MESSAGE FROM SYMPOSIUM DIRECTOR

Welcome to the web portal of Art Machines 2: International Symposium on Machine Learning and Art 2021 to be held in Hong Kong in June 2021 at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Art Machines 2 is the follow up conference to Art Machines which was held in January 2019 at the School of Creative Media and will establish the basis for a regular conference series.

Our title, Art Machines refers to the theme of our conference which is Machine Learning and Art. Machine Learning is poised to transform the creation and analysis of art and media and this conference provides the opportunity for an in-depth exploration of a rapidly evolving field. Among the topics we will address are:

  • The role of intentionality in art that is governed by machine-learning
  • The aesthetic sources and precedents of machine learning software and creation
  • Machine Learning and the future of media production 
  • Creative Coding vs Creative Use of machine-learning tools
  • The value of machine learning for the analysis of art and media
  • The value of machine learning for archival practice and curating
  • The sources and history of machine learning in the creation of art
  • Challenging social bias in machine learning algorithms
  • Machine Learning Art and Ecology
  • The future of art in the age of AI and machine learning
  • The role of art in the creation of critical perspectives on AI and machine learning
  • The philosophy of art in the age of AI and Machine Learning
  • Machine Learning and BioArt
  • Machine Learning and Robotics
  • The ethical implications of AI and Machine Learning in art

Computation has now permeated every aspect of art and media creation and curation, transforming the character of sound and moving image practices, and yielding rich new forms of aesthetic experience that range from digital animation and interactive media, to procedural artworks and bioart. At the same time, machine learning poses ethical challenges. One cannot ignore the role that algorithmic processes play in shaping the texture, organization, choices and actions we make in everyday life, in hitherto unimagined ways, and the social and ideological biases that inform these ostensibly neutral processes. Machine Learning art is at once implicated in these cultural biases and has the capacity to intervene to change them.

Art Machines is broad-based, rigorous interdisciplinary symposium, which encourages paper and proposal submissions on the whole range of computational media art practices and the expanded field of intangible and tangible media that they have given rise to. We strongly encourage interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars from different fields, such as film and media studies, art history, philosophy of technology, cultural studies, game studies, art and design, as well as between scholars and practitioners of computationally-based art and media. We also encourage work that involves collaborations between artists and researchers working in either the natural or the social sciences. 

In addition to our open-call conference panels, keynotes and plenary sessions on Machine Learning and Art, we will offer an open call for artworks to be staged in SCM’s Singing Waves Gallery for the duration of the conference. There will also be a student salon accompanying the event which will feature workshops and guest speakers. 

We invite you all to come and join us at Art Machines 2 in June 2021, here in Hong Kong, to discuss the present and future of Machine Learning Art!

PichardAllenPortrait

Richard Allen, Director, Art Machines 2
Dean, School of Creative Media
On behalf of the Conference Organizing Committee