Mariam Rafehi & Regina Wuzella
Towards New Critical (Art) Practices?
Seminar, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Mondays, 16-19 h, 7 dates: 13.5.; 27.5.; 10.6.; 24.6.; 1.7.2024; plus 2 Excursions tba
Grunewaldstr. 2-5, Medienhaus, Raum 016 (Galerie)

Registration on Moodle starts 15.04.2024:
https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=2277
Moodle Enrollment Key / Einschreibeschlüssel: practices

Starting from Phil Agre´s (1997) approach on “Critical Technical Practice” we will explore societal impacts, ethical considerations, and cultural implications of emerging technologies and AI systems: to learn about the intersections of technology, artificial intelligence, and society, we will engage in discussions and analyses of (contemporary) art, readings, and critical discourse. What functions should artificial intelligence (AI) assume within the creative process or practice, and what frameworks or structures ought to govern the collaborative interplay between AI and human agents? What new forms of knowledge emerge from this human-technology collaboration and how should the integration of AI be conceptualized within an arts education setting?
How technology and new technological systems shape our way of producing knowledge and culture will be a driving question throughout the course. By reading literature on Critical Tech and AI, reviewing evolving (ethical and legal) guidelines and debates, as well as technology-based art practice we will engage in the contemporary discourse on the epistemic shift in the Rise of AI systems.

The seminar will present a forum for discussion that invites distinct and dissimilar voices. Beyond the seminar, we intend to co-found a Working Group that will further engage with the above-mentioned questions and will invite all individuals affiliated with the UDK to engage in the discourse on critical AI.

Methodology:

• Theoretical inputs on media activism (movements such as Tactical Media) and studying STS-based literature that engages with the epistemic shift in the rise of AI-based systems (e.g. Bruno Latour, Peter-Paul Verbeek)
• Workshop or Guest Lecture/Working Sessions
• Two field trips including a visit at Tactical Tech (https://tacticaltech.org/partner-with-us/) and KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin (details and dates tba).

Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credit points: Participation in class discussions and activities; One critical analysis of a scientific writing (1-2 pages); Final project (research on one topic, which may include research papers, creative projects, or activist interventions).

Mariam Rafehi is an interdisciplinary designer & practice-based researcher in emergent media. She is exploring evolving digital learning cultures & participative methods for education design as part of the project “InKüLe” at the UdK. Prior to that, she worked with international partners on a research project focusing on potential applications of VR in education. Based on her research with immersive media, she has been a lecturer at Northwestern University and Virginia Commonwealth University.
Regina Wuzella is working on her PhD on machine sensing. She studied Media Studies at the University of Vienna and at the Université Paris Nanterre and Post-Conceptual Art Practices at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She completed a research semester at UC-Berkeley, CA and was then a research assistant at FAU-Erlangen-Nuremberg and also worked as a freelancer in the cultural field and freelance lecturer at Bauhaus Universität Weimar and Filmuniversity Babelsberg, Potsdam.