SAN FRANCISCO, CA, US – July 25, 2024
Anchored in the future of the creative professions, the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD – Genève) presents its take on artificial intelligence (AI) at Swissnex San Francisco’s Pier 17. The exhibition Assembling Intelligence – Hybrid Strategies for AI, Art & Design is open to the public from August 22 to November 30, 2024. It features research projects and artistic works from HEAD – Genève’s students and teachers, aimed at expanding understanding of the arts, and the boundaries of creativity. This is the first time these projects and artworks are showcased in the US.
About the exhibition
The exhibition is free and open to a curious audience starting on August 19, 2024. Visitors of the exhibition have the opportunity to explore how HEAD – Genève’s initiatives in AI are shaping the future of digital creation and artistic expression.
Through the dialogue between the artworks of Weiyu Chen, Léonie Courbat, Jeremias Fries, Alexandra Galian, Margot Herbelin, Elie Hofer, Quentin Piel Langlet, Chloé Richard, Alpha Syn, and Elsa Wagnieres, and the research projects of Sylvie Boisseau, Sabrina Calvo, Kévin Donnot, Élise Gay, Guillaume Helleu, Sonia Laugier, Nicolas Nova, Anthony Masure, Alexia Mathieu, Chloé Michel, Etienne Mineur, Douglas Edric Stanley, Frank Westermeyer and David Zerbib, the exhibition seeks to inspire and provoke thought about the intersection of AI, art, and design. It showcases how these fields can collaborate to push the boundaries of creativity.
“In our contemporary world of rapidly expanding mechanical neural networks, the scale and speed of change boggles the mind. In such an alien landscape, it is precisely the role of the artist to reach beyond the boundaries of binary thinking and find new alliances that do not map neatly into metaphysical separations of the artificial and the natural.”
– Douglas Edric Stanley, Maître d’enseignement, HEAD – Genève
This exhibition is part of Déjà Vu, an event series by Swissnex in San Francisco exploring the relationship between AI and human creativity, raising critical questions about the nature, ethics, and future of artistic creation in an age of intelligent machines.
Significance of the exhibition
The techniques employed in current AI trends, such as generative artworks and language models, may seem novel, yet they are rooted in long-standing dreams of expanding the possible. Assembling Intelligence – Hybrid Strategies for AI, Art & Design embraces a variety of approaches that blend the old and the new, fostering a form of “lateral thinking” in our rapidly evolving technological landscape.
“Art has always been able to challenge our perceptions, evoke deep emotions, and inspire innovation. We don’t know yet what we’ll find at the intersection of Art and AI, but I am certain that it is a space ripe with potential that could lead to breakthroughs in unexpected areas. ”
– Emilia Pasquier, CEO of Swissnex in San Francisco
About Swissnex in San Francisco
Swissnex in San Francisco is Switzerland’s innovation outpost in the Bay Area with a vision to connect tomorrow by empowering the next generation of innovators to collaborate and create futures in which the planet and society thrive. They present a variety of programs in collaboration with Swiss partners for the next-gen innovators from Switzerland, including entrepreneurs, students and researchers, artists and designers, policy-makers, and corporate innovators. Swissnex is an initiative of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and is part of the Confederation’s network abroad managed by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
About HEAD – Genève // Geneva University of Art and Design
Created in 2006 from the merger of two prestigious schools, the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Haute École d’Arts Appliqués, HEAD – Genève draws on a rich cultural and artistic heritage to nurture young creative talent nationally and internationally. Renowned for the quality of its bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Fine arts, Cinema, Interior Architecture, Space and Communication, Visual Communication, Media Design, as well as Fashion and Accessory Design, it has established itself as one of the leading schools of art and design in Europe.
HEAD – Genève has strong ties with the local artistic community and promotes international exchanges and interdisciplinary collaboration. Emphasizing freedom and responsibility, its teaching philosophy fosters individuality through dialogue between teachers and students.
HEAD – Genève is part of the HES-SO Geneva (University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Geneva), which comprises six educational institutions offering internationally recognised university level degrees focusing on professional practice.
www.head-geneve.ch
Media Contact
Sophie Bohnen
Head of Communications, Swissnex in San Francisco
