On April 15 and 16, 2024, the Austrian Embassy took part in a two-day Science Diplomacy Summit at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center. The summit brought together international experts, scholars and ambassadors to foster international cooperation in the field of science. Focusing on the role of Al in the creative industries, and  specifically in the fields of music, film, architecture and visual arts, we welcomed four distinguished Austrian artists and researchers who gave individual presentations on the use of AI in their respective artistic discipline. During the closing reception on the second day of the summit, the Austrian Embassy had the opportunity to demonstrate two of the experts’ AI projects (VAIolin and Pollinator Pathmaker) to all the summit’s participants in an informal setting.

The event was supported by ReFocus Austria.

Speakers:
Andreas Palfinger is a New York - based architectural designer, artist and filmmaker and currently a Fulbright scholar at the Pratt Institute, New York City. He studied architecture, graphic design, industrial design, painting and animated film at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Die Angewandte) and Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany. In his talk he spoke about the use of AI in his practice.  

Veronika Liebl is currently the Ars Electronica’s Director of European Cooperation and the Managing Director of its Festival/Prix/Exhibitions department She gave insight into the work of Ars Electronica as a cutting-edge platform for digital transformation in the arts.

Cornelia Fermüller is a research scientist at the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) at the University of Maryland where she co-founded the Autonomy Cognition and Robotics (ARC) Lab and co-leads UMD's Perception and Robotics Group. She introduced VAlolin, an innovative new Al tool that assists violin students with learning their instrument.

Bernadette Wegenstein is an Austrian-born linguist, author and critically acclaimed filmmaker and a tenured professor of media studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she directs the Center of Advanced Media Study. She talked about the use of Al in filmmaking, especially the ethical questions when it comes to if it is right to manipulate historical clips in archival footage.

Photographs:

Image Credit: ÖB Washington