Science Gallery London announces 'Friday Lates' as part of autumn AI programme
Dive further into the world of AI with performances, special events, a new exhibit and two opportunities for 'after hours' access
Indian electronica pioneers Murthovic and Thiruda will present Indofuturistic audiovisual performance ELSEWHERE IN INDIA
Science Gallery London’s current exhibition AI: WHO’S LOOKING AFTER ME? curated in partnership with FutureEverything is a questioning, playful look at the ways in which artificial intelligence is impacting so many areas of our lives – from our healthcare and justice systems, to how we look after our pets.
This autumn, the gallery will present a free programme of talks, performances and special events to complement the exhibition, bringing together artists, King's researchers and members of the public.
Drawing on the breadth of research interests at King’s and beyond, the programme will pose crucial questions about who’s involved, who’s not, and explore the potential for collective involvement in how AI systems are developed.
Highlights will include in-depth talks with expert panels that explore the opportunities and challenges of AI applications used in healthcare settings; the latest thinking around governance and regulation; and the public value of artists working with AI models.
Two Friday Lates will offer a sociable way to enjoy the exhibition after dark, enhanced by an exciting programme of live performances, discussions, games and interactive displays.
The season also includes three youth-led commissions: events and artworks curated by King’s students and young adults from the Gallery’s local boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth, including the new exhibit O-HORIZON.
Explores the urgent need to develop ethical frameworks and principles in the design of AI systems in ETHICS IN THE MACHINE
The idea of a monolithic, inevitable ‘AI’ seems to have seeped into our public discourse. But within those two letters is a world of inventive, playful, hopeful, worrying perspectives, and we’re excited to play host to so many of them this Autumn. The Gallery’s a rare, university-based home for unlikely communities of artists, young people, researchers, writers, students, poets, policymakers, citizens, activists to shape and share new dialogues about what’s happening in the world, and over course of our AI: Who’s Looking After Me? season, so many of them have been finding their way beyond AI’s sleek surfaces.
Siddharth Khajuria, Director, Science Gallery London
A look at the stories and speculations around AI. Headlining are Indian electronica pioneers Murthovic & Thiruda who bring their Indofuturistic audiovisual performance ELSEWHERE IN INDIA, which blends video game animation, AI-generated art, classical Indian dance and live DJing to explore the theme of AI for cultural good. The show is accompanied by a Q&A, and a display of 3D prints from the project. A second public performance on 7 October will feature as part of the London Film Festival’s Expanded Programme.
Elsewhere in the Gallery, visitors can take part in a roundtable discussion that asks CAN WE TRUST AI? led by King’s PhD students Tiarna Lee and Jhanelle White. Also on display will be the winning entries to the AI ETHICS THROUGH DESIGN competition hosted by isITethical? Exchange in collaboration with London College of Communication, focusing on the role of art and design in supporting responsible innovation of AI.
Examine means of resistance to dominant AI narratives and practices. Artist Wesley Goatley presents his fiction film/performance NEWLY FORGOTTEN TECHNOLOGIES: FIVE ECHOES about the ecological impact of ‘smart’ technologies and AI. A companion piece to his installation currently on display in the exhibition, this cautionary tale follows five Amazon voice assistants on their journey through the five stages of grief from the home to the waste heap.
Visitors can also play the interactive game HOW (NOT) TO GET HIT BY A SELF-DRIVING CAR - a collaboration between artist and game developer Tomo Kihara and design duo Playfool (Dan and Saki Coppen). A hit at Playable City festival in Bristol earlier this year, this fun, physical, life-sized game sees players become pedestrians who must make it to the end of a court without being detected by an AI-powered camera.
The evening will also feature roundtable discussion that asks WILL AI MAKE US BORING?.
TALKS & DISCUSSIONS
A live recording of the BBC GLOBAL NEWS PODCAST (13 Sep) hosted by BBC technology editor Zoe Kleinman and presenter Nick Miles offering audiences the chance to pose their burning questions about AI to an expert panel. Speakers include King’s College London researchers Kate Devlin (Department of Digital Humanities), Gabrielle Samuel (Global Health & Social Medicine), Vicky Goh (School of Biomedical and Imaging Sciences) and Cari Hyde-Vaamonde (Dickson Poon School of Law and Turing Institute Fellow) exploring the growing use of AI within care, health, justice, and the environment.
INCONVENIENT TRUTHS: AI, EQUITY & HEALTHCARE (25 Oct) asks how we can design better AI systems that do not create or perpetuate health disparities as faced by vulnerable groups. Speakers for this event, which will also be live streamed, include: Leo Anthony Celi, clinical research director and principal research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Computational Physiology; Alex Fefegha, co-founder of design and innovation studio Comuzi, recognised internationally for his work on algorithmic bias; Louise Hickman, an artist and researcher whose practice explores disability access; and King’s PhD student Tiarna Lee whose work explores racial and gender biases in AI-based segmentation and classification tools.
ETHICS IN THE MACHINE: AI & GOVERNANCE (1 Nov) explores the urgent need to develop ethical frameworks and principles in the design of AI systems, and asks who should be involved in regulation, governance, and accountability. Speakers include technology strategist Rachel Coldicutt, founder of independent research studio and social enterprise Careful Trouble; Urvashi Aneja, founding director of Digital Futures Lab that examines technology and society in the global south; and Sasha Brown from the Ethics and Society team at Google’s AI research lab DeepMind. The discussion, which will also be live streamed, is chaired by Hetan Shah, Chief Executive of the British Academy and Visiting Professor at King’s College London. This event will also be live streamed.
From October, researchers from King’s College London will lead a series of LUNCHTIME TALKS that examine the potential and the challenges of AI in a range of sectors, platforming some of the world-leading interdisciplinary research happening across the university. ARTISTS & AI(4 Oct) is the first in the series in which Dr Mercedes Bunz, and Eva Jäger explore the public value of artists working with AI models. They will present research from their work as Co-Investigators of the Creative AI Lab - a collaboration between Serpentine R&D Platform and the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London.
YOUTH-LED COMMISSIONS
The autumn programme also sees artworks and events curated by King’s students and emerging creatives from Southwark and Lambeth – all free and open to the public:
O-HORIZON (from 20 Sept) is a reflective, interactive exhibit by Jessica Montgomery which asks what kind of AI might emerge from our collective imaginings. Inspired by dead leaf litter on a fertile forest floor, visitors are invited to contribute their own ‘leaf’ to the installation - a written hope for how they wish AI to be.
POETRY LUV X AI: WHO’S LOOKING AFTER ME? (30 Sep) see emerging writer-performers from spoken word night Poetry Luv present a showcase of new AI-themed works inspired by their meetings with AI researchers and experts from King’s College London, Cari Hyde-Vaamonde, Tiarna Lee and Munkhtulga Battogtokh.
CAN WE TRUST AI? (6 Oct) & WILL AI MAKE US BORING? (17 Nov) are informal roundtable discussions which will feature as part of the Gallery’s Friday Lates. Hosted by King’s College London PhD students Tiarna Lee and Jhanelle White, they explore some of our fundamental questions and concerns about AI.
This autumn, a series of much needed conversations, but also participatory, engaging, and playful events, invite us to explore our complex relationship with AI. The programme not only complements our exhibition AI: Who’s Looking After Me? but, more importantly, enables everyone taking part to ask important questions, and to interrogate how AI technologies are embedded in our lives, shaping us and society.
Irini Papadimitriou, Creative Director of FutureEverything
