Logo by Nicole Nelly Osur (Link)
How students engage with AI
EVC has invited students from member universities to participate in a virtual exhibition on the topic „(A) Eye - AI ... and the Future of Visual Culture”. A call was sent out, locally and via EVC’s newsletter. National curators coordinated the process on site.
The virtual exhibition explores the fascinating insights of how AI is redefining the boundaries of visual culture. From the projects received, the idea of exhibitions as a learning activity focusing attention on the interactive elements of the presentation is evident. The projects emphasize the benefits of AI in artistic creation, highlighting the blend of creativity, technology, and critical engagement. The exhibited artworks display the rigour as well as opportunities for new ways and methods of thinking about AI and human interaction. Integration of AI tools into virtual exhibitions gave the students space to engage with art and other disciplines in a personalized and immersive way, thus transforming passive observation into active creation. In the engagement with AI, the students were able to push the boundaries of learning practices, by exploring ways to make content more accessible, engaging, and inclusive. From the information gathered by various curators, the use of AI for virtual exhibitions not only enhances students’ digital literacy and knowledge but also empowers them to innovate and express complex ideas through a blend of technology and traditional art practices. The need to include AI driven courses is a shared feeling among the curators.
We owe a big debt to the exhibition curators and, particularly, to the student exhibitors who made tireless effort to ensure an interesting and worthwhile virtual exhibition takes place. The projects represented are educative and of good quality showing how AI is redefining the boundaries of visual culture. The exhibition demonstrates the potential for new forms of ‘looking’ at artistic creations and also highlighted issues that can be looked at in future exhibitions for a more robust outcome.
Jane Awuor Otieno, TUK Nairobi, Kenya
Technical University and Maseno University, Kenya
Libre Académie des Beaux-Arts, Douala
University of Education Winneba, Ghana
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
University of Passau, Germany & Durban University of Technology
The (analogue) exhibition opened at the conference >AI Media Innovations, Applications, Visual Culture, Challenges, and Future Trends< at TUK in Nairobi on 27 November 2024 (Link).