What has happened within the AICA project in the last year?

The AICA project, AI in Culture and Art, funded by the Bayerisches Forschungsinstitut für digitale Transformation (bidt), has seen a remarkable year of progress and innovation.

A key milestone was the first edition of an interdisciplinary project workshop, where students from both Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences, and Hochschule für Musik und Theater München collaborated on creative projects blending culture, art, and artificial intelligence. This workshop exemplified core principles of the AICA project: student-driven teaching and interdisciplinarity. Students achieved thought-provoking projects such as an AI-augmented museum audio guide to enhance visitor experiences or human-machine co-improvisation experimentations.

I am also very proud of our lecture series involving artists, academics, and policymakers, which is now publicly available on YouTube. Together with the tutorials we created, I believe this corpus of knowledge is unique worldwide: if there are a few MOOCs about machine learning for creatives, none of them is freely available and up-to-date as the content we co-constructed at AICA.

Reflections on collaboration, highlights and challenges

One major hurdle was aligning the vastly different perspectives of students in music, theater, cultural management, design, and computer science. Often, technologists approach art with a tool-first mindset, focusing on how AI can generate new artefacts. However, this approach can miss the deeper cultural and historical context of art-making. Avoiding the trap of tech-driven solutions required efforts. A pitfall of such interdisciplinary educational projects is to assume that only students with an artistic major have to learn about the AI technology. In fact, computer science students have as much, or maybe even more to learn about the history, theories, and the making of art.

Regarding collaborations, together with Mariya Dzhimova, the initiator and leader of AICA, and with collaborators in Paris, London, and Washington, we are collaborating on a research project interviewing early artists who integrated machine learning in their artistic practice before 2020. We aim at understanding their artistic trajectory in a context where AI is increasingly adopted and polarizing in the creative fields. This collaboration is very meaningful to me, as it gives a voice to artists, in particular the ones that have a long-lasting and intricate experience with machine learning and are in a better position to reflect on its current hype and debates.

Key learnings and takeaways from the project

I learned a lot from seeing at how participants first approached AI for culture and arts in their projects, and it made me realize the predominance of the startup and tech industry ideology when approaching the intersection of AI with culture and arts. It takes time and effort to see all facets of this technology, including its social and ethical facets. Learning about the technology only, is an important step but might not be enough to empower students in influencing the development and regulation of these technologies in the future.

The project’s most significant takeaway is the creation of this vibrant interdisciplinary network, from our students, to all external speakers and experts we contacted. This community stretches across Bavaria, Germany, Europe, and beyond, forming a valuable platform for future collaborations. The potential for this network to crystallize into a sustained community is immense.

Personal experience at MUC.DAI and in the AICA project

MUC.DAI has a hybrid and open model of collaboration. Unlike traditional research labs that sometimes operate in silos and oriented toward publications and citations, MUC.DAI brings together researchers, designers, educators, and industry professionals. This openness breaks the stereotype of the "ivory tower" often associated with academia. AICA perfectly fits this philosophy by stating that even a first year music student can tackle difficult questions about artificial intelligence.

Hopes and wishes for the future

Looking ahead, I hope AICA will continue to grow and solidify its network, transforming our community into a robust, long-term resource for future students, artists, and researchers. This network has the potential to become an international reference point about AI in culture and arts.

As I am about to start a new research project at LMU in January, my personal wish is to maintain strong connections with both AICA and MUC.DAI team members. I will always cherish MUC.DAI and AICA as my first steps and gateway into Munich’s vibrant scientific and cultural ecosystem.