The Goethe-Institut engages in intercultural exchange and interdisciplinary discourse within a global context. With the AI Residency Programme we aimed to initiate both a dialogue between art and technology and a dialogue reaching beyond the borders of European countries. The programme aimed to promote artistic access to developments in the field of artificial intelligence. Art can serve as a seismograph of social developments linked with artificial intelligence and as a catalyst for a successful and socially responsible transformation of this new technology into products. It can open up new perspectives on this field and bring the discussion from specialist circles to wider sections of society.
The AI Residency Programme aimed to facilitate the exchange and acquisition of knowledge for both sides. Institutions and companies involved in AI that are opening their doors to young artists across Europe were enriched by the programme, as were artists who gained deeper insights into technological developments. Artificial intelligence is part of a new revolution in human history. We must decide how this revolution can serve humanity rather than the other way around. Artistic works created in the context of the residency can present innovative solutions for a society in the process of change and depict the impact of technology on people.
The AI residencies were designed to enable young visual artists from across Europe to spend four weeks getting to know an institution or company that is expressly involved with artificial intelligence and machine learning. The artistic works resulting from the residencies were presented at the closing event of "Generation A=Algorithm".
Participating Artists
Here you can learn more about the artists who participated in the Generation A Residency programme.
Maria van der Togt (b. 1997) studied architecture, urbanism and building sciences at Delft University of Technology. She is currently studying in the “Studio for Immediate Spaces” at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. In addition to her practical work in the field of videos and spatial installations, she works in the format of theoretical texts.
At the centre of her artistic work and research is the examination of space and spatial configurations. Our cognitive abilities and our characteristics are essentially shaped by the space around us, which is shaped by us and other people. How is this space structured by algorithmic processes and how, in turn, can algorithmic processes that are considered immaterial be experienced physically in spatial manifestations? How do digital environments change us? She is particularly interested in linking the digital with interspecies entanglement and kinship (known through the writings of Donna Haraway).
Maria van der Togt was be able to discuss her work, which is strongly influenced by theory, in an exchange with eminent researchers at Imperial College in London and expanded her work through new impulses.
Our partner organisation
Imperial College London is a world top ten university with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research. Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial is committed to developing the next generation of researchers, scientists and academics through collaboration across disciplines. Located in the heart of London, Imperial is a multidisciplinary space for education, research, translation and commercialisation, harnessing science and innovation to tackle global challenges.
The college focuses exclusively on science, technology, medicine and business. The college's main campus is located in South Kensington, and it has an innovation campus in White City, a research field station at Silwood Park, and teaching hospitals throughout London. The college was a member of the University of London from 1908, becoming independent on its centenary in 2007. Imperial has an international community, with more than 59% of students from outside the UK and 140 countries represented on campus.
