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AI and the Arts – can we automate creativity?
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The exhibition ‘AI: More than Human’ at the Barbican Centre in London – co-curated by Suzanne Livingston – was the first over-arching look at the past, present and future of AI in a museum environment. It includes contributions from DeepMind, IBM, Google, TeamLab, Massive Attack, Es Devlin, Neri Oxman, Joy Buolamwini, Amnesty International, Jigsaw and Affectiva. Since its London run in 2019, it has toured regionally in the UK and globally, with periods of time in the Netherlands and China. As of October 2023, it is showing in Spain at CCCB Barcelona.
In this talk, Suzanne will expand on the themes of the exhibition, as well as her ongoing research and consultancy on the relationships between advanced technologies and people, society and commerce. She will reflect on how the current explosion in AI tools, and corresponding public interest and concerns, sits within this – and shares her thoughts on where this will eventually settle within the arts.
This is a hybrid event taking place in-person at Bulmershe Theatre, Minghella Studios and online on Teams. In-person attendance is encouraged as the talk will be followed by a wine reception and discussion over drinks.
Please RSVP to shweta.ghosh@reading.ac.uk by Tuesday 24th October, indicating if you would like to attend in-person or online. A joining link for online attendees will be circulated nearer the time.
About the speaker
Dr Suzanne Livingston is a strategy consultant, curator and coach working with advanced technologies across sectors – but often with creative arts and culture organisations. Until 2019 she was Head of Strategy and then Global Principal at Wolff Olins and has a PhD in Philosophy, focussing on cybernetic systems. This led her to co-curate the blockbuster exhibition ‘AI: More than Human’ which opened at the Barbican in 2019 and is currently in the midst of an ongoing world tour.
Her research area is advanced technologies and their effects on people, society and commerce – and the need for genuinely new models and concepts to see ourselves and the world we exist in. She continues to write about technologies and changing ideas of human, self, agency and control, and often draws on non-western ideas to do so.