Art and technology

Project description

Art, science and technology are intertwined in new ways in today’s world. 

For decades, artists have made use of emerging technologies and, through them, have shaped visual culture. Interest in reflecting on the media of the image has grown as the relationship between the digital and the analogue has been redefined after the digital turn. There is growing interest in the materiality of moving image, while at the same time artificial intelligence introduces both threats and opportunities for visuality. Technological development and evolving language models challenge traditional conceptions of authorship, the role of the artist in the creative process, and, by extension, notions of originality. 

Technology has always travelled alongside art, but with digitalisation it has become a central part of all our activities. Artists’ interest in technology is broad and experimental. They tend to be less concerned with the novelty value of technologies, and more with exploring their aesthetic potential and critically unpacking the ideological structures embedded within them. In recent decades, artistic research in particular has proven to be a way to reassess, with an open and investigative mindset, the interfaces between art, science and technology, while also renewing established practices of knowledge production, disciplinary divisions and institutions. 

The art and technology initiative is a strategic priority and research project at Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts. It responds to society’s increasingly technological environment and current phenomena, and connects them to the traditions of contemporary art. 

The aim of the project is to bring art and artistic thinking more strongly into the important discussion on technology, alongside scientific and technological perspectives. Its objective is to introduce a new approach that challenges established fields, such as art and science activities inspired by science and technology studies (STS—now often referred to as ASTS, Art, Science and Technology Studies, including areas such as bioart) and art and technology activities focused on the application of new technologies (in their various forms of media art).

Upcoming