November 19-20, 2020

Online (hosted by Malmö University, Sweden)

Deadline for abstracts: 15 August 2020

Notification of acceptance: 1 September 2020

Conference website: mau.se/artcre-2020

The Artificial Creativity conference aims to stir a discussion about the cultural, societal and ethical aspects of artworks featuring A.I. or robots engaged in creative production.

We encourage submissions regarding ongoing research about creative embodied robots (i.e. robotic systems that use physical brushes, pencils, etc. to make their artefacts), but do welcome any inquiries concerning the use of A.I. and deep learning in the production of novel artefacts. The notion of a "robotic system" above may include different types of embodied agents such as an appropriated industrial arm, swarm, drone, etc.

We also welcome submissions that critically challenge contested terms, such as "creativity", "artificial intelligence" and our playful conference title "artificial creativity".

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Creative robotics and/or A.I.
• Ethical questions regarding authorship in computational art
• The analysis of media discourses about creative A.I.
• Human-robot collaboration in the process of cultural production
• Robots and performative arts
• Cultural imaginaries about creative artificial agents
• Design approaches to creative robotics

The keynote speakers are: Professor Joanna Zylinska (Goldsmiths University, UK), Professor Andreas Broeckmann (Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig, Germany), and Professor Mark Amerika (University of Colorado, US).

The online conference will feature a virtual exhibition supported by Mozilla’s Hubs. Amongst other content, the exhibition will feature the latest works of the artist Justine Emard (France).

The call for abstracts invites researchers from different areas of expertise, including but not limited to: creative arts research, humanities, human-robot interaction (HRI), art history, media and communication studies, ethics of technology, design anthropology, social sciences, gender studies, posthumanism, voice interface design, and science and technology studies (STS).

The discussion around the Artificial Creativity theme will continue in a special issue in an open access peer-reviewed journal in 2021. Please follow our website for updates.

Please submit a 500-word abstract (excluding references) to Dr. Bojana Romic: bojana.romic@mau.se before 15 August 2020.

Please include:

• The name(s) of the author(s)
• The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
• The e-mail address, and telephone number(s) of the corresponding author
• Your time zone

If using any pictures in your abstract, please do not include more than three. If you are experimenting with creative A.I. or robots and want to include some recordings to our virtual exhibition, please indicate that in the abstract. This, however, will not be a criterion for acceptance.

The notification of acceptance is 1 September 2020.

The Artificial Creativity conference is free of charge for all participants and is hosted by the research lab Medea and the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University, Sweden. The conference has received generous support from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Sweden.