Art and Critical Thinking

"The Cinderella Moment is where art meets science — and changes in our perceptions affect the way we capture data."¹ The ETH AI Center‘s AI+Art program was chasing that Cinderella Moment.

By fostering the collaboration between artists and researchers, the AI+Art program invigorated the symbiotic relationship between art and science to empower a critical, ethical and creative mindset in education, research and development and to communicate more broadly beyond industry and entrepreneurship from science to society.

AI+Art promotes an understanding of AI that takes appropriate account of the social, cultural, ethical, sustainable and environ- mental dimensions. We are dedicated to reshaping the narrative and actively contributing to a future-oriented constructive ex- change on the transformative power of AI.

With the art and science collaborations we aimed to
- promote Critical Thinking and ethics,
- diversify knowledge and Intelligence,
- contribute new questions and alternative perspectives as well as
- provide inspiration, create visions and fictions for/of the future.

By incorporating themes of public interest with artists as investigators, mediators and moderators, the common goal was to instigate a meaningful and inclusive dialogue with a broader audience and to captivate them cognitively, emotionally, and aesthetically, offering a unique and immersive experience on different levels.

The AI+Art program is divided into two areas of activity, Conversations and Projects, each with four different formats. This creates an ecosystem where art and science meet in the context of AI research.
The Conversations promote dialog and interaction between artists and scientists, a way of getting to know each other. In the projects, the focus is on realizing works and products together and collaboratively.

¹ Krebs Cycle of Creativity, Neri Oxman, 2016