aiculedssul

Course Description

This course consists of a blend of theoretical and hands-on learning that delves into the intersection of art and technology, the philosophy of technology and the ethics of designing technologies of automation within the frameworks of socio-humanitarian discourse, aesthetics and epistemic challenges posed by synthetic forms of knowledge production. With the guidance of experts/artists: Egor Kraft and Artem Konevskikh, students will gain a deep understanding of the current state of AI in artistic and other socially contextualised practices, its impact on society and a set of challenges it poses to artistic production and a wider field within humanities-focused studies. Students will look at AI both through the lens of media theory and critical and speculative design lense in order to learn to integrate AI into their individual or group self-initiated practices and make the work with AI and on AI in ways that are critically reflexive and ready to face current challenges. The course is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. Within the technical part, students will participate in hands-on workshops to learn how to practically address working with AI, machine learning and deep learning and how to instrumentalise these sets of tools. The final part of the course will be dedicated to the development of the final project, in which students will have the opportunity to create a thought-provoking artwork that deals with the agential relationship between synthetic and “natural” forms of intelligence, as well as deals with the notion of Ai as tool vs intelligence. Students will have the opportunity to receive personalized guidance provided by both tutors.

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the current state of AI and its current impacts and future prospects.
• Analyze media theory in the context of AI in particular and the phenomena of computation in general.
• Various approaches and methods on instrumentalising AI on a practical level.
• Create cutting-edge, thought-provoking work that deals with computational intelligence and locates in the context of what we know as intelligence.

Course Materials

Required Texts:

• Benjamin W. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
• Hui Y. Art and Cosmotechnics
• Bratton H. B. The Stack
• Manovich L. AI Aesthetics
• Kraft E., Kormilitsyna E. On Content Aware and Other Case-Studies: Historical Investigations at Blazing Ultra Resolution

Additional readings and articles will be provided throughout the course