SM5316A - Topics in Media Art I: Wunderkammer - Human-AI-Collaborative-Marking | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| * The offering term is subject to change without prior notice | ||||||||
Course Aims | ||||||||
A Wunderkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities, also known as Kunstkammer or Kunstkabinett, was a collection of objects arranged to represent the world on a miniature scale. These collections displayed the owner's knowledge, wealth, and status, often categorised into natural history, geology, ethnography, and archaeology. They are seen as precursors to modern museums, with some historic cabinets forming the basis of institutions like the British Museum.
Beyond mere collections, Wunderkammern were curated as total works of art, creating constructed realities. Scientifically, they documented and authenticated knowledge, as in Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturales (1599). In a pre-digital world, artefects, real or imagined, found or fabricated - hybrids could thrive; today, with abundant online information and misinformation, we ask: could a new, digital Wunderkammer emerge from fabricated specimens, speculative histories, and synthetic nature?
In this course, we reimagine the Wunderkammer for the 21st century using generative AI as a collaborative partner in design and making. Students will work with AI tools to invent hybrid creatures, speculative artefacts, and synthetic natural histories-merging digital fabrication with narrative worldbuilding. AI will serve not only as a source of inspiration but as an active co-creator, shaping forms, textures, and stories through iterative prompts and model-driven experimentation.
We will explore how AI-generated objects can question authenticity, challenge historical narratives, and construct new mythologies. All work will follow a fully digital pipeline, combining AI generation, 3D scanning, modelling, printing, and projection to produce a contemporary Cabinet of Curiosities-an evolving, collective artwork that exists both physically and virtually.
In this class, we will a) provide students with opportunities to engage intensively with existing or emerging areas of media art, particularly those shaped by new technologies and evolving technical and artistic practices; b) offer flexibility in curriculum planning by accommodating topical seminars and workshops and unplanned opportunities in media art not covered by regularly listed courses; c) foster students' technical literacy, critical discourse, and creative capacities in response to contemporary developments in art, media and technology; d) enrich students' learning through exposure to artists-in-residence and visiting scholars who may be in temporary residence in Hong Kong. Enrolment for SM5316 depends on School's permission, which will only be granted if the topic is essentially different from that covered in this course offered in or before Semester B 2025/26, SM6311 and SM6327. | ||||||||
Assessment (Indicative only, please check the detailed course information) | ||||||||
Continuous Assessment: 100% | ||||||||
Detailed Course Information | ||||||||
| SM5316A.pdf | ||||||||
