Patchlab Digital Art Festival

Exhibition Opening

The 7th edition of Patchlab Digital Art Festival, which revolves around ARTBOTS, offers and opportunity to delve into a world consisting of an increasing number of intelligent algorithms.

Time → 23 – 28 October 2018

Exhibition opening → 8 p.m.

Venue → The Małopolska Gadren of Art, ul. Rajska 12

The 7th edition of Patchlab Digital Art Festival, which revolves around ARTBOTS, offers and opportunity to delve into a world consisting of an increasing number of intelligent algorithms.

Is artificial intelligence able to create a work of art?

In 2014, scientists created a new version of a machine intelligence test. In order to pass it, artificial intelligence (AI) needs to demonstrate imagination and create a work of art based on the provided data. Can AI be creative in addition to its incredible processing power that exceeds human capacity? Will the development of artificial intelligence result in a radical change in how we define a work of art? The 7th edition of the Patchlab Digital Art Festival provides an opportunity to take a look at the world in which artistic work is combined with the potential of machines. This year, it will present 43 works by artists from Poland, Austria, the USA, Australia, Germany, France, Slovenia, Italy, Mexico, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The programme of Patchlab Festival in the Malopolska Garden of Art includes an exhibition of 14 works and installations, 2 performances, workshops and films. Visitors will have a chance to take a look at manifesting robots by a Slovenian duo Nika Oblak and Primoz Novak, and see a cyberpunk opera about AI undergoing a nervous breakdown, trapped in a machine of an Italian artist Datacode. The Bodyline/Borderline performance will present a world in which a human being is controlled by a parallel digital reality, while a kinetic sculpture dist.solo by Kenny Wong will make you reflect on the relationship between a human being and a machine. During the exhibition opening on 23 October drinks will be served by the Spritzerbot robot, and an intelligent image – BeHolder – will reveal machine thoughts about the visitors. Algorithms will create images, compose music, play games and write poems, and during the workshops the youngest visitors will be able to create a city that will be traversed by ozobots – small roundrobots.

Apart from works of contemporary art, the Małopolska Garden of Art will also present one of the first E.L.I.Z.A. chatbots created in the 1960s, which will assume the role of a psychotherapist. At the weekend, the MOS cinema will offer a selection of WRO on Tour video works curated by Piotr Krajewski – the artistic director of the WRO Media Art Biennale, as well as a film titled Geomancer about an AI military satellite which wants to become an artist.

The Patchlab Festival is organized by the Photon Foundation and is co-financed by the Department of Culture of the Krakow Municipality. It belongs to an international platform AVnode, which brings together artists and events presenting contemporary audiovisual art supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

The Patchlab Digital Art Festival will take place from 23 to 28 October and will also feature other events hosted by the Gallery of Contemporary Art ‘Bunkier Sztuki’ and by Hevre+1. The full program is available at patchlab.pl