"Towards an Automated Art? Learning Machines, Human Creativity and Uncertainty";
Colégio Almada Negreiros (CAN) Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus de Campolide.

Scientific Coordination:
Luis D. Rivero-Moreno (Universidad de León, Spain & IHA-NOVA FCSH/IN2PAST, Portugal)
Helena Barranha (Insitituto Técnico Superior, Universidade de Lisboa & IHA-NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST, Portugal)

Cultural production is becoming progressively controlled by machine-made calculations. Computational tools in the form of algorithms and AI seem to be getting closer to the loop of producing, distributing, selling and
validating artworks in a completely digital context. It is possible to predict that, in the near future, they will be able to make their own decisions and produce new creative forms without direct human hand intervention. The arrival of an entire synthetic creative system is drawing nigh.

While images abound and never-ending streams of data are becoming unachievable for humans, the need for reflection is more urgent than ever. The predominant discourse has naturalised technology as neutral and unstoppable, favourable to all. Nevertheless, art might feature there not as a blind ally of technology, but as a necessary counterpart, a means of reflecting on the need and direction of its benefits through its use. The widespread use of software tools and apps makes us dependent on our trust in technology while interacting with the real physical world. The search engines guide us in our navigation of the Internet, its platforms and databases, making things visible in the virtual digital world. How are they programmed? By whom? To see what? Are we finally entering a new art ecosystem where artists are as replaceable as images? Are we becoming immersed in a new mechanized and financialized art system where artworks can be rapidly produced, consumed and wasted? Can human creativity survive in this context? Can machines really learn how to make art?

This one-day conference aims to provide a space for interdisciplinary discussion, bringing together different perspectives on the interaction between creative practices and digital technologies, with a particular emphasis on the still uncertain impact of AI on contemporary arts.

PROGRAMME

9:00: Registration

9:30 - 10:45: Opening Session (Room 219)

Keynote lecture: “Do Machines Deep Dream of Automated Artists?” – Andrés Burbano
Moderators: Luis D. Rivero Moreno and Helena Barranha

10:45 - 11:15: Coffee break

SESSION 1:
11:15 - 13:00 Questioning the Nature of Art in the Age of AI (Room 219)

“AI Art and the Productive Potential of Opacity” – Jasmin Pfefferkorn

“The Aura in Contemporaneity: Destruction or Evolution?” – Rita Cêpa

“Quantum Perspectives in Art and New Media: Towards Temporal Difference” – Yana Naidenov

“Latent Space: How Far is Far Away?” – Rodrigo Gomes

13:00 - 14:30: Lunch break

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CONCURRENT SESSIONS 2a / 2b: 14:30 - 16:00

SESSION 2a
History and Archaeology of New Media Art (Room 219)

“Automation in Visual Arts (around 1960): Some Dilemma with a Special View to Control” – Michael Rottmann

“From BBSes to DAOs - What Can We Learn from Early 1990s Digital Utopianism for Artist Organizations Today?” – Anna-Lisa Scherfose

“The Venice Bienal 2022 and the Let’s get Digital Exhibition in Florence. The New Paradigms and Challenges of Digital Art. Will We Be Able to Tell the Right Story?” – Filomena Serra

“Making up for Lost Ground and the Exhibition Net Art in the Bermuda Triangle… at CAAA in Guimarães” – Sofia Ponte and Maria Luís Neiva

SESSION 2b
Artistic Research, Copyright and Preservation (Room SE1)

“Creativity and Copyright in a World of AI-Generated Images” – Adelaide Rossi

“Future Us: Speculative (Re)positionings Regarding AI Literacy in Artistic Training and Research” – Margarida Alves, Henrique Cabrita and Helena Elias

“Dialogues on the Preventive Conservation of the artwork _DATA|ergo sum|RELOADED by Ana Marcos” – Irene Vivas Márquez and Keitty de Oliveira Silva

“Documenting Creative Processes in Generative Art. An Approach through Dario Lanza’s Work” – Esther Moñivas Mayor and Darío Lanza Vidal

16:00 - 16:30: Coffee break

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CONCURRENT SESSIONS 3a / 3b: 16:30 - 18:00

SESSION 3a
Automated Creativity and AI Aesthetics (Room 219)

“Emergence of Human-Machine Co-creativity? Shifting from ‘AI Art’ Towards Issues in AI Aesthetics” – Alexander Matthias Gerner

“Technologisation of Art or Artisation of Technology? – Discussing AI Art in the Museal Context” – Franziska Garms

“Generative AI and the Fear of Images — Looking for Clues about the Future of Artificial Intelligence in Iconophobic Reactions to Lithography and Desktop Publishing” – Mário Moura

“Family Portrait[s]: ‘Wreading’ the Island through António Aragão” – Diogo Marques and Inês Cardoso

SESSION 3b
Extended Reality and Posthuman Spaces (Room SE1)

“CTRL+Z : On Language, Meaning and Generative Algorithms in Architectural Design” – Nathalie Kerschen

“Refiguring the Game Engine as a Speculative Tool: Exploring More-than-human Narratives in Volumetric Spaces” – Teodora Sinziana Alata

“Supertopia: Viscous Realities and Material Reconfigurations” – Ana Teresa Vicente and Nikolas Gomes

“Dancing in Virtual Reality Exploring the Interplay of Material and Virtual Bodies” – Cecília de Lima, Sílvia Pinto Coelho and Rui Filipe Antunes

18:00 - 18:15: Closing Remarks (Room 219)

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Registration: Registration is mandatory for all participants and attendees. Deadline: 15 May, 2024.
You can find more information here: https://towardsanautomatedart.weebly.com/registration.html
Contact: towardsanautomatedartgmail.com