An AI-powered robot pet, AI-inspired stand-up comedy, and live music with AI will be amongst the futuristic exhibits and performances at the University’s first AI Arts Festival organised by our Web Science Institute and Winchester School of Art.
Visit the festival website for further information and to reserve tickets.
The one-day public event, taking place on Sunday 2 June in Winchester, at Theatre Royal Winchester and The Arc will be officially opened by The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Winchester, Councillor Russell Gordon-Smith, and will explore and celebrate how and where artificial intelligence meets the arts.
The festival is split into daytime and evening sessions. During the day, there will be demonstrations, installations, music, discussions and stand-up comedy.
The evening event will feature a performance by France’s Orchestre National de Jazz with musical machine collaborators designed at France’s renowned national institute for computer-music research, IRCAM. There will also be a discussion on AI and the arts with Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science, BBC technology writer Bill Thompson and guests, including some of the artists.
Stand-up comedy and a live music and a visual installation by Dr Pablo Galaz, Lecturer in Composition and Analysis complete the evening line-up. Dr Galaz’s ‘Human-like’ will feature four musicians, with one using facial gestures and hand movements to trigger sounds from computers and electronic devices.
“It’s as if the machine is trying to understand the human body,” said Dr Galaz. “The audience will be surrounded by the performers and visual projections, and it will be like being inside the machine.”
Ink Gao, postgraduate researcher in Design at Winchester School of Art, is taking part with her AI robotic pet, GUA. Inspired by the actions and behaviours of reptiles and birds, GUA can sense light, touch, movement and sound, and she ‘thinks’ and acts independently.
“I’d describe her personality as active, inquisitive, and sometimes aggressive,” said Ink, who studied biology as an undergraduate and is combining this experience with design and engineering.
“My motivation for designing and building GUA is the potential to replicate real life pets. Most people love to interact with animals, but not everyone can keep a pet. In the future, I think people will have robotic pets like GUA as companions – they don’t replace the real thing, but are a good substitute.”
Professor Thomas Irvine, the festival’s co-artistic director and Head of Music at the University, said: “I’m so pleased that this exciting new festival has come together like it has. My co-directors, Les Carr, Professor of Web Science, and Professor Larry Lynch, Head of Winchester School of Art, and I are thrilled that we’ve been able to put together a programme that brings together artists, writers, musicians and even comedians to explore what AI means for artistic expression. There are lots of questions to ask about this technology, but also lots about our humanity it can already show us. It’s a special time.”