The book details their many roles as technologies of analysis, capture, measurement, diagramming, laboring, (machine) learning, identification, tracking, and destruction. Parikka is specifically interested in how operational images extend their reach far beyond militaristic and colonial violence and into the realms of artificial intelligence, data, and numerous aspects of art, media, and everyday visual culture. The book extends from pioneering work by artists such as Farocki, Hito Steyerl and Trevor Paglen to dialogues and case studies with other contemporary artists such as Geocinema and Rosa Menkman as well as designers such as Scanlab and Liam Young.
 
Operational Images explores the implications of machine vision and the limits of human agency. In Benjamin Bratton’s words: “What is visual culture when most optical traces are generated by and for machines to interpret and operationalize? Jussi Parikka's masterful and concise book is a decisive moment in the study of 'ways of seeing' that goes beyond the standard anthropocentric tales of art history. Refreshingly, it forces us to see seeing in a whole new light.”
 
More info on the book on the publisher website:
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/operational-images  
open Access version of the book:
https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/operational-images