[paulmd]

Lenna is copyright-encumbered (despite its widespread use, Apple is a commercial operator and can't do that sort of thing) and it's not very inclusive to use a playboy centerfold image (even cropped) and it's taking some heat on the sexism front these days.

[drjasonharrison]

The "Lenna" is also low dynamic range, low resolution (512x512), low chromatic range, does not have a color profile, etc.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna

"In today’s age of high-resolution digital image technology, it seems difficult to argue that a 512 × 512 image produced with a 1970s-era analog scanner is the best we have to offer as an image quality test standard".[2]

[simondotau]

I’d be willing to bet that there have been significantly more viewings of that image this century as a result of the documentary. What a ridiculous way to try to end cultural awareness of a meme.

And I’m sorry but I just can’t fathom the controversy. The cropped version is the only one I’ve ever seen used in the context of a sample image. It is utterly unremarkable unless you’re aware of the image’s provenance, (which I bet most people didn’t). Even the uncropped version, which I have only ever saw because of the controversy, isn’t any more racy than many historically important paintings hanging in art galleries.

I’m not saying this is an appropriate canonical test image. But I am saying that it’s disingenuous to single it out as a problem. There is so much of mainstream culture that is orders of magnitude more degrading of women than this image.

I am certainly not equating the two, but I do see parallels in the hysterics around “Lenna” and hysterics around David of Michelangelo’s little noodle.

[crtasm]

Are other photographs of similar provenance in widespread use as test images in places of work/education/research?

If not, in what way is this image being singled out?

[simondotau]

That’s not the point. It’s being singled out among the millions of instances where very slightly racy depictions of women have entered into mainstream culture. Except in this instance it never did break into mainstream culture; it was only ever a meme among a comically narrow set of programmers and researchers.

Bringing mainstream attention to it was an extreme example of the Streisand Effect.

[crtasm]

You seem to have the idea that the intended outcome was to prevent people seeing the image (it's going to be online forever, no chance of that), while I believe it was for people to stop using it in the places I described, as a part of scientific papers, etc., and help bring about a wider discussion of such imagery.

e.g. see the final quote in this piece https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/arts-entertainment/ho...

Forsén was interviewed in a documentary that featured the image. The entire point of which was to bring more attention to the fact the image existed and how it had been/was being used. Claiming this is an example of the Streisand effect is nonsense.

I'd be interested to hear what other specific images you feel should be getting a similar amount of discussion.

[simondotau]

The documentary is literally called "Losing Lena" and tried to advocate for the removal of a meme image from an academic context. And it did so by immensely amplifying its exposure in a mainstream context.

The supposedly "deeper" part of their argument is even more pathetic, maternalistic, infantilising nonsense. Are they seriously claiming that women are so fragile that they will forego pursuit of their intellectual passion because sometimes, some academic papers use the image of a women wearing a fancy hat and bare shoulders? What a low view of women these documentarians have. What a vile insult to half the population.

I can only imagine that the movie was made by freak puritanical zealots who would literally explode if they ever saw a television advertisement for shampoo. And these zealots seem to have zero concept of how technology works. The movie's tagline falsely claims that "There's a secret hidden in almost every website and every digital image you've ever seen." The fact that anyone took it seriously is itself a sick joke.

[kobieyc]

Careful, there is someone whose name I shall not mention who is suing people claiming he is Satoshi and has copyright over the Whitepaper. He even got it banned from Bitcoin.org in the UK