““Hidden Incidents of Pet Food”: Portraying Taurine Deficiency in Cats” presented by Wu, Jin, Fei, Wang, Zhu, et al. …
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Art, Nature, and Perception (full papers)
Presentation Title:
- “Hidden Incidents of Pet Food”: Portraying Taurine Deficiency in Cats
Presentation Subtheme:
- Resilient stories
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
“Hidden Incidents of Pet Food” is a digital artwork that combines contemporary art, machine learning, and data storytelling. It aims to reveal a relatively unknown yet significant social issue, specifically the deficiency of taurine in cat food. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence, the authors generate digital portraits of 6,000 cats who died from this deficiency. Incorporating additional data from the documented history, the authors reveal the hidden incidents through visualization and data storytelling, showing the trending relationship between the boom of pet capital markets and the deaths of cats due to pet food problems. The AI-generated cat portraits and incident data go beyond the facts and could become a historical memorial for blind cats and those tragic fatalities linked to pet foods. Our computational approach reveals the questionable relationship between people and pets as controlled by capitalism.
