UNESCO AI Ethics Residency

Somerset House Studios and UNESCO launch a new joint residency programme, which will commission three international artists to create new online works critically engaging with intercultural ideas around AI and ethics, supported by a remote residency. All three artists will take part in UNESCO’s annual Global Forum on the Ethics of AI in June 2026, (location tbc), sharing their research and works in progress to an audience of international policy makers, before presenting the final works on Somerset House’s online platform Channel at the end of 2026.

Opportunity

Somerset House Studios’ partnership with UNESCO is the first of its kind, an opportunity for three artists to:

• Develop new work with support from both Somerset House Studios and UNESCO
• Attend UNESCO’s Global Forum in 2026, to share research and works in progress directly with a global audience of policymakers from over 80 countries
• Present final work on Somerset House’s online platform Channel at the end of 2026, contributing to discussions on the theme at an event in London

Applications are invited from artists in any international location and from any discipline, with an interest in critically engaging with intercultural ideas around AI, ethics, governance and regulation, in different cultural contexts. Engaging with human-rights-centred principles and / or policy areas of the Recommendation as a starting point, it is anticipated that artists will already be considering themes around ethics and AI in their work, and that they are interested in making work with the potential to impact policy. We are particularly interested in supporting international artists who bring a non-Western perspective to these themes.

Joining the Somerset House Studios community via a remote residency over a 3-month research and development period, and with mentorship from the UNESCO Expert Network, the artists will be supported to develop their project, with the final work presented online. We welcome ideas beyond the traditional format of a film, which are feasible within the available budget, but it must be possible to demo or present work in progress in a presentation format at the Global Forum on the Ethics of AI.

The opportunity builds on the previous Somerset House Studios’ residency PATH AI in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute and UAL’s Creative Computing Institute, which took place in 2022. Three artists were commissioned to make new works exploring ideas of privacy, agency and trust in human-AI ecosystems, with Nouf Alyowaysir’s commission Ana Mein Wen (Where Am I From?) winning the Lumen Prize for Moving Image in 2023 and released by The New York Times Op-Docs series in 2024, and Juan Covelli’s Los Caídos (The Fallen) receiving an Honorary Mention in the New Animation Art category at Ars Electronica in 2025.

What The Residency Includes

Each artist will receive:

• £7,500 artist fee and £7,500 production budget to create a new film for Channel
• Support from Somerset House Studios’ Residency and Digital Producers, via monthly meetings.
• Advisory sessions with UNESCO
• A dedicated artist mentor from the Somerset House Studios community and mentorship from the UNESCO Expert Network.
• Regular group cohort meetings to strengthen peer learning.
• Facilitated online introductions to Somerset House Studios artists and alumni.
• Support to participate in inclusive hybrid training session at the UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of AI (location tbc) in June 2026, including travel and accommodation.
• The opportunity to participate in a Somerset House Studios event in June 2026.
• Connection to the n-Space network, a new space for interdisciplinary experimentation across art and technology at Somerset House Studios, and the wider Studios artistic community.
• Presentation of final work on Somerset House’s online platform, Channel at the end of 2026, with the potential to travel to London to contribute to a live event at the Studios.

Background

The rapid rise in artificial intelligence (AI) has created many opportunities globally, from facilitating healthcare diagnoses to enabling human connections through social media, and creating labour efficiencies through automated tasks. However, these rapid changes also raise profound ethical concerns, including the potential for AI systems to embed biases, contribute to climate degradation, threaten human rights and more. Such risks have already begun to compound on top of existing inequalities, resulting in further harm to already marginalized groups.

UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence is the first-ever globally recognised standard on AI ethics of its kind, adopted by 193 Member States in November 2021. Central to the Recommendation are four core values which lay the foundations for AI systems that work for the good of humanity, individuals, societies and the environment; Respect, protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms and human dignity; living in peaceful, just, and interconnected societies; ensuring diversity and inclusiveness; environment and ecosystem flourishing.

Laying out a set of core principles to support a human-rights centered approach to the ethics of AI, the Recommendation identifies a set of policy areas for Member States to operationalize these values and principles, covering areas including culture, education and labour. UNESCO’s annual Global Forum on the Ethics of AI is a high-level event which progresses these Recommendations, aiming to advance the state-of-the-art knowledge of the challenges raised by AI technologies, and facilitate learning among governments and other stakeholders.

A summary of Key Facts from UNESCOs Recommendations is available here.

Criteria

The residency is conducted in English.

We are looking for:

• Mid-career artists over 18 years of age (6+ years' experience of producing and presenting work).
• Artists in any international location who are not based in the UK, with a particular interest in those who bring a non-Western perspective to the themes.
• Artists from any discipline, with an interest in AI, ethics, governance and regulation.
• Artists who present a clear proposal for what they would like to develop over the programme and can demonstrate how this residency could impact their practice. Please note that artworks created must not use generative AI tools.
• Artists eager to share ideas within a cohort setting.

This initiative is supported by the European Union-funded project “Supporting Member States in lmplementing UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of Al through lnnovative Tools”.