Image: Still from AIDOL (2019) Lawrence Lek

A packed edition of STRP Scenario #3 ‘How intelligent is Artificial Intelligence’ last October at Natlab made one thing very clear: we still have more to say about AI.

Can artificial intelligence also have creative inspiration? Artificial Intelligence is developing at a dizzying pace, with computers slowly but surely being able to approximate humans' more artistic impulses. In cooperation with IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam – STRP is organising an evening focusing on the questions AI art throws up. How is AI influencing the contemporary art world, and how will this develop? Can humans appreciate art made by AI in the same way? In short: how creative is artificial intelligence?

Artists, experience designers and technological adventurers Arvid&Marie, artist and filmmaker Cécile B. Evans, VR artist, filmmaker and musician Lawrence Lek and Wijnand IJsselsteijn, professor in Cognition and Affect in Human-Technology Interaction at Eindhoven University of Technology. Moderator and host for the evening is Annemarie Wisse.

Arvid&Marie are an artist-duo, experience designers and technological adventurers always aiming to discover new ways of stretching our world. Using interactive objects and performative storytelling, they use their collaborative effort to explore post-human theories, focusing their creative attention on practical cybernetics and autonomous machines. They believe that researching how humans express themselves, philosophically and technologically, can lead to long-lasting, positive change.

Lawrence Lek is a London-based artist, filmmaker and musician working in the fields of virtual reality and simulation. He creates site-specific virtual worlds and speculative films using game software, 3D animation, installations and performance. Often rendering real places within fictional scenarios, his environments reflect the impact of the virtual on the politics of creativity. His work has been shown in exhibitions all over the world and he has received several awards for his oeuvre. AIDOL, his first feature-length film, is part of the IFFR 2020 program and is the sequel to Geomancer, which was shown at IFFR 2018.

Cécile B. Evans is an American-Belgian artist living and working in London. Evans’ work examines the value of emotion and its rebellion as it comes into contact with ideological, physical, and technological structures. At IFFR 2020 she will present her new work: A Screen Test for an Adaptation of Giselle. Weaving together high and low resolution digital footage, 16mm, VHS recordings, animation, and deep AI, the screen test is a proposal for a hybridised world where multiple realities push to the surface.

Wijnand is a professor in Cognition and Affect in Human-Technology Interaction at the TU/e. He manages an active research program that studies the impact of technology on human psychology, and is an expert in the relationship between data science, artificial intelligence, psychology and ethics.

Program partners of STRP are Fontys, MU and SingularityU Benelux. STRP Scenario is made possible by contributions from Brabant C, Regio Deal Brainport Eindhoven, Stichting Cultuur Eindhoven and Creative Industries Fund NL.