Image credit: The New Real. Photo taken by DieFotoFrau
The New Real Salon: Exploring the future of AI and the arts
Join The New Real, a project out of the Edinburgh Future’s Institute, for a showcase of our work the weekend of October 28th - 30th with an opening event on the 28th. Experience our ground-breaking ideas around the arts and culture of tomorrow and how AI intersects with society to allow us to reflect back on ourself. Our Friday event has limited seating so please register early to ensure you have a spot. There will be a livestream of the event for those who cannot make it in person or for those joining from outside of Edinburgh.
Come collaborate with The New Real, as we look at how Artificial Intelligence interacts with people and the planet in fascinating and unanticipated ways, becoming a creative, playful and deep part of new artistic works and our everyday lives. Responding to EFI's First Breath programme theme, discover how Art and Artificial Intelligence combine to fuel delightful new cultural experiences and help heal our planet in crisis. We're delighted to be presenting The New Real Salon as part of DataFest Fringe 2022.
Hear from leading international AI artists, designers and scientists how art and creativity can help to radically change how we think about AI design, to embrace human traits such as bias, disagreement, and uncertainty as a signal with creative potential rather than noise that needs to be removed. Gain insight into how our work is addressing the urgent need to tackle both energy intensive technologies and the disconnect between global climate information and people's daily lives.
Following the Salon evening event, throughout the weekend an open Showcase exhibition explores the concept of 'The New Real', and the inflection that culture and society have gone through following the digital turn after Covid.
Free event
Audience Public and cultural sector
Format In person & Online
Tickets Ticketed event
When 28th October 2022 19.00 - 21.00
Doors Open At 18.30
The New Real Salon Opening
Part of EFI's inaugural event season, The New Real Salon Opening event will present international projects and practitioners, alongside highlights of our most recent research partnerships with artists and festivals. Leading contemporary AI artists, designers and scientists will explore the most transformative technologies out there and announce a major new programme on Next Generation Intelligent Experiences.
The New Real programme is a unique hub for AI, creativity and futures research. We believe the arts can be at the forefront of new sustainable industries and economies, and devise imaginative ways to experiment with new experiences, practices, infrastructures and business models, and to empower people to be agents of positive change.
Please note that this event will be recorded and the data used for research and promotional purposes. We will ask you to confirm your consent on arrival at the event.
Speakers
Matjaz Vidmar is our co investigator, an interdisciplinary researcher, lecturer and strategist at the University of Edinburgh. He is an (Astro)Physicist by training, now examining innovation processes and (inter-)organisational learning and change, as well as other social dimensions of emerging technologies
Alex Fefegha spends most of his time leading a small team of designers and coders at COMUZI, a London based design studio creating future-positive products, services and experiences for governments, organisations and charities. In his spare time, Lex has been exploring AI & creativity projects, working with Google AI & Google & Arts Culture Lab to create The Hip Hop Poetry Bot, an AI research project, exploring speech generation trained on rap and hip hop lyrics by black artists.
Gershon Dublon is a researcher and artist whose work locates sites and means of connection between human perception and machine sensing. By day, Dublon is a Senior Researcher at Sonos, focusing on applications of multimodal sensing to immersive audio. Dublon has published articles in Presence (MIT Press), Scientific American, IEEE Sensors, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Body Sensor Networks, ICML, and others, and recently contributed to Swamps and the New Imagination.
Drew Hemment is The New Real’s project principal investigator. He is an artist, designer and academic researcher, Chancellors Fellow at Edinburgh Futures Institute and Edinburgh College of Art and Research Fellow at The Turing.
Rebecca Fiebrink makes new accessible and creative technologies. As a Professor at the Creative Computing Institute at University of the Arts London, her teaching and research focus largely on how machine learning and artificial intelligence can change human creative practices. She is the developer of the Wekinator creative machine learning software, which is used around the world by musicians, artists, game designers, and educators. She is the creator of the world’s first online class about machine learning for music and art. Much of her work is driven by a belief in the importance of inclusion, participation, and accessibility.
Steph Wright is a data science enthusiast with specific experience of the healthcare domain. She has been extensively involved in developing and building collaborations across organisations as well as experience in project and programme management. Steph has a diverse background ranging from astrophysics to genomics in academia and film & TV to dance in the arts and the third sector. Steph led on Data Lab’s efforts in support of the Scottish Government in developing Scotland’s AI Strategy and is currently leading on its delivery through the Scottish AI Alliance, a partnership between The Data Lab and the Scottish Government. She is also the regional lead for Scotland for Women in AI UK.
Our Programme Partners
The New Real Showcase
29th - 30th October
Following The New Real Salon Opening The New Real Showcase presents a suite of artworks and interactive exhibits from The New Real making the Artificial Intelligence systems more legible, transparent, fair, and environmentally sound through arts and design.
The New Real
The New Real is a unique hub for AI, creativity and futures research. It is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, The Alan Turing Institute and Edinburgh’s Festivals. Based within Edinburgh Futures Institute and Edinburgh College of Art. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Creative Scotland.
What is The New Real? Learn more about it, have a peak at artworks and access our publications
Scottish AI Alliance
Scotland’s AI Strategy was launched in March 2021 with a vision for Scotland to become a leader in the development and use of trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI. The Scottish AI Alliance is the body tasked with delivering this vision and the actions outlined in the strategy. It is a partnership between The Data Lab and the Scottish Government. Full information can be found at the Alliance’s website: scottishai.com
DataFest
DataFest showcases Scotland’s leading role in data science and artificial intelligence on the international stage, while offering an unparalleled networking platform for local and international talent, industry, academia and data enthusiasts. It is run by The Data Lab – Scotland’s innovation centre for data and artificial intelligence, hosted by the University of Edinburgh.