Program
Holly Herndon at Melbourne Music Week
Melbourne Music Week is back! And in this year’s program they will present a series of exciting talks under the name Protopia, headlined by famous AI (artificial intelligence) musician, Holly Herndon.
Together these two futuristic thinkers and creators will speak about artists collaborating with AI, as well as broader ideas of utopia, dystopia, communing with cyborgs, singing through computers and using technology to encode meaning and memory.
Date: Saturday 11 December 2021. Tickets are available from the festival website.
"When Machines Dream the Future"
A hybrid festival on living with AI, happening online and at the Deutsches Hygiene‑Museum, Dresden, 12th – 14th November 2021, including two Australian contributions.
This amazing festival will feature a series of debates, artworks, documentary films and workshops in which experts and creative artists investigate what AI means, which problems it can solve, and how conflict can be intensified or even caused by AI. The festival will include Australian talks:- 12 November 2021: Keynote | 2062: The Promise and the Peril of our Artificially Intelligent Future by Toby Walsh who will appear as a hologram (!) live from Sydney.
- 14 November 2021: Panel | Indigenous Protocol: The Blind Spots of AI with Angie Abdilla, founder and CEO of Old Ways, New; Tyson Yunkaporta, author, art critic and researcher; Rick Shaw, mathematician and actuary, Deloitte Australia, and Megan Kelleher, postgraduate student, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
23 Jul 2021 - 26 Feb 2022 | 'Future U' | Exhibition | Melbourne
In the Future U exhibition at RMIT in Melbourne, science and science fiction come together in a powerful mix, bringing artists and researchers together to provide creative responses to the potential impact of rapid developments in AI and biotechnology. Are intelligence, empathy, creativity and love reserved only for humans? Art, artificial intelligence and physicality, as well as man and machine, are the focus of the 21 participating artists. From Germany, the two artists Mario Klingemann and Christian Mio Loclair contribute to the discourse. For more info, visit our event page.01 September 2021 - 09 January 2022 | 'AI Oracle' | Installation | Linz
The AI Oracle is an interactive art installation in which visitors are immersed into a futuristic cubic structure. In the cube, a robotic voice welcomes them into a dystopian reality in which an AI scans them, analyses a long list of personal data and decides their job for the future. The installation was developed by collective no:topia – which includes Shirley Ogolla and Piera Riccio – and can currently be seen at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.An interview with Shirley Ogolla is featured on our website.
Indigenous Protocols: AI Laboratory
Angie Abdilla, Tyson Yunkaporta and Megan Kelleher are coming together to lead an intimate group of creatives to collaborate with international Indigenous technologists and leading industry experts to rethink AI systems. For more information head to the website.
27 March 2021 | Panels & Performances in Brisbane
For World Science Festival Brisbane, the Goethe-Institut is teaming up with Queensland AI Hub to co-present a thought-provoking series of talks and performances on AI, culture and creativity. Speakers include AI Eurovision Song Contest winners Uncanny Valley, a digital arts professor, a machine learning researcher, a festival director, a multidisciplinary artist and a language specialist. The talks will be moderated by TV presenter Lee Constable and a special electronic live music performance will be the icing on the cake. That's four hours of pure inspiration!20 March 2021 | Film with Intro | Melbourne
In the epic science-fiction film World on a Wire, Rainer Werner Fassbinder explored a computer-generated world.. back in 1973. The premise is of a corporation that develops a computer capable of simulating an alternate dimension and transferring human consciousness into this new virtual reality. The film inspired the makers of The Matrix, almost 30 years later. This screening will be introduced by Claudia Sandberg, film scholar at the University of Melbourne who will reflect on the history of technology and AI in cinema.27 November 2020 | Panel: Music & AI
For the second talk in the series, we focused on the composition and performance of music and how they are affected, complemented, assisted or threatened by the rise of AI. Panelists were Associate Professor Goetz Richter, musician and philosopher working at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music and Dr Oliver Bown, academic, artist, and Senior Lecturer at UNSW Art & Design. The talk was moderated by Jochen Gutsch, Cultural Program Coordinator at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney and an active musician. Following the panel discussion we heard a live set from electronic producer Anomie. This event took place with a live audience at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney and was streamed online.23 October 2020 | Panel | Humans & AI
In the first event of this series we examined the relevance and influence of AI for skills previously reserved for humans such as creative work, reading and speaking. Panelists were Prof Toby Walsh, a leading researcher who holds the position of Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW, and Dr Belinda Dunstan, an artist, researcher and lecturer at the UNSW Faculty of Built Environment. The talk was moderated by Sonja Griegoschewski, director of the Goethe-Institut in Australia, who initiated the project Kulturtechniken 4.0: Creating in the Age of AI which started with the symposium The Relevance of Culture in the Age of AI. The event took place infront of a live audience at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney and was streamed online.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the project
Initiated by the Goethe-Institut in Australia, this ongoing project features artists and experts working across the field of artificial intelligence (AI). In Kulturtechniken 4.0 – Creating in the Age of AI we take a closer look at the interplay between AI and traditional cultural skills, inviting key names to discuss and explore our concerns and curiosity about an increasingly AI-driven future.Specifically, we examine how creative human skills such as writing, composing or painting are being altered, influenced or assisted by AI right now, and how this might change in the years to come.
What are Kulturtechniken?
The German term Kulturtechniken literally translates to cultural techniques. Traditionally linked to the cultivation of land, these days the word is broadly used to describe human skills which enable communication, problem solving and creativity.Kulturtechniken always relate to a certain sociocultural context and empower the individual to be an active member of a community. The rise of AI and machine learning will impact these techniques as well as the ethical and social questions around it. They are crucial for any educational and cultural organisation, like the Goethe-Institut, which is active in the area of language, music, art and film.
The 2020 edition of our magazine kultur has a special feature on Kulturtechniken 4.0 as well. Read it in print or online here.
Stay up to date
Our monthly newsletter informs you about our cultural events in Australia. Follow us on social media for the latest contributions, interviews and articles posted on Kulturtechniken 4.0: Facebook | InstagramNOTE:
This website is not being updated anymore. The editorial team consisted of the Sonja Griegoschewski, Jochen Gutsch, Gabriele Urban, André Leslie and Barbara Gruber, with web support by Anja Wendt. Information about the work of the Goethe-Institut in Australia:
Web: www.goethe.de/australia
Contact: info-sydney@goethe.de