Edition Two
Planetary Futures: AI, Arts and the Environment

Magazine Masthead

NEWREAL MAGAZINE | EDITION TWO | 2025


This second edition of The New Real Magazine features work from artists and researchers to better explore environmental, economic and digital sustainability on planetary scales.

Image credit: ‘How to Find the Soul of a Sailor' by Kasia Molga

Conversations
Discussions with our artists and The New Real community

Endnote
Closing thoughts

Video credit: ‘How to Find the Soul of a Sailor' by Kasia Molga

Contents

Editorial
The vision behind the magazine

Feature
The evolution of The New Real Observatory platform

Art
Art projects from 2023-2025

Spotlights
Summaries of recent publications, events and reports

Reflections
Insights, investigations and ideas from friends of The New Real

Interjections
Explainers and hot topics, to guide our intrepid explorations

Editorial

Through the works and insights presented in this edition, we glimpse possibilities for how AI might help us not just measure environmental change, but understand it in ways that move us to action.


Feature


Sharing the vision for and evolution of a new platform for genuine collaboration between human and machine intelligence, where artistic practice drives innovation in AI development.

Art


Here we present some of the artworks commissioned by The New Real that involve multisensory exploration of possible futures and investigate the entanglements of people, data, machines and environments using The New Real Observatory.

Spotlights


Featured special projects and events that explore how the New Real Observatory platform operates – bringing together artistic practice, artificial intelligence and environmental data in new ways – and how it has been used and shared by artists through innovative exhibition formats to help us develop more meaningful relationships with both the technology and our changing planet, creating meaning together.

Reflections


Broadening perspective beyond the Observatory platform to examine wider questions about AI's role in environmental understanding. From exploring the evolving landscape of data-driven art and questioning its capacity to respond to global challenges and create the kind of tactile experiences we need to truly connect with our environment; to questioning the hidden environmental costs of digital art creation; to critically examining whether AI can meaningfully contribute to net zero goals or whether it might exacerbate the problems it aims to solve.

Interjections


Vital counterpoints to dominant narratives about AI and environmental futures to guide us in our intrepid explorations and advance the global conversation around the role of AI and the arts in guiding planetary futures.

Conversations


Discussions with artists and The New Real community on the space where AI meets art and sustainability.

Endnote

Some thoughts in closing, from The New Real Deputy Director, Matjaz Vidmar.


Magazine Edition Two Editors

Matjaz Vidmar, Amanda Tyndall, Drew Hemment

Design, Production and Project Management

Courtney Bates

Open Journal Systems Management

Rebecca Wojturska, Edinburgh Diamond

Contributors

Antonio Ballesteros-Figueroa, Sophia Brueckner, Inés Cámara Leret, Ramit Debnath, Lex Fefegha, Adam Harvey, Suhair Khan, Sophie Mackaness, Keziah MacNeill, Kay Poh Gek Vasey, Martin Zeilinger, Kasia Molga

Thanks to The New Real Community. The New Real is a partnership between The University of Edinburgh, and The Alan Turing Institute, supported by funding from the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Towards Turing 2.0/EPSRC, Creative Scotland, Scottish AI Alliance, and the Data-Driven Innovation Programme.

Produced by

The New Real

Published by

The University of Edinburgh, 2025

ISSN: 3029-0139 (Online)

Cite as: Matjaz Vidmar, Amanda Tyndall and Drew Hemment, eds. (2025). ‘The New Real Magazine, Edition Two, Planetary Futures: AI, Arts and the Environment’ www.newreal.cc/magazineeditiontwo