Context: Art & Al 

What kind of AI do we want? Bringing artistic and technological practices together
Nummer und TypBFA-BFA-Ko.23F.010 / Moduldurchführung
ModulKontext 
VeranstalterDepartement Fine Arts
LeitungFelix Stalder, Nora Al-Badri, Adrian Notz
Anzahl Teilnehmendemaximal 12
ECTS3 Credits
VoraussetzungenCourse language: English
ZielgruppenBA Fine Arts students
Open for exchange-students

No registrations through our lecturers will be accepted.
Lernziele / Kompetenzen
  • Learn about critical AI themes and discourses
  • Discuss contemporary artistic works about and with AI
  • Develop a conceptual sketch for an AI application in an interdisciplinary team
InhalteThis is a joint module for BFA students and BA students of Computer Science (ETH) to bring together artistic and technological perspectives. Our starting point is to consider «Artificial Intelligence» (AI) as a historical-material practice, i.e. shaped by the concrete conditions of its development and use. The module consists of presentations covering topics like «History Art+Science», «Machine Learning for Artists», «Bias & Digital Colonialism», «Trustworthy AI» and «Indigenous AI». The presentations will be discussed in depth and key publications from computer science and art theory will be read and discussed. Experts from the different fields and artists will be invited and selected artworks will be discussed. At the end of the module, interdisciplinary teams will develop concepts for joint practice-oriented projects.

This module is a cooperation between the Department of Fine Arts (ZHdK) and ETH AI Center. It is open to BA students from both institutions and requires no prior technical or theoretical expertise. On the first day, there will be an hands-on introduction to Machine Learning for BFA students.

The course will be primarily in English, with occasional German.

Felix Stalder (*1968) is a professor in the BA Fine Arts. His work focuses on the intersections of cultural, political and technological dynamics, in particular on new modes of commons-based production, control society, copyright and transformation of subjectivity. He currently heads the research project “Latent Data: Performing ambiguous Data.” (SNF# 100016_200971). He not only works as an academic, but also as a cultural producer, being a moderator of the mailing list <nettime> and a member of the World Information Institute as well as the Technopolitics Working Group (both in Vienna). Publications include “Digital Conditions (Polity Press, 2018), “Aesthetics of the Commons” (co-editor, Diaphanes, 2021), “Digital Unconscious” (co-editor, Autonomedia, 2021), “From Commons to NFTs” (co-editor, Aksioma, 2022). https://fs.zhdk.ch, https://felix.openflows.com

Nora Al-Badri (*1984) is a multi-disciplinary and conceptual media artist with a German-Iraqi background. Her works are research-based as well as paradisciplinary and as much post-colonial as post-digital. She lives and works in Berlin. Her practice focuses on the politics and the emancipatory potential of new technologies such as machine intelligence or data sculpting, non-human agency and transcendence. https://www.nora-al-badri.de

Adrian Notz (*1977) is a freelance curator as well as curator at the ETH AI Center and at the Tichy Ocean Foundation, mentor for the creative strategy and vision at the European Center for Contemporary Art in Cluj (ECCA) and Chevalier de la Tombe de Bakunin. From 2012-2019, he was artistic director of Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. From 2010 to 2015, he was head of the Department for Fine Arts at the School of Design in St. Gallen
Bibliographie / LiteraturWill be handed out during the course
Leistungsnachweis / TestatanforderungMandatory attendance (minimum 80%); active participation
TermineTime: 09:15 - 17:00 Uhr

CW 11: 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 March
Bewertungsformbestanden / nicht bestanden
Termine (5)