trevordayschool

4 2 T R E V O R D AY S C H O O L n W I N T E R 2 0 2 – 2 0 2 2 In 1989, I graduated from e Day School (then a Nursery–Grade 8 school) and went to Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School. From there I moved on to the University of Rochester in upstate New York. My friend (and fellow alum) Ethan Morris also attended U of R. In Rochester, being on my own for the first time, I pushed myself to study art rigorously. I labored in earnest making drawings, paintings, and eventually films and videos. Art was not something that was valued in my household; it was too impractical. Films were valued, but art was regarded mainly as a hobby, particularly because it didn't offer tangible financial rewards. I had no idea what was going to happen after graduation, but I was determined to accomplish something in the film industry or in the visual arts. In 1997, I graduated with a BA in Film Studies. (I now realize that I was only a few credits short of a double major in Studio Arts.) I worked in the film industry in New York City for some two years, and then got a job teaching documentary video production to high school students. In my early 30s, I returned to CUNY graduate school and earned an MFA in Sculpture. Today, I teach Computer Graphics and Two-Dimensional Design at Cooper Union and SUNY Suffolk. My work fits primarily in the category of new media or multimedia; a recent project also utilizes artificial intelligence. Whatever medium I feel resonates with what I am trying to say is what I end up wrestling with. I try to bring together forms that can distill and encapsulate the complicated questions that issues such as racism present. My most recent project, e Dark Database, considers facial recognition systems and their inherent bias, particularly with regard to people of color. I utilized an open-source facial detection algorithm and the Python computer language to execute a script on a group of films, aware that these facial detection libraries were not good at detecting faces with darker skin tones. I had the software export each detected face in every second of a film, and then composited all of those faces into a single portrait. I wanted to contrast the biased vision of artificial intelligence with the visuals crafted by African American and Latino directors. Page 40: is portait of Dennis was taken in his studio by his wife and professionlal photographer Marcie Revens; Page 41, left: Dennis is at the far left in his gymnastics class. At the time, the Lower School did not have a dedicated gymnasium. Each day, depending on the time, it was transformed into a gym or cafeteria, as needed; Page 41, right: Dennis joins his fellow alums from the Class of 1989. From left to right, they are Victoria Lichtendorf, Dennis, Zack Tripp, Shana Bloomfield Weiler, and Shashi Durbal Stapleton. is page, left top: Quotes that resonated with Dennis ran on his senior page in the 1989 yearbook; is page, left bottom: Dennis in 8th grade; is page, right: is image is entitled Do the Right ing. Created in 2020, the digital medium is: Tagged Image File Format; its dimensions are 7⅝" sx 7⅝". Current studies show that facial recognition systems are less able to detect a face in an image when the skin tone of that face is not Caucasian.

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