At the beginning of September, the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab team travelled to Linz in Austria for one of the biggest digital arts festivals, Ars Electronica. The trip was organised as part of one of the lab’s partnerships coordinated by lab manager Charlotte Bander, the ArtScience Residency.

The residency programme is facilitated in cooperation with Art Collection Deutsche Telekom and Ars Electronica and its aim is to bring together the arts, science, and technology. “Working together with artists has been at the heart of the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab since its launch, so the ArtScience Residency has been a great way for us to continue our engagement with artists and designers and to bridge the gap between academia and the art world”, says lab manager Charlotte Bander. “We’re proud to be the residency programme’s science partner for the years 2022 and 2023 and to welcome Irakli Sabekia and Špela Petrič at the lab for their residencies”.

Irakli Sabekia came to Bonn for his residency in March 2022 to meet the team, present his project idea and get valuable feedback from the researchers on ethical issues related to the proposed platform and app. The lab’s researchers were equally excited to learn about the project and to gain insights into issues of spatial (in-)justice as well as inspiration for their own research. The lab has also started its collaboration with Špela Petrič, who will create an art project on the use of AI in the healthcare space. Irakli Sabekia’s project was exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival in September, so the team was thrilled to see the ‘Archive of Spatial Knowledge’ it in its final form after watching it take shape over the year.

During the festival, the lab’s director Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe and Irakli Sabekia participated in the panel “Residency. But How?” and shared their experiences with the residency programme. The lab’s team also had the chance to see many other artworks and performances with wonderful guided tours through the exhibition spaces as well as a concert by electronic music pioneer Laurie Anderson.

Especially intriguing and relevant to the research at the lab was the STUDIO(dys)TOPIA exhibition space with projects that were developed in a similar fashion to Irakli Sabekia’s project, all focussed around the themes of climate change, sustainability and alternative visions of the future. A project that stood out in particular was ‘The Fallen Clouds’ by Josefina Buschmann and her collaborators, an art installation that shines a light on the physical infrastructure behind cloud computing. The festival’s slogan ‘A different life is possible’ was the perfect encapsulation of these ideas of how things can be done differently, more sustainably and more inclusively, which connects right back to what the lab is working to show in connection to AI.

Ars Electronica was a great opportunity to make connections, share ideas, change perspectives and get some inspiration for upcoming projects and research. The lab looks forward to the continuing collaboration with the artists, Art Collection Deutsche Telekom and Ars Electronica.