17 January 2022
AI Anarchies
The JUNGE AKADEMIE launches a new scholarship programme devoted to ethics and artificial intelligence. Applications are now welcome.
The JUNGE AKADEMIE of the Akademie der Künste is awarding six one-off scholarships to international artists of all disciplines for a six-month residency in Berlin as part of the new AI Anarchies programme. The programme is being facilitated by artificial intelligence funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and is being served by an international curatorial advisory board. The call for applications is targeted at young, up-and-emerging artists who work with artificial intelligence as a subject and/or technology and who address ethical issues in their art. The scholarships are each endowed with EUR 20,000. The scholarship holders will be selected by a jury of members of the Akademie der Künste and other experts. The programme’s Berlin partner is the ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics, which is providing studio space for the six scholarship holders to live and work in. Applications can be submitted online from 17 January 2022. The closing date for applications is 17 March 2022. The text of the call for applications can be found here.
Artists were discussing the ethical challenges of autonomous machines long before the term “artificial intelligence” (AI) existed. Against the backdrop of the current boom in these technologies, the question of what constitutes “good” or “bad” AI is more relevant and complex than ever. The AI Anarchies programme enables artists to creatively and critically present alternative and experimental approaches to the issue of ethics and AI, propose ideas for discussion, play out future scenarios and find new metaphors and descriptions.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth:
“Artificial intelligence is a fascinating technology that opens up entirely new horizons, while also raising fears and uncertainty. That is why we need a broad debate in society that enables us to shed light on the effects of this technology on culture and our cultural life. The vital AI Anarchies scholarship programme supports artists in their efforts to shift the pressing social and ethical issues of AI technologies into the focus of debates from the artist’s point of view. In doing so, they will contribute to an understanding of digitisation and to communication on how it can improve the future of humanity.”
Akademie President Jeanine Meerapfel:
“Companies and governments around the world have established rules and pledged to build fairness and transparency into their systems. But what exactly are these rules? To develop an ethics of AI, many issues need to be discussed, issues of politics, responsibility and justice, subjectivity and empathy. Such current issues as postcolonialism and identity politics must also be included.”
The scholarship programme will be accompanied by a transdisciplinary Autumn School comprising workshops and lectures in October 2022 and will end with a presentation of the scholarship holders’ work in early summer 2023.
Applications
Artists can apply from 17 January 2022 via this link. Further information on the programme, jury, curatorial advisory board and funding guidelines can also be found on the application page.
The interdisciplinary artist-in-residence programmes of the JUNGE AKADEMIE fulfil the Akademie der Künste’s central task of promoting young international artists from all of the Akademie’s art sections. With its residency and work scholarships, the JUNGE AKADEMIE gives artists the opportunity to network with Akademie members and partners, to engage creatively in an interdisciplinary context and to develop and present art projects – in exhibitions, readings, performances, workshops and open studios events.