When: Friday, June 21, 2024, 9:30 AM - 9:30 PMWhere: BLOC, Queen Mary University of London, ArtsOne Building,Mile End Road, London, E1 4PD
From the artificial to the neuroqueer - A creative symposium devoted to play, creativity & alternative Intelligences
During the day the organisers will focus on creative ways of working with AI and the ethical considerations behind this work. Dr Kate Devlin will deliver the first keynote, “Do you need any body?” Devlin explores the perception and the reception of AI and robotic companionship and our emotional engagement with machines. We will hear from artists who have co-created with AI including Laurane Marchive on AI and circus and Dr Hannah Silva on her memoir My Child, the Algorithm, written in conversation with a glitching ‘neuroqueer’ large language model.
After lunch (provided) our second keynote "Re-reading AI Visuality: Play, Violence and the Unreal" is delivered by Professor Yasmin Ibrahim, author of The Digital Racial. Afternoon sessions include papers by Julia Bell, author of Radical Attention, visiting speaker from the University of California, Dr Marit Macarthur on critical AI literacy and Dr Gurnam Singh on anti-racism and AI.
A dynamic evening of poetry performances by neurodiverse poets, hosted by Koko Brown.
BSL interpreted.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a choreopoet and researcher whose exhilarating style of poetics braids dance and poetry on the page and stage. Her debut poetry collection Cane, Corn & Gully explored the narratives of enslaved Barbadian women and their descendants through their dances, it won the 2023 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
Debris Stevenson is a dyslexic writer, Grime poet, hybrid actor and pro-raver. Her work explores the intersectional, unexpected, and unjust – often whilst making her audiences dance, question, and laugh. Debris’ debut show, Poet in da Corner, premiered at The Royal Court in 2018, receiving 4-5 stars and seeing Debris nominated for an Emerging Talent of The Year Award (Evening Standard Theatre Awards).
Dr Hannah Silva (QMUL) is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction. An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love (BBC Radio 4) starred Fiona Shaw and was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm (a 2023 Granta book of the year).
Kayo Chingonyi is poetry editor at Bloomsbury and assistant professor in creative writing at Durham University. His latest collection, A Blood Condition was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Costa Poetry Award.
Prof. Nelya Koteyko (QMUL) will join the artists for a panel discussion questioning the ways in which alternative intelligences, from neurodiversity to AI, impact creativity and writing.
Alternative Intelligences is organised by Dr Cristina Moreno Almeida and Dr Hannah Silva of Queen Mary University of London. Supported by the IHSS Digital Lives programme, the Centre for Contemporary Writing, Research Culture at Queen Mary, and the Leverhulme Trust. This event is part of Finding the Right Words - a creative research project led by Debris Stevenson and Hannah Silva supported by The Arts Council England and Apples and Snakes.