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Short abstract:

In this contribution we share insights from a participatory artistic project with and about AI. We focus on the need for facilitating co-creation processes with care and intention to hold space for the vulnerability and equality needed for transdisciplinary interventions to be transformative.

Long abstract:

In this contribution we share and reflect on insights from the project “The value of art in artificial intelligence,” as well as more broadly on learnings from the participatory and artistic practices we have been involved in as artist collective and as researcher. We focus on the importance of developing a process of facilitation that allows for a collaboration based on equality. We have found it crucial that all participants are equally out of their comfort zone to be moved and learn from the project. Indeed, artists and artistic approaches have been shown effective in inspiring people to question and challenge dominant ways of working, perceptions, and norms (Berthoin Antal, 2015). Our experience learns that to create a space in which people are open and able to learn from the “other”, whether this is another person, discipline, or technology, we need to carefully design and guide the process.

In the case of learning about and from AI, which was central in the project “The value of art in artificial intelligence,” this also entailed considering differing levels of expertise and experience, as well as the biased nature of AI itself which can both impact the level of equality in the collaborations. Ultimately, we address not whether, but how art as creative partner can play a role in transdisciplinary projects and what conditions of the collaborations are needed for such projects to be transformative, acknowledging that vulnerability is required on the part of participants.