Text by CLOT Magazine
The Serpentine is launching two ambitious creative initiatives tomorrow, the Future Art Ecosystems and the Creative AI Lab, emerging as part of the commitment to supporting experiments in art and advanced technologies. Designed as a strategic briefing for practitioners and organisations across art, science and technology sectors, Future Art Ecosystems is a pioneering holistic analysis of how artistic engagements with advanced technologies irreversibly transform the art world. Future Art Ecosystems aims to chart new paths and horizons for the role that art can play in shaping future technologies.
The Creative AI Lab is a partnership between the Serpentine R&D Platform and the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College. Founded to address Artificial Intelligence through the lens of artistic practices, the Lab represents a way for the cultural sector to engage with AI. This technology will shape human development over the next century.
Both the Future Art Ecosystems and the Creative AI Lab are incepted from Serpentine’s experience working with cutting-edge art and technology projects. Over the last seven years, this work area has become a key part of the Serpentine’s mission and programme.
Future Art Ecosystems is an opportunity to share the experience, and learnings gained working with artists including Hito Steyerl, James Bridle, Cecile B. Evans, Ian Cheng and Jakob Kudsk Steensen, as well as to reflect on conversations across broader networks as part of the Serpentine’s commitment to sector-convening around art and technology.
While the inaugural issue of Future Art Ecosystems, Art x advanced technologies, focuses on practices that artists are developing in their work with advanced technologies, the annual publication series is to serve as a tool in constructing future art ecosystems.
The publication is produced by Ben Vickers, Victoria Ivanova and Sophie Netchaef from Serpentine Galleries’ R&D Platform and strategy studio Rival Strategy. It includes interviews with and contributions from Holly Herndon, Ian Cheng, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Refik Anadol, Hyphen-Labs, Kenric McDowell, Rachel Armstrong and Takashi Kudo of TeamLab, among others.
Creative AI Lab is a space for artists, technologists, academics, researchers and art institutions to develop a common language around new AI technologies such as machine learning. The activity emerging from this lab aims to contextualise artistic practices that utilise AI as a tool and to generate resources for the benefit of the wider cultural sector, recognising the critical role that public art organisations can play in shaping the public narrative on these technologies. The Creative AI Lab’s online platform is a localised database for software, research, theory and education at the intersection of art and AI.
The report can be downloaded from 9 July at Futureartecosystems.org. For more information on the Creative AI Lab, please visit creative-ai.org.
