Research project
AIAI: Artificial Intelligence, Art and Indigeneity
- Start date: 1 January 2023
- End date: Ongoing
- Funder: Internal funders
- Primary investigator: Professor Thea Pitman
- External co-investigators: Dr Andreas Rauh, Dublin City University; Sandra De Berduccy, Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago de Chile
Value
£56k
Partners and collaborators
Dublin City University, Thydêwá (Brazilian NGO), Immersive Networks Collective
Description
AIAI: Artificial Intelligence, Art and Indigeneity is an experimental research project that aims to critically evaluate the nature of AI tools for image generation in relation to Latin American Indigenous cultures and values. With the collaboration of the Brazil-based NGO Thydêwá, it has brought together a group of Indigenous artists, writers, teachers, academics, community leaders and traditional knowledge holders from across Abya Yala (specifically, what is today Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile) with non-Indigenous researchers and artist-technologists (located in the UK and Ireland). Over time we have moved from our first experiments with the mainstream commercial tool MidJourney to designing a bespoke image generation tool based on Stable Diffusion. Preliminary results have been exhibited at The Convention House in Leeds, the Galería Gabriela Mistral in Santiago de Chile and the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.
We are currently co-authoring a book in relation to the project. Funding has come from the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, the Enhancing Research Fund (Research England) and the Digital Cultures and Creativity Hub.