Apply to the PATH-AI Residency programme as a musician

Deadline for Applications Monday 31 January, 2022, 17.00 (GMT).

Somerset House Studios and the UAL Creative Computing Institute, in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute, the University of Edinburgh, and the RIKEN research institute in Japan, launch the PATH-AI residency programme. Commissioning artists to create new works critically engaging with intercultural ideas of privacy, agency, and trust in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-driven technologies, the programme is aimed at artists interested in exploring the international landscape for AI ethics, governance, and regulation. Three artists will be supported to develop new works within a 6-month remote residency programme, with final works presented by Somerset House in 2022.

BACKGROUND

Privacy, Agency, and Trust in Human-AI Ecosystems (PATH-AI) is a collaborative and multidisciplinary research project between The Alan Turing Institute, the University of Edinburgh, and the RIKEN research institute in Japan. The aim of the project is to examine how the three interrelated values of privacy, agency, and trust work together in the very different cultural contexts of the UK and Japan in relation to AI and other data-driven technologies. Grounded in new research summarised in the PATH-AI interim report, the residency supports artists to engage with the report’s themes and findings, from the theoretical and cultural background of these values, to how they are being expressed and performed through everyday lived experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of exploring how differing intercultural understandings of these values can inform the ongoing shaping of the international landscape.

This work is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

OPPORTUNITY

Applications are invited from artists in any international location and from any discipline, with an interest in exploring the interrelated values of privacy, agency, and trust in human-AI ecosystems across different cultural contexts. Engaging with the findings of the PATH-AI interim report as a starting point, it is anticipated that artists will already be considering these themes in their existing work. Joining the Somerset House Studios community via a remote residency over a 6-month period, the artists will be supported to develop their project, to be published online within the Somerset House programme. Where artworks are not designed to live primarily online, the process and outcomes will be documented, and the resulting film shared as a project outcome.

Please read our Application Guidelines before submitting your application. Video applications are welcome, if you need to submit a video application, please email your video to studios@somersethouse.org.uk.

ELIGIBILITY

The opportunity is open to artists of all ages and from any discipline, who have been practising as an artist for a minimum of 5 years. Applications are welcome from anywhere in the world, and in particular, from those who bring a non-Western perspective to these themes. We particularly welcome applications from those under-represented within the UK creative sector workforce and audiences.

Though mentorship will be provided alongside access to expertise and technical support from both the UAL Creative Computing Institute and The Alan Turing Institute, it is expected that the artists will already be engaging with some of these themes as part of their practice. Both new projects and projects in development but not yet completed are eligible, but a finished project must be delivered by the end of the residency. Candidates will be selected based on the strength of their project proposal as well as their ability to deliver, and a demonstration that the residency will be beneficial to their practice.

The residency is envisioned as approximately 6 weeks full time but allows flexibility to pursue other projects and work around the residency. As such the structure of the residency is flexible and will be established as per the artist’s needs.

WHAT THIS RESIDENCY INCLUDES

  • Artist fee £5000 (inclusive of Vat or equivalent local sales tax where applicable)
  • Production budget £5000 (inclusive of Vat or equivalent local sales tax where applicable)
  • Curatorial and artist development support from Somerset House Studios
  • Access to online technical and advisory support in creative technology from the UAL Creative Computing Institute, (e.g. Natural Language Processing, Generative AI image processing, Sound and games design, Human and Computer interaction etc.)
  • Regular advisory meetings with researchers from The Alan Turing Institute to access expertise from the humanities and social sciences around intercultural concepts of privacy, agency and trust as they relate to AI and data-driven technologies in the UK and Japan.
  • A dedicated mentor, brokered through Somerset House Studios
  • Artist Outcome: online work + screen based element to be shown at Somerset House
  • Access to any artist development programmes or opportunities for Somerset House Studios artists made available during the course of the residency

RESIDENCY TIMELINE

31 January 2022: deadline for submissions
Mid February 2022: selection panel & interviews with shortlisted candidates (online)
March – August 2022: 6 months residency and development
September – November 2022: Final works presented

PANEL

David Leslie, The Alan Turing Institute
Leonara Manyangadze, Programme Producer, Somerset House Studios
Marie McPartlin, Director, Somerset House Studios
Maholo Uchida, co-curator AI: More than Human / Former Chief Curator at Miraikan
Charlotte Webb, Senior Lecturer, The UAL Creative Computing Institute
James Wright, The Alan Turing Institute
Gary Zhexi ZhangSomerset House Studios artist

HOW TO APPLY