AI Can't Write Symphonies and Neither Can You
AICWSaNCY was a collaboration between the Creative Informatics project at the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish AI Alliance. I devised AICWSaNCY to fulfil two key aims - to use the remaining funding from the Creative Informatics budget and to explore the intersection between AI and the creative industries. What resulted was a two day interactive art exhibition held in Glasgow with artists from around the UK and Europe. We welcomed 300+ guests and the feedback for the event was overwhelmingly positive.
Read the AICWSaNCY report here >
In the 2004 film I, Robot, Will Smith’s character asks the robot Sonny “can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot take a canvas and turn it into a masterpiece?” to which Sonny replies “can you?”.
This was the prompt we asked people to respond to during our open call for artists for the event. After 50+ applications of interest, we whittled it down to 15 artists who displayed their work at the event. From talks to performances to installations and everything in between, we worked with creative practitioners to explore the nature of human creativity through the lens of AI and engaged with the public to find out how they feel about AI and its influence on the arts.
Taking what I had learned from DataFest 2023 - in particular leaning into provocative imagery and messaging - I created the branding of AICWSaNCY and it proved immediately popular. We gained a significant amount of interest in the event and had the venue at capacity at several points over the two days it ran.
The event proved to be controversial. We received a backlash to the event from a vocal, but relatively small, number of people online. A few choice interactions included:
“Please annihilate yourself. Nobody wants you. Thanks”
“Actually I think you’ll find that I can write symphonies, as can many of my fellow composers. That’s because it’s a special thing creative humans do as one of the purest forms of the expression of humanity, and that only after many years of specialisation and training. I’m currently working on my second symphony. So keep your AI off my lawn.”
"This is bleak and grim and unhuman.”
“How about no.”
This feedback highlighted that some people did not get the tongue-in-cheek title, nor the I,Robot reference. Undeterred, we doubled-down on the messaging and achieved a wildly successful event.
“I am not aware of any other event like this in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK. Forerunners indeed." - Manesh Mistry, Artist
“The experience is a beautiful brand on my soul...Gordon Johnstone and his team’s excellent organisation made it possible, and the beautiful people who came, sang, created, and danced turned it into something profound.” Pavlos Andreadis, AI Practitioner
“Thank you so, so much to the whole team, all of the exhibiting artists and you for such a warm welcome, such amazing energy and interesting exhibit/talks. I’m truly grateful to have been a part of this event” Agnė Balandžiūnaitė, Artist