Open Call for PATH-AI Residency Programme

Somerset House Studios and the UAL Creative Computing Institute, in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute, the University of Edinburgh, and the RIKEN research institute in Japan, launch the PATH-AI Residency Programme. Commissioning artists to create new works critically engaging with intercultural ideas of privacy, agency, and trust in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-driven technologies, the programme is aimed at artists interested in exploring the international landscape for AI ethics, governance, and regulation. Three artists will be supported to develop new works within a 6-month remote residency programme, with final works presented by Somerset House in 2022. The aim of the project is to examine how the three interrelated values of privacy, agency, and trust work together in the very different cultural contexts of the UK and Japan in relation to AI and other data-driven technologies.

Applications are invited from artists in any international location and from any discipline, with an interest in exploring the interrelated values of privacy, agency, and trust in human-AI ecosystems across different cultural contexts. Engaging with the findings of the PATH-AI interim report as a starting point, it is anticipated that artists will already be considering these themes in their existing work. Joining the Somerset House Studios community via a remote residency over a 6-month period, the artists will be supported to develop their project, to be published online within the Somerset House programme. Where artworks are not designed to live primarily online, the process and outcomes will be documented, and the resulting film shared as a project outcome.

The residency includes

• Artist fee £5000 (inclusive of Vat or equivalent local sales tax where applicable)
• Production budget £5000 (inclusive of Vat or equivalent local sales tax where applicable)
• Curatorial and artist development support from Somerset House Studios
• Access to online technical and advisory support in creative technology from the UAL Creative Computing Institute, (e.g. Natural Language Processing, Generative AI image processing, Sound and games design, Human and Computer interaction etc.)
• Regular advisory meetings with researchers from The Alan Turing Institute to access expertise from the humanities and social sciences around intercultural concepts of privacy, agency and trust as they relate to AI and data-driven technologies in the UK and Japan.
• A dedicated mentor, brokered through Somerset House Studios
• Artist Outcome: online work + screen based element to be shown at Somerset House
• Access to any artist development programmes or opportunities for Somerset House Studios artists made available during the course of the residency

Application

Please read the Application Guidelines before submitting your application. Video applications are welcome, if you need to submit a video application, please email your video to [email protected].

The opportunity is open to artists of all ages and from any discipline, who have been practising as an artist for a minimum of 5 years. Applications are welcome from anywhere in the world, and in particular, from those who bring a non-Western perspective to these themes. Applications from those under-represented within the UK creative sector workforce and audiences are particularly welcome.

Please submit an online application form before Monday 31 January 2022, 17.00 (GMT).  For more information, check their website.