The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program – Humanities and Society (WASP-HS) is thrilled to announce Sarah Cook as keynote speaker at the upcoming WASP-HS conference “AI for Humanity and Society 2023” taking place on November 14-15 at Malmö Live in Malmö, Sweden. Sarah Cook is WASP-HS Guest Professor in AI and Art at Umeå University.
Keynote Abstract
Works of art made with digital media information systems (including generative AI) can show us, in surprising and prescient ways, what it is like to live in concert with technology, now and in the future. Beyond the media hype around how AI might take the role of artists, Sarah Cook’s research addresses how artists work alongside and with AI systems (and indeed develop their own). The resulting artworks (in a variety of forms, from performance to poetry, archive interventions to immersive video installations) can communicate complicated issues of life in a data-driven world, such as how we might find kinship with robots, how we might understand or misunderstand one another, what resource intensive computation means for the environment, and whether we can tell the real from the artificial. The ‘Art & AI’ project at UmArts uses transdisciplinarity – interrogating AI as it is used and understood through fields of research in architecture, design, visual studies, law and philosophy – to build curatorial methods for the creation of audience encounters with AI. Working towards a public exhibition of art and AI at the Bildmuseet in 2026, this transdisciplinarity informs the curatorial approach the project takes [distinguishing it from the many previous art exhibitions about AI]. Understanding what each disciplines’ concerns are, ensures that the societal understandings of life with AI systems remain at the forefront of the encounter. Art and AI projects can help us see existing problems anew, can document and date in time common perceptions of technology, and can develop new understandings of the ways we will continue to live with these digital information systems, or not!
More About AI for Humanity and Society 2023
As we face an increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday practices, it becomes more critical than ever to examine how AI affects our lives and society. Researchers in the social sciences and humanities have made essential observations and analyses on this topic. Yet, we still need grounded, situated, and relational understandings of how AI impacts us individually and collectively.
To reach this goal, it is imperative to closely examine the norms, values, and assumptions underpinning current AI research, inquiry about the criticality embedded in scholarly practices, and question the relevance of the methods chosen. We must identify what works well for all groups in society and discuss what needs improvement or change. This is why WASP-HS welcomes researchers, representatives from industry, and policymakers to discuss these issues on 14-15 November at Malmö Live in Malmö, Sweden.
