NEWS!!! The AI ROBOLAB initiated project, the AI&ART Pavilion for ESCH2022 has been accepted to participate in the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in Luxembourg representing the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine!
Our initiative was reviewed very favourably by the Selection Committee. Only 31 out of the 573 submitted projects were accepted in the Open Call process. Our proposal was the only one from the University of Luxembourg that was awarded the highest ‘Category A’ project. Furthermore, the AI&ART Pavilion was one of the three projects the Committee mentioned at their press conference explicitly as one of the most promising.
Art meets artificial intelligence: University of Luxembourg will create AI&ART pavilion during Esch 22 (Press Release)
As part of Esch 22, the European capital of culture, scientists at the University of Luxembourg will create the AI&ART pavilion, a multidisciplinary and interactive environment in which scientists, artists and the public can meet and interact. Located on Belval campus, the pavilion will offer its activities throughout 2022.
AI continuously reshapes everyday life, and some of the changes it leads to stretch so far into traditions, principles and ideals that they reformulate fundamental questions about the role of humanity, and raise new ones. Society as a whole needs to participate in the way how the European principles and privileges will be incorporated and preserved in the new world order.
This is no small enterprise and the AI&ART pavilion in Belval aims to contribute to this effort. The pavilion will build bridges between computer scientists, artists and the public, because without heavy traffic on these bridges our common goal to create the 21st century Europe worthy of our cultural and political heritage, remains a futile mission.
“New developments in AI provide an exciting occasion to revisit our relation to art and to the world. The AI & Art pavilion will encourage interest in AI from the general public, which is one of our important responsibilities as scientists”, explains Prof. Jean-Marc Schlenker, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine.
The umbrella project will consist of three branches
· Singularity 42! will collect initiatives in which artists reflect on the interaction between our physical and digital existence. The aim is to connect scientists and artists by providing high-level technical and scientific support to realise art projects, and vice versa, to involve artists in creating designs for creative engineers whose concepts require the artistic expertise of visual artists.
· Project Corner(stone) will offer playful and interactive initiatives ensuring that in the AI&ART pavilion, visitors can experiment, discover and rethink their own convictions. These small-scale projects will allow using techniques from both symbolic and subsymbolic AI to create an art product.
· Project Magneto will include diverse events that aim to educate and involve audiences in discussions regarding the role of AI. The events will be organised to reach students, general or specialised audiences.
Representing Remix Culture
The AI&ART pavilion’s objectives and activities reflect Esch 22’s aim to create synergies, guarantee sustainable development and ensure public participation. They are also closely embedded in Esch 22’s motto Remix Culture and its four sub-sections Remix Art, Remix Europe, Remix Nature and Remix Yourself.
It will connect the industrial heritage of Belval with the scientific nature of the University, its main tenant today; will lead artists and researchers to join forces; it will elevate public awareness about the ethical and societal effects of new technologies and invites to a discourse on interpreting European principles in the coming age; finally, it helps the individual to find a sense of community in the face of contemporary challenges.
“The aesthetics, nature and atmosphere of the Belval campus and its industrial heritage call for reinforcing a conceptual continuation of its history. The AI &ART pavilion builds precisely on this. By anchoring the future to its own past, and by presenting the digital revolution in the physical context of its predecessor, the industrial heritage of Belval becomes more than aesthetics: it represents the continuation of history and provides the roots for the digital future”, explains Prof. Sjouke Mauw, Head of Department of Computer Science.
Management Team:
Leon van der Torre (project leader), Amro Najjar (Head of AI ROBOLAB), Daniel Karpati (project co-ordinator)
Press release, 11.06.2020