ARS ELECTRONICA ARCHIVE – AI LAB

The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab) is a follow-up project to the European Digital Art and Science Network, a creative collaboration between scientific institutions, Ars Electronica and cultural partners throughout Europe that unites science and digital art. The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab follows on from this and addresses visions, expectations and fears that we associate with artificial intelligence. The consortium consists of 13 cultural institutions from Europe with Ars Electronica as coordinator. This online archive provides an overview of all activities carried out during the project's lifetime from 2018 to 2021. It also provides information about the network itself, the residency artists and juries, and the project partners involved. The AI Lab is co-funded by the EU program "Creative Europe (2014-2020)" and by the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

Partner 2021

SETI Institute – Scientific Partner Institution

Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization located in Mountain View, California. The Institute leads humanity’s exploration of the nature and origins of life in the Universe, and the quest to find intelligent life beyond Earth. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF. The SETI Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program facilitates an exchange of ideas between artists and scientists so that these disciplines may inspire each other to catalyze new modes of understanding. SETI AIR artists bring fresh eyes and bright minds to difficult concepts, becoming creative ambassadors for the SETI Institute

Start:

Nov 01, 2018

End:

Dec 31, 2021

Info:

European ARTificial Intelligence Lab, Scientific Partner Institutions: SETI Institute, Leiden Observatory, Muntref Centro de Arte y Ciencia / Laboratorio de Neurociencia de la Universidad Torquato Ditella, Edinburgh Futures Institute and Bayes Centre.

Cross reference

SETI Institute

Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe and the evolution of intelligence. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF.
The SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is an international leader in the movement of integrating art and science. The AIR Program connects contemporary artists with SETI Institute researchers and facilitates an exchange of ideas to catalyze new perspectives, insights, and modes of comprehension.
Our curatorial direction emphasizes projects that consider the evolution of intelligence, ponder the beginnings of life, and critically reflect on our anthropocentric world view. We explore the entanglements of art, science, and technology, and examine how this fusion connects to the human condition and our future as a society. The SETI AIR program sees the art-science convergence not only as a strategy to engage with the public at large, but also as a way to create new knowledge and reinvent epistemologies. The playing field of art-science-technology allows both our scientists and our artists to challenge assumptions, ask questions, and contemplate possibilities.
The AIR Program encompasses various artistic disciplines, including visual arts, literature and spoken word, music, film, dance, and theatre. The artworks, performances, and public projects resulting from the AIR collaborations are situated at the cutting edge of artistic and scientific practice.
The AIR Program’s focus on AI and machine learning intersects with the SETI Institute’s research into alien intelligence, astrobiology, and the search for cosmic technosignatures. In its endeavour to identify a signal from an alien civilization, the SETI Institute employs its Allen Telescope Array to sweep the sky. The vast amounts of data resulting from this search are parsed using AI in order to distinguish a possible technosignature from the cosmic background noise. Other significant areas of the SETI Institute’s research are astrobiology, the exploration of life beyond Earth, and exoplanet research, the study of planets beyond our solar system. Here, SETI researchers rely on AI and ML to identify and classify various types of exoplanets and possible biosignatures. The search for alien signals, life beyond Earth, and habitable worlds are all linked to the same fundamental, overarching research question: Are we alone? It is a rich ground of exploration for both scientists and artists alike.

(The Practice of Art and AI, p. 52)