![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEithu_maqqiG41FuN7Ht8poe69DmMMH1mnxkSIjeUCPBSuGdHjRkL0xB_UJj42SSYOLGKFuhmbl76c77PBVWQRWEMm9g4ViTcs3Xq55KAPDm-CG6qUUEHkTvl1v7uAIGBDhwjB-lPKjKuhLQKDehG7YDjtDAitWokIxC6J_jk4IZZstSMsmA6OGdkE_\/s320\/Figure4.png\")
<\/a>\n<\/div>\nIn 1866, Alfred Russell Wallace proclaimed a \u201cnew branch of anthropology\u201d
\npremised on the Spiritualist movement that was then exploding in popularity in
\nEngland. For Wallace, that anthropology would revolve around a growing body of
\nhighly disputed evidence of life after death. While s\u00e9ances were one major site
\nfor the evidence of spirits, other technologies were also important to the new
\nreligion, including spirit photography, where ghostly figures or more amorphous,
\nectoplasmic emanations would appear in photographs next to (living) humans
\nsitting for their portraits. Although these photographs brought solace to those
\nmissing their loved ones, they were also windows onto a future utopia; after
\nall, the afterlife was a place where humans would continue to grow and develop
\ninto more perfect beings, beings who had come back to help guide their still
\nliving compatriots. While these photos appear to us today to be clumsy double
\nexposures, they suggest\u2014along with their twentieth-century counterparts in
\nDadaist montage\u2014a source of social critique. And, indeed, Spiritualism was
\nreadily embraced by social progressives of the day for just these reasons.
\nInterpellating other images onto a photograph both breaks the illusion of
\nobjectivity in realist photography which is grounded in the indexicality of the
\nphotograph (first discussed by Charles Saunders Peirce) (Peirce 1894: 4). In so
\ndoing, spirit photography anticipates the challenges digitization, manipulation
\nand algorithmically generated images raise to the indexical truth-value of the
\nimage.1 In this essay, I extend Wallace\u2019s \u201cnew anthropology\u201d to urban
\napplications of reverse image search, where search engines apply a combination
\nof indexed images, neural networks and machine learning in order to identify the
\nsame or similar images across huge databases. Although mostly utilized for
\nlocating copyright infringement, uncovering catfishing or identifying locations,
\nreverse image search also suggests a series of alternative \u201cspirits\u201d to photos
\nof urban spaces. In Baltimore, where my research has concentrated on issues of
\nurban gentrification and abandonment, reverse image searches of Baltimore\u2019s
\nspaces reveal other possibilities\u2014alternatives to urban divestment. For example,
\na search based on a photo of a boarded-up block of stores in West Baltimore
\ngenerates images of bustling mercantile districts in cities all over the world.
\nEach of these images, in turn, is an argument against the neoliberal algebra
\nthat has laid waste to cities and compounded poverty and segregation. By
\noverlaying images of Baltimore streets and facades with these ghosts of other
\nurban possibilities, I attempt to summon an anthropology of critical future
\npossibilities. In so doing, I identify another role for digital technologies:
\none that conjures absent possibilities into urban presents through regimes of
\nBig Data that would otherwise be used for surveillance. The end of the essay
\nfinds me revisiting Wallace\u2019s \u201cnew branch of anthropology,\u201d not to revive his
\ncall for the study of ghosts, but for our work to include spirits of the future
\nin our critiques of present inequality.
\n
\nJust published in
\nSemiotic Review<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1866, Alfred Russell Wallace proclaimed a \u201cnew branch of anthropology\u201d premised on the Spiritualist movement that was then exploding in popularity in England. For Wallace, that anthropology would revolve around a growing body of highly disputed evidence of life after death. While s\u00e9ances were one major site for the evidence of spirits, other technologies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11767],"tags":[20770,37758,15867,2673,11425,5476,3989,5347],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-72505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anthropology","tag-baltimore","tag-critique","tag-image","tag-photography","tag-reverse","tag-search","tag-spirit","tag-urban"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>\n<\/div>\n