Friday 8 March 2019
Published: 1 February 2019
Aesthetic Glitches, Enhanced Performance
On Friday, 8th March 2019 from 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM, Prof Cook will be part of a panel discussion ‘Aesthetic Glitches, Enhanced Performances’ at the Centre for Contemporary Arts on Sauchiehall Street.
Building better futures with AI in the arts and humanities?
In collaboration with academic and artistic partners from Scotland and Germany, the Goethe-Institut Glasgow seeks to facilitate thinking and discussion about the relationship between AI and the art world.
Details: Fri, 08.03.2019, 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Venue: CCA GLASGOW, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD
We have arrived at a point in history where artworks created by artificial intelligence are winning prestigious prizes. Artists in dance, theatre, design, performance, and music engage with artificial intelligence and seek to open up new fields of artistic expression. Meanwhile, the interest and recognition for cutting-edge algorithms in the creative industries are ever increasing. Only last year in 2018, the famous auction house Christie's announced that they will sell an artwork made by artificial intelligence - an algorithm developed by the French art collective Obvious – sparking a critical and lively debate around the originality of the open-source algorithm itself. It was even proposed that the next winner of the Turner Prize could be an AI.
However, from apocalyptic sci-fi films to wild public speculation about the automation of life, AI is thought of to be either “a powerful tool that we might be unable to master, or as a tool that might acquire agency of its own and turn against us” (Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence). In her recent book Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble even challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. The ethical weaknesses of algorithms and data usage are presenting real social problems.
How do artists foster our imaginations about what artificial intelligence might mean in a desirable and more inclusive future? How do imagination, trust and empathy play out in the entanglement of arts and artificial intelligence? Will research and practice in the arts and humanities be able to facilitate a better understanding of state-of-the-art AI technologies? Can they tackle the political realities of these technologies and help harness the transformative power of AI for good?
Speakers:
Interrobang (Nina Tecklenburg, Till Müller-Klug), performance company (Germany)
Sarah Cook, Professor in Museum Studies (University of Glasgow) and curator for NeON festival
Elisa Lindinger, Director of the Prototype Fund (Germany)
Anna Henschel, Social Robotics Lab (University of Glasgow)
Hosted by Mario Verdicchio, founder of xCoAx (University of Bergamo)
Hosted by the Goethe-Institut Glasgow
Curated by Anika Marschall
New Media + New Museum: Communication and Storytelling
Image from Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar.
The following week, on the 12th March 2019 (7pm), Prof Cook will be in Doha, taking part in a discussion at the Media Majlis museum at Northwestern University in Qatar.
As exhibitions move towards engaging with audiences in more active and performative ways, museums are increasing their use of media and technology. Storytelling in exhibitions has become increasingly important, and melded with technology can create immersive, active spaces for visitors, a far cry from the passive viewing of objects often thought of as a typical museum experience.
The intersections of digital media, moving image, storytelling, and exhibitions as forms of communication, means changes in what museums do, how they do it, and what visitors receive. What does this mean for communication when VR is used for its immersive impact and ability to create empathy? Can visual storytelling through moving images in an exhibition replace the cinema experience? With the constantly changing and developing digital world, can museums even keep up? And ultimately, is this how audiences want to engage with exhibitions and each other?
The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar and UCL Qatar collaborate to host an evening of discussions that broach the topic of storytelling in the 21st century museum.
Join digital technology leader Nancy Proctor and our panel of speakers—who wear many hats, including as curators, researchers, academics and directors—for a discussion which will leave no stone unturned. This discussion will include questions from the audience, and has simultaneous translation.
This program was conceived and created with UCL Qatar and their program on museum and gallery practice.
First published: 1 February 2019
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