WHAT IS PATH-AI?
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.
As AI is heralded for enabling a new and revolutionary generation of powerful tools with vast potential, so too emerges an equally wide spectrum of harms that these technologies may engender at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. Biometric surveillance, intrusive personal profiling, and opaque algorithmic decision-making can leave individuals feeling disempowered, dehumanised and manipulated, while widespread use of data-driven predictive models threatens to reproduce historical legacies and patterns of discrimination and inequity.
Governments around the world are grappling with how to govern these technologies in a way that promotes their development and use for the public good while restricting these and other potential harms. But in the international rush to find acceptable global ethical codes and governance frameworks, whose values are being represented and who is being left out of the discussion? What might the ethics and governance of AI look like if they were de-centred from Anglo-European and American dominated perspectives, and instead incorporated non-Western wisdom and alternative approaches to ideas and values from the rest of the world?
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Japan Science and Technology Agency
WHO SHOULD APPLY FOR THIS RESIDENCY?
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, as defined below.
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.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE BEING UNDER-REPRESENTED WITHIN THE UK CREATIVE SECTOR WORKFORCE AND AUDIENCE?
• LGBTQIA+ and/or non-binary
• Having a migrant or refugee experience
• From African Diaspora, from South, East and South East Asian diaspora and/or Ethnically Diverse
• Neurodivergent
• Disabled
• Affected by a health condition or impairment
• Affected by homelessness
• Care-leaver/carer
• Unemployed and/or have received welfare benefits
• Working class and/or first in their immediate family to go to university
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 from the UAL Creative Computing Institute (e.g., natural language processing, image generation and processing, sound, games design, 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 residency
WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE COMMISSION?
This opportunity will support 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.
I AM NOT BASED IN OR FROM THE UK OR JAPAN, AM I STILL ELIGIBLE?
Eligible and encouraged. Though there may be potential challenges with a significant time difference, we'll do our best to accommodate
CAN I APPLY AS PART OF A COLLABORATION WITH ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL, OR A GROUP?
Yes, but the overall budget remains the same as listed above
RESIDENCY TIMELINE
31 Jan - deadline for submissions
Mid Feb - selection panel & interviews with shortlisted candidates (online)
March - August - 6 months residency and development
September- Nov - Final works presented
WILL I RECEIVE CONFIRMATION OF RECEIPT OF MY APPLICATION?
Yes, confirmation of all applications will be emailed.
WHO SELECTS THE ARTISTS?
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
Charlotte Webb, Senior Lecturer, the UAL Creative Computing Institute
James Wright, The Alan Turing Institute
Gary Zhexi Zhang, Somerset House Studios artist
CAN I RECEIVE FEEDBACK ON MY APPLICATION IF I’M NOT SUCCESSFUL?
Due to the anticipated volume of applications, we will not be able to offer feedback to unsuccessful applicants. Please note that the decision is final and there is no appeal or reconsideration process.
HOW MANY ARTISTS WILL BE SUPPORTED THROUGH THIS PROGRAMME?
Three artists will be supported to develop new works within a 6-month remote residency programme
WHEN WILL THE WORK BE PRESENTED?
Final works presented online by Somerset House in 2022.
WHAT IS THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS?
Monday 31 January 2022, 17.00 (GMT).