Open Call AI LAB

The AI Lab (European ARTificial Intelligence Lab) is a follow up project of the European Digital Art and Science Network and offers international artists working in the field of AI to win a residency at a scientific partner institution and at the Futurelab of Ars Electronica. The AI Lab is led and organised by Ars Electronica in collaboration with 14 partners across Europe, including Edinburgh. Experiential AI is a new programme at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Bayes Centre and Heriot-Watt Robotarium in Edinburgh. It is the scientific partner for the AI Lab Lighthouse Residency in 2019/20. Experiential AI aims to support the creation of significant artistic works, and to inspire radically new concepts and paradigms on ethical and responsible AI.

The theme for the Artist Residency is Entanglements – fair, moral and transparent AI. Fairness, morality and transparency are challenged by entanglements with autonomous systems that are in many ways unintelligible to humans. At the same time, increasing numbers of artists are today exploring artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics, as both subject and tool. Objectives:

• Explore concepts of fair, moral and transparent AI through artistic experiments engaging AI researchers.
• Test ways to dispel the mystery of algorithms and make their mechanisms vividly apparent.
• Develop early stage concepts for a new artistic work/performance based on the artistic and creative possibilities of AI.

The residency is split between Edinburgh Futures Institute, the Bayes Centre and Heriot-Watt Robotarium in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria. The residency is a fully funded opportunity for an artist, designer or artists’ collective to create new dimensions in their artistic practice through their encounters with the world of AI. The residency offers access to the world-leading AI community in Edinburgh, and an opportunity to showcase prototypes at Ars Electronica Festival. Edinburgh International Festival will have the option to present prototypes/works in progress in a live performance setting during their festival in 2020 or 2021. Residency Structure:

• Part One: a residency for a period of 4-8 weeks in first half of 2020. This will take place in Edinburgh.
• Part Two: a production residency for a period of one month, after completion of the first residency, at the Ars Electronica Futurelab (Linz) until latest end of August 2020.
• Part Three: public presentation at the end of the residency at Ars Electronica Festival 2020. Edinburgh International Festival will have the option to present prototypes/works in progress in a live performance setting during their festival in 2020 or 2021.

Benefits:

• The selected artist wins a residency consisting of €10,000 artist fee and production cost*. The fee structure is: €3,000 artist fee; €5,000 which the artist can use for additional fees for themselves or collaborators and also for production costs and €2,000 production costs for which a proposal is required.
• Up to €5,000 travel, accommodation and subsistence, including: 2 travels to scientific partner, 2 travels to Ars Electronica as well as accommodation in Linz for 4-6 week and accommodation in Edinburgh for approx. 6 weeks*
• Access to University of Edinburgh researcher(s) who will serve as a dedicated inspiration partner.
• Ideation workshop with AI researchers, ethicists and curators in Edinburgh.
• Support brokering access to data from Edinburgh Futures Institute.
• Limited software engineering support from Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.
• Support from Ars Electronica staff.
• Production support at Edinburgh International Festival and Ars Electronica Festival.
• Curatorial and production guidance from Edinburgh International Festival on the presentation of work for a live performance setting.

*In case the winning party is an artist duo or artist group the artist fee, production costs as well as travel and accommodation costs need to be split between the members.

 Deadline for applying is 29th October 2019. The submissions are done online.