8 January 2025
“13 Ways of Looking at AI, Art and Music” will debut at London's ICA on January 16
Poland-based festival Unsound is set to unveil its latest intellectual endeavour, a collection of essays titled “13 Ways of Looking at AI, Art and Music”. The anthology, featuring a long-form essay by the celebrated Irish composer, vocalist and academic Jennifer Walshe, will debut at London's ICA on January 16.
Originally released as part of the Unsound Dispatch series on Substack, the text presents thirteen incisive and imaginative provocations, weaving together the multifaceted dimensions of artificial intelligence.
Known for her avant-garde compositions and thought-provoking work on the interplay between technology and art, Jennifer Walshe has become an outstanding figure in exploring how AI reshapes musical creativity. Currently a professor at Oxford University, her multidisciplinary approach draws on her expertise in contemporary composition, experimental performance, and her groundbreaking projects that merge machine intelligence with human artistry.
Offering a poetic lens on the complexities of artificial intelligence, she remarked: “AI is not a singular phenomenon. It's many different things to many different people, a planetary-scale project which manifests for each of us locally in the same way that the climate makes a part of itself known to us through the weather on our street. If we're going to try and think seriously about AI, we need to think on the scale of AI. We need to think like the networks do—in higher dimensions, from multiple positions. Beyond our local weather.”
Jennifer Walshe’s own practice delves into the innovative use of AI as a tool for composition and improvisation, pushing boundaries to examine the philosophical and artistic implications of machine learning in music. Her works, including the ambitious “Aisteach” project—a fictional history of Irish avant-garde art—showcase compelling narratives that challenge conventional thinking about technology and culture.
The launch event will feature a talk by Walshe, providing insights into her curatorial vision and the thought process behind “13 Ways of Looking at AI, Art and Music”. Following her presentation, Michał Gulik, curator of Unsound's discourse programme, will join her for a Q&A session, inviting the audience to delve deeper into the intersections of AI, art and sound.
Use this link to find out more about the event on January 16 and the book sale.
