New Realities of Art: A Panel on the Creative Collaboration with Generative AI
Date: 19th November
Time: 3:30pm to 4:00pm
About
Artists have always adopted the latest technology as tools and new mediums of expression. However, the most recent technology, artificial intelligence, adds a layer to the creative process that no technology has done before. AI has the potential to evolve from tool and medium to collaborator and by doing so, it challenges the definitions of art and creativity. This panel is a means to understand the potential, possibilities and risks working with AI offers art and art practitioners.
Speakers
Harshit Agarwal
Blessin Varkey
Nithya Sampathkumar
Moderator
Amruta Nemivant
About the Speakers
Harshit Agrawal is an artist working with emerging technologies, primarily artificial intelligence. His practice is centered around the theme of exploring the poetics of technology in our already posthuman existence. He is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab (USA) and IIT Guwahati. Along with his art practice, he has authored several publications and patents about his work at the intersection of human computer interaction and creative expression. Agrawal has been working in the space of AI and Art for nearly a decade. He was the only Indian artist at the first global exhibition of AI Art in a contemporary gallery (at Nature Morte Gallery in 2018). He held India’s First Solo Exhibition of AI Art at Emami Art Gallery in Kolkata in 2021. His work has been shortlisted twice for the top tech art prize, among the top 3% of all global tech art works for the Lumen Prize. He is Google's first Indian AI Artist in residence. He has exhibited work globally, including at Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), Tate Modern (UK), Asia Culture Center (Korea), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (India), Museum of Tomorrow (Brazil) among others. His work has been extensively covered in international media, including BBC, New York Times, Artnet, STIR World.
Blessin Varkey leads an engineering team specializing in Generative AI at Tata Consultancy Services, with a diverse background in theatre, research, and social innovation. He is also a visiting faculty at NIFT Delhi, where he teaches "Theatre: Performance, AI & Design." Blessin also co-designed ClimateProv, an improvised theatrical AI performance, which was showcased at festivals in India and the Netherlands.
Nithya Sampathkumar works at Adobe as Sr. Director leading Product Management for Illustrator and Generative AI for Design. She has been at Adobe for two years and prior to that she has worked at Microsoft for more than two decades in the US and India, leading various broad scoped charters across SQL Server, Azure, and Office.
Sampathkumar holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University and Bachelors in Engineering in Computer Science from the College of Engineering, Anna University
Amruta Nemivant has a Masters in History of Art from University of York, UK. She is currently working in the programme and culture department of Goethe-Institut Mumbai focusing on especially their visual arts programme. Recently, through the work of the institute, she has focused on projects and exhibitions that delve into ‘Tech-Art’ or ‘Art-Science-Tech’ as well as address environment and civil society concerns. Through collaborations between Goethe-Institut Mumbai and leading museums like the ZKM, she has worked closely on different aspects related to art and computing, AI, NFTs, Open source, among others