Black text on yellow background reading 'ART-AI-Festival 2021'
/ Festival

Art-AI Festival 2021

Online until October
Art-AI Festival is an extended season of exhibitions, public space installations and events taking place across Leicester that focus on creative applications of artificial intelligence.

Art-AI Festival is an extended season of exhibitions, public space installations and events taking place across Leicester that focus on creative applications of artificial intelligence.

Led by Professor Tracy Harwood at De Montfort University and curated by Luba Elliott, the festival will showcase the latest developments by world leading artists and researchers from the UK, USA, Canada, India, Croatia and Germany, and illustrate artificial intelligence through chatbots, deepfakes, creative interaction and biomimicry.

Phoenix is a founding partner of the festival, and this year we are hosting Watching (2001: A Space Odyssey; Blade Runner) by Ben Bogart. In this exhibition, these classic sci-fi films have been broken apart and reconstructed in full by an AI programme trained by the artist, creating abstracted dream-like impressions of the originals.

During the festival, we’ll also be presenting monthly film screenings and events about artificial intelligence, from classic science fiction imaginings of AIs gone awry to documentaries that look at the impact of artificial intelligence on the real world.

Visit the Art-Ai Festival website to learn more about the festival and view the full programme.

Exhibition

Blurred images of people sat in a futuristic bar in a still from Watching by Ben Bogart

Watching (2001: A Space Odyssey; Blade Runner) - Ben Bogart

In ‘Watching’, media artist Ben Bogart has trained an AI programme to ‘watch’ and attempt to recreate classic sci-fi films by breaking them apart and reconstructing them. Part of the Art-AI Festival.

Find out more

ART AI VIRTUAL FILM SEASON

iHuman (15)

Documentary film meets political thriller in this deep dive into artificial intelligence – the most powerful and far-reaching technology of our time. With unique access to this booming industry, iHuman explores how AI is already changing our lives, our society and our future.

Streaming Now
Image from the documentary AlphaGo, Lee Sendol contemplates his next move in the game of Go as a number of men watch on.

AlphaGo (Unrated)

“A fascinating journey into the hidden depths of artificial intelligence” – Evening Standard. It’s man versus machine in this gripping and thought-provoking documentary. The ancient Chinese game of Go is the battleground as AlphaGo, an AI developed by Google’s DeepMind team, challenges Lee Sedol, the world’s most elite Go champion.

Free on YouTube
Image from the film Her, Theodore played by Joaquin Phoenix sits deep in thought at his desk in work.

Her (15)

“★★★★ – Quietly dazzling” – Time Out. Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user’s every need in Spike Jonze’s charming, existential rom-com that asks the question, ‘Can machines fulfil our emotional needs?’

Available on YouTube
Poster for the documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, depicting a body in a suit with a head made up of wires and other technological paraphernalia.

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (12A)

“★★★★ – Herzog presents the web in all its wildness and utopian potential in this dizzying documentary” – Guardian. The inimitable Werner Herzog turns his camera on the virtual world, taking us on a journey from the origins of the internet to a potential future where artificial intelligence renders life as we know it obsolete.

Available on YouTube