art, providing creative re-imaginings, visualisations and understandings of the Anthropocene. These approaches illustrate how the quotidian materialities of home can be reconfigured as a field site for the late Anthropocene.

Works of the artist Zeng Fanzhi in the dialogue of traditions of Western European and Chinese painting

This article is dedicated to analysis of the works of a contemporary artist Zeng Fanzhi in the context of dialogue of traditions of Western European and Chinese painting. The author reviews the stages of formation of this original artistic manner that combines different stylistic approaches and techniques; reveals the key artistic peculiarities of his works – from referring to Western expressionism to formation of an individual style. A detailed analysis is conducted on the principles of conceptual art of Zeng Fanzhi realized in the use of meaningful images and symbols, such as “masks”. The author examines the methods of abstract painting in the works of Chinese artist reflected in the technique of “chaotic brush”, which is based on the expressive linear abstractions. In the period after 2018, which marks the period of experimental painting, Zeng Fanzhi combines the artistic methods of Paul Cézanne with the concept of traditional Chinese art, with the “found object” technique, offering a completely new interpretation of the works of Chinese classical painting. The article discusses the specificities of linear constructs and brush strokes in the artist’s works for determining the features common to his works of various periods. A conclusion is made that the paintings of Zeng Fanzhi represents a visual manifestation of harmonious interaction of the Western European and Chinese art tradition. Each stylistic approach used by Zeng Fanzhi demonstrates a profound understanding of painting, reveals his creative interpretation of artistic principles of Western European art that formed as a result of personal experience and high level of education. Chinese painting entered the era of non-modernism, remaining in many ways similar and simultaneously different from the art of Western modernism and postmodernism.

The Essay

A found object might bring sorrow or delight, but a lost object presents a question mark. Its absence can feel like a cleave, a permanent one, in our memory. Absences inevitably lead us to quests. In this personal essay, which is linked with a larger writing project on family and material memory, I search for the contents of an “essay” written by me when I was ten years old, on the very day that India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated. In searching for this lost object, I excavate and access childhood memories that were forgotten or, perhaps, lay dormant waiting to be awakened. The essay remains unfound (lost), but in looking for it, this essay that you are reading here, emerges, showing me why the object, the essay must remain lost, so that a forgotten moment of my childhood can live.