YOLO

Lisa Barnard explores the links between artificial intelligence and animal behaviour. Her YOLO project looks at Yolo County in California, which is home to a community of 250,000 bats that migrate each summer and nest under a bridge. In California, Barnard is working with the Transportation Research Center, which tests self-driving cars. To identify objects, these cars use a laser remote sensing system, inspired by bats that use ultrasound to find their bearings. The vehicles’ “You Only Look Once” machine learning model optimises their reaction time when detecting objects. For this project, the model is trained on 1,000 images extracted from videos of bats. YOLO analyses this fascinating biomimicry and shows that AI will never really be able to imitate the nature or awareness of bats.

Lisa Barnard is laureate of the Images Vevey Documentary Honourable Mention 2023/2024 for her project YOLO.
Exhibition layout and design by Images Vevey and the artist.
The YOLO installation is presented at the Musée Jenisch Vevey alongside the other winning projects of the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2023/2024.