Duration: June 17–July 5, 2024
Event type: Lectures and Workshop
Organizer: China Academy of Arts
Venue: China Academy of Arts, Hangzhou, CHN

What’s that Reality in the Future?

The philosophical and artistic part of the course is a blend of visually rich lecture-seminars that delve into the intersection of intermedia art, philosophy of technology and speculative design research. The explored narratives are based on recent discourse within the field of philosophy of technology and acknowledgement of fundamental challenges that life on earth faces in the era of the so-called, fourth industrial revolution. We’re going to explore AI as a technology of automation and algorithmic cognition, peer-to-peer computation systems, new networked infrastructures and mixed realities. We will address some topics in purely technical terms, while others through the lens of socio-humanitarian studies, derivative aesthetics, epistemic challenges posed by synthetic forms of knowledge production and, of course, design questions that these technological projections pose in both near and far futures. It is important to recognise the scale of impact of the current state of computational advancements not only on every aspect of how the world is built, but also on how it is studied. We will be exercising recognition and prediction of the trends and challenges to come, that will be central to artistic & design research. Students will be invited to look at AI, Web3 & MR both through the lenses of speculative design and practical knowledge in order to learn work with these technologies within their individual, group, commissioned or self-initiated practices.

Finally, your speculative design will be showcased as an academic pictorial with artwork. While there are no strict rules for the artwork form, it's better to focus more on speculative practice rather than investing too much effort into exhibition production. Consider using mediums like novels, AIGC, or mixed reality devices (like Vision Pro) to depict future mixed realities.