Our events
In Conversation: Olivia Laing & Philip Hoare
Monday 20 May 2024, 18:00 - 19:00 BST
John Hansard Gallery
Join Olivia Laing and Philip Hoare in conversation as they discuss Olivia’s new book, The Garden Against Time, an extraordinary investigation into garden-making and the search for paradise on earth.
The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.
Victor Burgin: Adaptation: Art in the Age of AI
Wednesday 22nd May, 10:00 - 12:30 BST
Lecture Theatre A, Westside Building, WSA, and online
In this illustrated talk, Burgin will first say something about the techno-cultural context to which his work Adaptation is response. He will then speak about the specific form and contents of the work itself.
Victor Burgin is an artist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz; Emeritus Millard Chair of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London; and Professor of Visual Culture, WSA, University of Southampton.
AI Arts Festival 2024
Sunday 2 June 2024
The Web Science Institute, University of Southampton, will be hosting its inaugural AI Arts Festival at the ARC and the Theatre Royal Winchester.
Join artists and musicians from the University of Southampton, our Winchester School of Art and around the world to explore how AI and the arts are coming together in media from photography, fashion and literature to comedy and jazz, in a festival of installations, demonstrations, comedy sets, readings and discussions.
We welcome our special guests, the ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE JAZZ, to perform an exploration of improvisations between instrumentalists and a machine within a large jazz orchestra.
The interactive all-day event is open to the public and will showcase the ways in which the University of Southampton is using the convergence of AI and the arts to explore crucial questions around how we are going to live responsibly and in harmony with powerful machines unleashed by revolutions in computing power and machine learning.
The festival culminates with a lively panel discussion featuring Dame Wendy Hall, BBC technology journalist Bill Thompson and other special guests. Followed by a late-night standup comedy set all about AI, from fantastic local comedians.
SIAH Public Life: Orit Halpern
Thursday 6 June 2024, 16:00 - 17:00 BST
We welcome Orit Halpern who will be in conversation with Ryan Bishop.
Orit Halpern is Full Professor and Chair of Digital Cultures at Technische Universität Dresden. Her work bridges the histories of science, computing, and cybernetics with design. She completed her PhD at Harvard. She has held numerous visiting scholar positions including at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, IKKM Weimar, and at Duke University. She is currently working on two projects. The first is a history of automation, intelligence, and freedom; the second project examines extreme infrastructures and the history of experimentation at planetary scales in design, science, and engineering.
Past events
Watch our previous events by clicking on the individual presentation links.