29 September 2022

The JUNGE AKADEMIE focuses on our relationship with artificial intelligence and ethics in the “AI Anarchies” Autumn School.

Kick-off discussion on 13 October with Hito Steyerl and Alex Hanna
13–20 October 2022, Hanseatenweg

The JUNGE AKADEMIE focuses on our relationship with artificial intelligence and ethics in the “AI Anarchies” Autumn School. From 13 to 20 October international artists, scholars and activists will come together for lectures, performances, and workshops in the Academy building at Hanseatenweg. The Autumn School opens up a space for new ideas, methods, and ways of thinking collaboratively while providing access to alternative networks of knowledge. The topics range from technology, ethics, and politics to models and thought experiments relating to anti-computing, ways of imagining anarchic AI, and a final discussion of the current situation in Europe and around the world. The full programme and information on the participants can be found online at aianarchies.net.

The curators of the Autumn School, Maya Indira Ganesh and Nora N. Khan focus on queer, feminist, abolitionist, and decolonial perspectives. “We no longer want to just look at how life with AI might look; instead, we would like to turn our attention to the anarchic, insubordinate and different forms of AI that still allow us to dream.” (Maya Indira Ganesh & Nora N. Khan)

The morning “provocations” and two evening performances are open to the public, as is the kick-off event on 13 October 2022, which will feature a conversation between artist Hito Steyerl and scholar Alex Hanna, Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). They will discuss how the socio-technological systems that have been handed down to us can be rejected, repudiated, and reinvented. After this session, Khyam Allami will offer an insight into his compositional work in a live improvised performance that crosses Arabic music with experimental compositional techniques, instrumentation, and technologies.

In the days that follow, a study group comprising twenty selected artists, activists and academics as well as ten fellows of the JUNGEN AKADEMIE will examine the main objectives and positions of the Autumn School. The programme is divided up into stimulating morning discussions (“provocations”), in which leading thinkers will work in pairs – Sarah Sharma & Jac sm Kee, Jackie Wang & Ramon Amaro, Tiara Roxanne & Mimi Onuoha, Louise Hickman & Laura Forlano, Nelly Y. Pinkrah & Heba Y. Amin – to generate new positions. The afternoon workshops will involve the collective development of theses for joint research practice. They will be followed in the evening by performances and lectures, including contributions from composer Jennifer Walshe, Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly) and artist and musician Johanna Hedva.

“AI Anarchies” is a project created by the JUNGE AKADEMIE at the Akademie der Künste. In addition to the Autumn School, the one-year programme includes a residency programme in cooperation with ZK/U Berlin with six artists and artist duos selected via an open call that started in July 2022 and will culminate in June 2023 with a final exhibition. It has been made possible by AI funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and is supported by an international curatorial advisory board.

Event schedule
AI Anarchies: Autumn School
aianarchies.net
13–20 October 2022
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin, Tel. 030 200 57-10 00

Public programme (presented in English, free admission)
Thursday, 13/10
6 pm: Opening event with Siegfried Zielinski, Clara Herrmann, Maya Indira Ganesh & Nora N. Khan
6.45 pm: Panel with Hito Steyerl & Alex Hanna
8.45 pm: Performance by Khyam Allami
Friday, 14/10
10.30 am – 12 pm: Morning “provocation” with Sarah Sharma & Jac sm Kee
Saturday, 15/10
10.30 am – 12 pm: Morning “provocation” with Jackie Wang & Ramon Amaro
7.30–20.30 pm: MOREOVER. Performance by Jennifer Walshe & Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly)
Monday, 17/10
10.30 am – 12 pm: Morning “provocation” with Tiara Roxanne & Mimi Onuoha
Tuesday, 18/10
10.30 am – 12 pm: Morning “provocation” with Louise Hickman & Laura Forlano
Wednesday, 19/10
10.30 am – 12 pm: Morning “provocation” with Nelly Y. Pinkrah & Heba Y. Amin
7.30–8.30 pm: The Guts of Glut. Performance by Johanna Hedva

See press releases from 17.01.2022 and 03.06.2022