Expanding Relationality, Testing Affect: From Tinkering to (Artificial) Creativity

Cutting edge scientific research normally takes place behind closed doors of labs, either in industrial or commercial settings, or within research and educational institutions. Experimentation, tinkering and research on a personal level driven by plain curiosity and in creative ways not restricted by conventions and institutional rules has become something not only difficult but often impossible to pursue due to legal restrictions or the extremely expensive instruments and tools necessary to work on the molecular or technologically sophisticated levels of experimentation today.

AI and Robotics seem to be too complex to be approached on a DIY and hands on level, and mainly developed to be used for making us more transparent, predictable and replaceable. But examples such as the development of the open source Poppy robots at Flowers Lab in France, the development of an AI assistant at the Snips research lab that protects privacy, or creative AI programs developed by artists to write entire scripts for sci-fi films such as in “Sunspring” show how creativity can lead to disruptive approaches and new insights into the uses and possibilities related to such “technosciences”.

Questions about what additional knowledge and experience we can acquire by tinkering with and reflecting on current research in creative ways, and to what extend creativity in machines and artificial intelligence is being explored and developed will be addressed and discussed. Artist Marco Donnarumma will present his new research project as part of the UdK Graduate School Fellowship, developed in collaboration with Manfred Hild from the Neurorobotics Research Lab in Berlin, and Tarek Besold, who researchers the intersection between artificial intelligence, computational creativity, and cognitive systems.