UdK.AI. Symposium on and with Artificial Avatars
Prof. Dr. Daniel Hromada & Christian Schmidts (Digital Education & Computational Design in Architecture)
English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Beginn: 6.1.2025, 10 Uhr

Registration on Moodle starts 2.12.2024 / Anmeldung auf Moodle beginnt am 2.12.2024:
https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=2607
Moodle Enrollment Key / Einschreibeschlüssel: avatar

In this symposium, participants are invited to explore the possibilities of generative AI and real-time creation engines by interacting with "artificial avatars" (AAs) of their own making. Over five days, we will dive into the technologies and methods necessary to design, animate, and program these avatars, including voice cloning, fine-tuning large language models, and integrating creations into real-time engines such as Unreal Engine.

By the end of the symposium, the artificial avatars you create will actively participate in discussions during the 1st UDK.AI Symposium on Artificial Avatars, opening a dialog between human creators and digital entities.
This project invites open-minded individuals interested in the intersection of art, technology, and experimentation with generative AI. Together, we will test the creative and technical limits of these tools and reflect on their potential within digital arts and society.
Join us to explore, create, and participate in a dialogue across species.

Schedule:
Day 1 :: 6.1. Introduction to concepts and tools: voice cloning, large language models and related techniques, Unreal Engine, GitHub.
Day 2 :: 7.1. Bringing an exemplar artificial avatar into existence.
Day 3 :: 8.1. Creating additional avatars.
Day 4 :: 9.1. Making avatars interact with each other and with humans; preparing the room for the symposium.
Day 5 :: 10.1. 1st UDK.AI Symposium: Artificial Avatars discussing with humans.

Daniel Devatman Hromada is since August 2018 UdK’s Juniorprofessor for Digital Education at Einstein Center Digital Future. Born in 1982 in Bratislava, he holds bachelor degrees in humanities from Charles University (Prague) and linguistics from University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis; master degree in artificial and natural cognition from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris). In 2016, a successful defense of his Thesis “Evolutionary modelis of ontogeny of linguistic categories”, entitled Daniel to carry a double doctorate from both Slovak Technical University (cybernetics) as well as University Paris 8 – Lumieres (psychology). Father of two children, he’s a founder and first senator of oldest Slovak digital community kyberia.sk. In majority of his publications, Daniel Hromada addresses topics as diverse as natural language processing, developmental linguistics, computer vision, semantic vector spaces, machine learning, evolutionary computation, computational rhetorics, narrative enrichment, roboethics and machine morality. His main design project at UdK / ECDF is the construction of a “digital Fibel”, that is, a speech-based, book-like digital artifact for cognitive enhancement of 7 – 10 year old children.

Christian Schmidts is a Berlin-based designer, artist, and educator. He works as a media artist and research assistant in the Department of Digital and Experimental Design at the Berlin University of the Arts. His research and teaching focus on the conceptual, spatial, and media aspects of computational design strategies. Christian investigates how real-time creation environments, game engines, and machine learning shape experimental performance and human-machine interaction. He is also engaged in research on integrating mycelium-based composite materials with computational design processes, advancing sustainable practices in architecture. Additionally, Christian is involved in the interdisciplinary, research-oriented Master's program Design & Computation, a collaboration between the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University of Berlin. This program examines the evolving relationship between technology and society.