From 28 to 30 September 2021, the hybrid workshop AI and the Future of Art (AIFA) gathered more than 100 experts in artificial intelligence and artists to exchange about the growing interactions between the two fields. The event was part of the overall AI Pavilion project in the frame of the European Capital of Culture Esch2022.
Growing interest for AI & Arts
Artificial Intelligence and the algorithms associated with it are increasingly being used to paint pictures, write poems and compose pieces of music. At least that is how it seems when we look around in digital media, search for it specifically and watch recordings on YouTube. Whether Artificial Intelligence takes over the role of the human creative mind or is merely an artistic tool remains an open question. On the one hand, Artificial Intelligence-based algorithms are often trained on existing works by human artists, on the other hand they are merely applied in the sense of a technique.
“Perhaps you see art in combination with AI as critical and also lead the discussion about it controversially. Because not all of us can welcome this new kind of collaborative creativity. For some of us, art still means creating something with our own strength – without intelligent, computer-aided help. For others, however, creativity with tools is allowed and even explicitly desired. A new profession, so to speak! Perhaps it would be fair to introduce labels such as « Made by Human », « Made by Human & Machine » as well as « Made by AI » and thus recognise classic, pure handicraft? Is art really only what pleases, but also who made it?”, comments Christoph Schommer, Professor in AI at the University of Luxembourg.
AIFA: interdisciplinary event
The event was introduced by Jean-Marc Schlenker, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) who congratulated this initiative and whished fruitful discussions among academia and artists. Then students, professors, researchers and artists from Brazil, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden presented their projects and findings about a wide variety of topics such as artificial improvisation, art and swarm robotics, self-playing AI avatar, artificial identity.
Participants explored future developments, challenges and opportunities for AI and Art. « We are very proud of the success of AIFA, we were very impressed by the quality and diversity of the presentations”, says Leon van der Torre, Professor in AI and Director of the RoboLab at the University of Luxembourg.
Artist Egberdien van der Peijl and Yolanda Spinola, professor of Arts at the University of Seville, presented the virtual exhibition accompanying the conference.
Future events
From 10 to 12 November 2021, the University of Luxembourg will organise the prestigious international science conference called BNAIC. This has been the reference conference for AI and Machine Learning in BeNeLux for 20 years now. This year, the annual conference will include scientific lectures and exhibitions as well as an industry day. One of several conference focal points will be the theme « AI and Art ». Several keynote speakers will also punctuate the event with technical and in-depth contributions. As with AIFA, the event will be hybrid in nature.
More information: https://esch2022.uni.lu