How AI is Changing Art and the Humanities, and To What Ends

Tuesday, October 29th, 9am – 5pm
Wednesday, October 30th, 9am – 5pm

The Skylight Room (9100), CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave, NYC. Free and open to the public.
Register below to attend.

Artwork by Maedeh Norouzi, from "HOMO SAPIENS series," 2023-24 Photo print 70x70cm

Art Science Connect presents a two-day interdisciplinary symposium “How AI is Changing Art and the Humanities, and To What Ends” at the CUNY Graduate Center to explore recent developments and uses of AI.

Generative AI is at the forefront of emerging artificial intelligence technologies that are rapidly transforming art, the humanities, and cultural economies worldwide. It is fundamentally changing how we write, research, and teach, and what it means to be creative. Yet we know little about where this might lead us. The CUNY Graduate Center will present an interdisciplinary symposium to explore recent developments and uses of AI. The two-day symposium will present a range of topics that address the ethical and political considerations around AI, creative collaborations between humans and AI, the early history of “machines with intelligence,” and AI’s biases and applications.

Symposium participants include scholars who are specialists in AI aesthetics and the history of machine learning, multi-media artists and computational researchers experimenting with AI.

Symposium Schedule

Tuesday, October 29, Skylight Room, CUNY Graduate Center                                                                      

8:15-9:00am                             Registration, coffee                

9:00-9:15am                             President’s welcome              

9:15-10:45am AI as Language Technology and the Posthuman   

Tom Looser (NYU), Jonathan Abels (Penn State U.), Nick Montfort (MIT)

10:45am-12.30pm   Photography and AI Manipulation

Lev Manovich (The CUNY Graduate Center), Jessica Bal (The CUNY Graduate Center), Michael Mandiberg (College of Staten Island and The CUNY Graduate Center), Tobias Fandel (The CUNY Graduate Center)

12:30-1:30 pm                            Lunch break               

1:30-3:00pm  Writers and Artists Interacting with AI         

Kyle Booten (U. of Connecticut), Katy Gero (Harvard), Daniel DeLuca (Coastal Carolina U.)

3:00-3:30pm                               Coffee break

3:30-5:00pm  Artist Conversations            

Ellie Pritts (artist), Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Data & Society, Digital DNA, and Artist in Residence at Exploratorium), Camilo Salas, (Hunter College, CUNY and Panflute.nyc) 

Wednesday, October 30, Skylight Room, CUNY Graduate Center                                                               

8:30-9:15am                               Registration, coffee                

9:15-9:30am                               Welcome remarks                   

9:30-11:00am    Histories Behind AI 

Andreas Killen (City College, CUNY), London Tsai (artist), Doug Barrett (Syracuse U.), Doug Geers (Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center)

11:00am-12:30pm AI, Climate Change, and the Posthuman   

Maedeh Norouzi (Université Libre de Bruxelle), Chloe Smolarski (The CUNY Graduate Center and Pratt Institute)

12:30-1:30pm                            Lunch break               

1:30-3:00pm    Legal and Ethical Implications of AI             

Zac Zimmer (UC-Santa Cruz), Atreya Mathur (Center for Art Law), Todd Brous (School of Visual Arts)

3:00-3:30pm                               Coffee break

3.30-5:00pm   Data Fluencies Theatre Project    

Iona Jucan (Emerson College), Yuguang Zhang (NYU), Katherine Fisher (NYU)


View or download the schedule as a PDF file below:

AI Symposium ScheduleDownload

This 2-day Symposium is free and open to the public, please register here to attend in-person.