Lisbon Workshop Series

AI Aesthetics III

Sala 6.2.45, Ciências ULisboa (com transmissão online)

“And even if we did succeed in doing so, it would still remain true, that the machine would remain utterly devoid of original initiative and would only do the special kind of thing it had been calculated to do. This, however, is no defect in a machine; we do not want it to do its own business, but ours.” C.S. Peirce Logical Machines (1887)

The study of computational aesthetics in the combination of computer science and A.I. examines how machines can assess aesthetics or display creativity or mimic aesthetic behavior. This field does not require artificial consciousness but instead relies on stochastics, algorithms and models that can imitate human aesthetic judgments or generate aesthetic outputs that might be judged by humans as aesthetically valuable. A.I. utopias envision a future where machine learning agential systems are not only tools engaged for efficiency, convenience, substitution of work or programmed profit but as well as explorations of the aesthetic and the sensible and intervene into our social common.

Still, AI systems might be proposed as a means for promoting the common good, public interest, fostering green transition, and even human values that underlie our diverse societies and ecosystems. What consequences do diverse forms of A.I. aesthetics, social-ethical and political participation in algorithmic society entail today? What praxeology of humanities must engage us concerning increasingly ubiquitous, intimate, affective calculations, computation and design by machine learning, and the cybernetic formalizations of human cultural techniques such as language, among others, for safeguarding our common futures?

In the early days of computer-generated art (Jones et al. 2023) from the 1950s onwards the works of computer art pioneers were influenced by mathematics, geometry, physics, combinatorial writing, and music, as well as by abstract art movements such as constructivism and op art. They were often experimental, exploratory, and playful, as the artists discovered new possibilities and limitations of the machines and their co-creativity, which reflected the social and cultural changes brought by the computerization of society. As computer technology evolved, artists began to use algorithms and other mathematical rules to create art- often to the detriment of the materiality (Nake 2010:60) aspect of the work. However, the value of the works was always debated, as early works were often seen as aesthetic design rather than art as it was frequently “biased toward attracting the attention of our brain’s most basic pattern-recognition skills”(Barrow, 1995 cit.in: Taylor, 2004:148) lacking artistic “resonance.”

We want to investigate the following questions among others:

  • Do A.I. generations enhance aesthetic indeterminacy (Zeilinger 2023) by enabling social scaffolding, diagrammatic reasoning, abduction, human Learning, and development, and contribute substantially to the UNESCO 2030 development goals?
  • How is democratic participation changed by A.I.Aesthetics?
  • Does AI-generated art serve the interests of powerful digital platforms that exploit users’ data and historical works and labor by using A.I. as a marketing, influencer, and manipulation tool or a surveillance device that collects personal information and preferences?
  • Is A.I. aesthetics praxis diminishing the reality index in which mean/demeaning images (Steyerl 2023) feed on latent spaces of exchange value, use value and commodity (cf. Adorno), critically assessed as based on a wrong idea of intelligence that could be designated dependently its perspective, “uncreative intelligence” (Mersch), “Artificial idiocy” (Zizek), “dumb meaning” (Bajohr 2022), or a satisficing (Hubert Simon) “cliché-generator”?
  • How does A.I. Aesthetics relate to society?
  • How did A.I. aesthetics co-evolve, mix, change and differ from other computer art and electronic arts, game aesthetics, beginning and aesthetic developments?
  • Are the new A.I. tools living up to their metaphors such as machine “hallucinations” or “dreams” (DeepDream) or even “windows into alternate realities in the latent space” (Emad Mostaque, Twitter, 7/3/2023)?
  • How A.I. aesthetics is related to social scaffolding, diagrammatic reasoning, abduction, human Learning?
  • How can we reach out from Style transfer of A.I. remakes/remixes to societal vision transfer?
  • How is Governance of A.I. through democratic processes and AI aesthetics strengthened or weakened?
  • What role does A.I. aesthetics play in architecture, urban planning, green, digital transitions, and questions of the digital-sensible divide?
CFCUL: Alexander Gerner, Renata Souza e Vinícius Jonas de Aguiar

In this course we will provide advanced hands-on training on some of the most used technological tools in field biology.

E3 Talk, por Simone Vieira (Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais, UNICAMP).

Inscrições abertas até 06 de junho.

Seminário Permanente de Filosofia das Ciências, por Vinícius Jonas de Aguiar (CFCUL/GI3).

Seminário Doutoral do Departamento de Informática, por Bernardo Almeida.

Título e data do evento, sobre fotografia de paisagem polar

Neste evento, a elite mundial de exploradores e cientistas partilhará com o público as descobertas mais recentes, as tecnologias mais inovadoras e as novas missões que prometem revolucionar o futuro do espaço, dos oceanos e do planeta.

A joint organization between Luisa Fiorot (Dipartimento di Matematica ”Tullio Levi-Civita”, Padova, Italy) and Teresa Monteiro Fernandes (CMAFcIO, FCUL, Portugal).

A short course by Luisa Fiorot (Dipartimento di Matematica ”Tullio Levi-Civita”, Padova, Italy).

Fotografia do mar, titulo dos cursos e logótipos das entidades promotoras

Brevemente serão disponibilizados mais 6 cursos, estando já previsto um na área da Biotecnologia Marinha, programado para início de outubro.

Título do evento e representação de átomo

O principal objetivo desta formação é capacitar doutorandos e doutorados de instituições de ensino superior e centros de investigação para os temas de empreendedorismo, inovação e transferência de conhecimento, permitindo-lhes perceber de que forma podem potenciar ainda mais o impacto gerado pelo

Colóquio de Matemática, por Jean-Baptiste Casteras (CMAFcIO, FCUL).

Ação de formação para docentes, por Sofia Sá.

Sessão no âmbito do Lisbon Workshop Series.

Título do evento e fotografia de participantes numa sessão

O prazo de submissão de resumos termina no dia 30 de abril.

Logótipo da iniciativa e fotografia de dois investigadores

Ciência Aberta e Inovação: uma abordagem colaborativa, transparente e acessível.

Título do evento e fotografia de dois estudantes

Candidaturas para estudantes regulares da ULisboa até 28 de março de 2023.

Título do evento e fotografia de utilizador de computador

Curso com candidaturas a decorrer.

Logótipo do prémio

As candidaturas à 10.ª edição decorrem até 30 de junho de 2023.

Título/data do evento, logótipo da Rede MAR e fotografia do mar

Applications from 01 June to 15 June 2023.

Logótipo do programa, sobre um fundo amarelo

Inscrições para Monitores até 31 de maio.

As candidaturas estão abertas até 26 de maio de 2023.

The course aims at enabling the participants to use different methods to measure the impacts of pollutants on ecosystems. Basic knowledge will be provided through theoretical and practical lessons on how to select and use the most suitable metrics based on the analysis of multiple compartments of the ecosystems.

Título da iniciativa e fotografia do espaço

The program involves developing a research or science communication project under the supervision of researchers and science communicators from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA). Two science communication workshops and a final seminar, in which the work developed is presented, are also part of the program.

Logótipo do CFTC, título e datas dos estágios

Three-weeks working on a project with a Researcher as a Supervisor, along with other workshops and activities - open to BSc or MSc students in Physics, Engineering Physics, Biomedical Engineering or other related fields.​

Ação de formação para docentes, por Carlos Seco.

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