Wenzel Mehnert | Robert Laidlow | Sara Laubscher | Chelsea Haith
Exploring AI as a Creative Tool – Collaborative Workshop between the University of Oxford and UdK
Block seminar, English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS, 8 places
Friday - Sunday, 20.-22.5.2022, 10-18 h, Hardenbergstr., room tba
Please applicate until 12.4. via info_ @soundofcontagion.com! The application should include: a short description of your intended contribution or an idea that you would like to workshop further (± 300 words) / a short bio of the artist or the collective (100 words) / please state your preferred workshop track (visual or audio) in your application.

Currently the dialogue around Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is dominated by extremes: it will exert a defining influence on the future through a singularity; it can never understand human emotions; it will develop its own consciousness; it is merely a fad that will fade in the next decade. But what about the artistic practice? What role does intelligent technology play in the art of today and tomorrow?

To explore what it means to use A.I. as a creative tool, the Sound of Contagion project, an artistic research collaboration between the University of Oxford and the University of the Arts, Berlin, is pleased to announce a workshop for artists and academics working in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and Creativity taking place 20-22 May 2022, in Berlin, Germany. This call invites musicians, illustrators and other creatives who are working with and exploring the use of A.I. as a tool in their creative practice, or those who would like to explore this area, to work with the Sound of Contagion project.

The three-day workshop offers space and opportunity to exchange ideas, reflect and to explore what it means to understand A.I. as an artform. We will particularly welcome proposals from early-career artists and students. Selected participants will develop their work in collaboration with one another, with resident Sound of Contagion performers, and with artists from other disciplines, towards a live performance and exhibition on the third day.
This three-day workshop calls for artists and musicians to exchange ideas and experiences when working with AI as a collaborator, tool or agent to create art.
The workshop will follow two tracks run by two facilitators from visual arts and music.

Participants will be asked to bring a small amount of material ready to be workshopped over two days towards an exhibition on the 22nd of May. Audio track participants will have the option to write music for violin/viola and/or electronics.

Leistungsanforderung: regular, active participation in the workshop and the presentation on the last day.

Chelsea Haith is a researcher and writer based in the UK and South Africa. She works on Speculative Fictions and urban inequalities, developing theory at the intersection of social science and literature. She has experience in publishing, journalism and gender studies, and teaches critical theory, literature and speculative imaginaries in Higher Education. She is an alumni of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation and her research interests are inflected by a passion for inclusive, diverse representation and collaboration.

Wenzel Mehnert has been working as a research assistant at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2016 and at the Technical University of Berlin since 2018. Since 2022 he works as a futurologist at the Austrian Institute of Technology. He focuses on the intersection between Speculative Fictions  and the assessment of New and Emerging Science and Technologies (e.g. A.I., SynBio, Internet of Things, etc.).

Sara Laubscher is a South African digital artist, with a keen interest in all kinds of computer generated imagery. She has experience as a concept artist and 3D artist for visual effects in film and television such as Warner Brother's Deep Blue Sea 3 and Black Beauty. Currently she works as an indie game artist on Broken Roads and in her spare time facilitates online workshops for digital artists in the South African animation and gaming industry.

Robert Laidlow is a composer and researcher based in the UK. Robert's music has been commissioned and performed across the globe and broadcast on television and radio. His compositions blur the boundary between science and music and are often the result of close interdisciplinary collaboration. Robert is the PRiSM Researcher in Artificial Intelligence in association with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - a relationship that has recently resulted in several new works exploring intelligent technology.