Research project To investigate how research in art, design and architecture can contribute to the social and ethical discourses of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
UmArts is leading research in Art, Architecture, Design and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Umeå University in partnership with the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanity and Society (WASP-HS) and Umeå University’s Centre for Transdisciplinary AI (TAIGA).
In 2023 UmArts and Umeå School of Architecture were awarded a five year WASP-HS Art & AI Guest Professorship for Dr Sarah Cook from the University of Glasgow, in partnership with Bildmuseet and Umeå Institute of Design. The Art & AI project also includes two postdoctoral research fellows: one at Umeå School of Architecture, and one at Umeå Institute of Design.
The Art & AI research project will consider how research across the arts can contribute to the social and ethical discourses of AI and machine learning, working in partnership with museums and galleries, artists and curators. The programme will critically interrogate the aesthetics and politics of AI, collaborating with, and challenging the algorithmic logic underpinning hardware and software development. We are interested in how creative encounters can allow publics to experience and engage with the ethical considerations and societal shifts that widespread use of AI will bring and feeding that back into AI development.
AI and Art is also one of the eight TAIGA focus areas at Umeå University led by UmArts to investigate the social-political, geo-political ethical and aesthetic challenges of AI through art, architecture and design. As part of the TAIGA focus area network we are programming a selection of talks for the FrAIday talks programme which introduce artists and curators who critically investigate artificial intelligence and machine learning through practice-based research. With support from TAIGA, UmArts will host an artist in residence investigating the social and ethical discourses of AI each year from 2023 to 2015. https://www.umu.se/en/centre-for-transdisciplinary-ai/research/
