Valerie Wolf Gang is “Artist in Residence” at DFKI Saarbrücken

DFKI Managing Director Prof. Antonio Krüger with artist Valerie Wolf Gang. Photo: DFKI/Armindo Ribeiro

Press release of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

For four weeks, DFKI opens its laboratories, workshops, and offices to the media artist, film director, and art researcher Valerie Wolf Gang from Slovenia. The artist is a Goethe-Institut fellow as part of the large-scale project “Generation A=Algorithm” and will be “Artist in Residence” at the DFKI Saarbrücken site from September 18 to October 16, 2021. The aim of the program is to promote artistic access to developments in the field of artificial intelligence.

Valerie Wolf Gang works at the intersection between art and science. Her work often addresses the relationship between humans and technology and has been exhibited internationally, including in China, Austria, Portugal, Singapore, and the United States. She has received various prestigious grants and awards, most recently the Artist in Residence program of the Darmstadt Days of Photography. With her company foundation UV Arthouse, she produces experimental films and video installations. A graduate of the School of Arts at the University of Nova Gorica, she is a Ph.D. candidate at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU), a research associate at the Institute of Fine Arts in Vienna, and a mentor in the Center for Creativity Slovenia program. She is a member of the jury of the International Film and New Media Festival. At the digital Ars Electronica 2021, she realized the project Renaissance 2.0, which dealt with the influence of artificial intelligence on our everyday life.

“I would like to find out how we use or develop technologies like AI beyond market interests to express ourselves creatively or to improve our social coexistence. I am interested in the question of whether AI can exercise an independent form of creativity,” says Valerie Wolf Gang about her residency at DFKI.

Especially in the field of media informatics, DFKI has already realized projects in an artistic environment, for example in 2013 with the World Cultural Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte or at Ars Electronica 2010 in cooperation with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. “We are pleased to be part of the project “Generation A=Algorithm” and to have won an internationally renowned media artist in Valerie Wolf Gang. As a place where art and AI space meet, we hope to give new impetus to the discussion about artificial intelligence as a creator of art or a source of inspiration,” said Prof. Dr. Antonio Krüger, DFKI CEO and professor of Media Informatics at Saarland University.

Goethe-Institut’s large-scale project “Generation A=Algorithm” aims to highlight and critically reflect on technical developments in the field of artificial intelligence. The project is aimed at young adults between the ages of 18 and 30, as they point the way for the following generation, “Generation A,” and their dealings with algorithms in everyday life. The aim of the project is to stimulate a public debate about existing approaches, potentials, and risks of artificial intelligence within the coming generation. As part of the “Generation A=Algorithm” project, an AI residency program will initiate both a dialogue between art and technology and a dialogue beyond the borders of European countries. Virtual exchange is planned with the Goethe-Institut fellows Douna Lim and Théo Pesso, who are residing at the same time at the RICAIP research center in the Czech Republic. Institutions and companies working on artificial intelligence and opening their doors to young artists across Europe will be enriched by the program, as will artists gaining deeper insights into technological developments. The residencies last four weeks and are affiliated with an institution that is intensively involved in the development of artificial intelligence and algorithm-based systems.

More information
https://valeriewolfgang.com

Press Contact:
Heike Leonhard, M.A
Unternehmenskommunikation, DFKI
Email: Heike.Leonhard@dfki.de:
Telefon: +49 681 85775 5390

Background Saarland Informatics Campus:
800 scientists and about 2100 students from more than 80 nations make the Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC) one of the leading locations for computer science in Germany and Europe. Five world-renowned research institutes, namely the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, the Center for Bioinformatics and the Cluster for “Multimodal Computing and Interaction” as well as Saarland University with three departments and 24 degree programs cover the entire spectrum of computer science.