This symposium examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping curatorial practice—both the narrative construction of exhibitions and the organization/interpretation of archives. We invite scholars, curators, artists, PhD researchers, and cultural-heritage professionals to critically engage with the questions, challenges, risks, and opportunities of AI in museums and the broader GLAM sector.

Defining Generative Curation
We understand generative curation not as “using AI as a tool,” but as treating curatorial practice itself as a programmable, procedural, and co-authored system. In this frame, curating involves the design and critical deployment of procedures, models, and rule-based systems—computational or hybrid—across exhibitions, archives, and collections. Such systems can iteratively produce, recombine, or adapt outcomes over time: from the selection and sequencing of works (spatial, temporal, narrative) to interpretive layers, public programs, and documentation. This definition is a point of departure to be tested, refined, and contested by the community.

Keynote
Joasia Krysa (Liverpool John Moores University; Liverpool Biennial) — curator of the 2nd Helsinki Biennial (2023) and co-curator of the 9th Liverpool Biennial (2016) and documenta 13 (2012). Recent publications include Curating Intelligences: Reader on AI and Future Curating (Open Humanities Press, 2025).
Further program participants will be announced on a rolling basis.

We invite contributions that reflect on the following key topics:

1. The Curatorial Agent: Authorship, Agency, and Judgment
The use of algorithmic techniques and, in particular, AI models is often perceived as a challenge to previous understanding of curatorial authorship and aesthetic agency and authority, but does this constitute a delegation of responsibility or a type of co-authorship? Moreover, how does the imposed worldview encoded in different AI models play a role in curatorial narratives? And, is there a place for non-aligned, dissentive narratives or space for disagreement in curatorial practices with AI?

2. Technological Innovations and New Exhibition Methodologies
New multimodal AI models’ unprecedented capacity to connect disparate artworks and media can help revisit and challenge traditional art historical categorizations and exhibition narratives, including globalized curatorial formats like the 'white cube'. How might AI's capacity to process vast visual and textual data reshape our understanding of art history and the canon itself?

3. Ethical Implications: Algorithmic Bias and Specific Context Analysis
There is an increasing awareness of different types of AI biases, but what happens when AI is used for the detection of previously unnoticed biases in collections? Moreover, does AI’s far-reaching sight lead to both the rediscovery of unnoticed figures and practices and/or a form of algorithmic colonialism? What are the agencies, challenges, and opportunities for generative curation regarding both culturally specific and politically sensitive or conflictual contexts?

4. Future Directions: New Art Experiences and Interdisciplinary Frontiers
Current experiments inhabit a middle ground and bridge between scientific research and artistic practice, pointing to new interdisciplinary forms of creation and exhibition. How should we reimagine generative curatorial practice without losing touch with traditional art historical and curatorial skills? And, in a context of ever-updating technology, do new generative curatorial projects need to forcefully embrace a context of ever-updating technology? How does this context redefine the concept of a 'finished' artwork? How might AI-driven curation reshape the experience of the participants and audiences?

Submission Types
- Paper Abstract (≤ 300 words).
- Installation / Experiment / Object (≤ 500 words).
- Practice reports / case studies / demos & prototypes (≤ 500 words).

Each submission should include:
- 100-word bio per author.
- 3–5 keywords.
- Brief ethics statement (data sources, consent, biases, licensing), as applicable.
Optional: links to images/videos or relevant materials.

Interdisciplinary contributions from curators, artists, designers, scholars, technologists, and museum professionals are encouraged.

Important Dates
- Abstract deadline: 5 December 2025
- Notification of acceptance: 12 December 2025
- Full paper deadline: 1 April 2026 (≤ 5,000 words).

Outcomes
Accepted contributions will be shared on the symposium website; a publication is planned.

How to Submit & Contact
Please send submissions to dario.neguerueladelcastillouzh.ch and nrouma.es by 5 December 2025.

For inquiries, contact the organizers at the same addresses.

Organized by: Center for Digital Visual Studies (University of Zurich), Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Chair on 5G, Digital Culture and Next-Generation Technologies for Society – University of Málaga, and iArtHis_Lab (University of Málaga).

For more information, visit: https://catedratelefonicauma.es/actividades/generativecuration/