Digital Day

Algorithms, and more broadly of the automatic generation of content by machine learning systems, is of growing interest to artists and designers. Automatically generated Amazon books, Wikipedia entries published by bots, procedurally-generated video game spaces, generative music, twitterbots. These examples highlight the increasing importance of software procedures in the production of cultural content. What does it mean practically? How does this new art form work? What are the consequences of automated production of cultural content? The talk will address such questions and discuss the implications of «algorithmic cultures».

Nicolas Nova is an ethnographer and design researcher, working both as Associate Professor at the Geneva School of Arts and Design (HEAD – Genève) and as co-founder of The Near Future Laboratory, a research organization based in Europe and California. His work focuses on observing and documenting digital and new media practices, as well as creating design fictions, i.e. speculative designed objects exploring the experiences of near future. He holds a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland), as well as another PhD in Social Sciences from University of Geneva and was previously a visiting scholar at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena) and Politecnico di Milano.