A Two-Day International Interdisciplinary Symposium
University College London, UCL East
November 13 - 14 2026

About the Symposium

The Art and Science of Creative AI symposium offers an initial survey of current research, practice and debate in the field. It reflects UCL’s ambition to bring together artistic and scientific communities to examine the development of AI through the lens of creative and artistic innovation. The event is facilitated by the UCL Network for Creative AI, a community of researchers bringing together expertise from across UCL.

Creative AI has emerged at a moment when the boundaries between artistic production, scientific inquiry and technological infrastructure are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Systems developed for prediction, classification and generation now participate in the making of images, films, texts, voices, designs and virtual environments. In doing so, they do not simply extend existing creative tools. They alter the conditions through which creative decisions are made, attributed and interpreted.

The significance of this shift lies less in the novelty or speed of machine-generated content than in the forms of agency and authority that these systems appear to possess. An image, text or voice may be presented as an immediate output, yet it emerges through distributed relations between training data, model architectures, computational infrastructures, cultural conventions, human selection and interpretation. What appears to be a singular act of machine creativity is therefore better understood as a mediated process whose conditions are often concealed.

The Art and Science of Creative AI asks what creativity becomes under these conditions. Bringing together art, computer science, philosophy, design and media research, the symposium examines AI in three interconnected roles: as a means of producing creative artefacts, as a method of research, and as an object of critical inquiry. Rather than treating these as separate domains, it considers how each reorganises the others. Artistic practice can expose the assumptions of technical systems; scientific methods can become materials of cultural experimentation; and critical inquiry can reshape the design and use of AI itself.

The issue is not simply whether AI can generate convincing images, fluent texts or coherent audiovisual worlds. It is what kinds of imagination these outputs make possible, what forms of knowledge they preserve, and what becomes absent when culture is reorganised as data. Generative systems can contribute to synthetic personae, aesthetic languages, intellectual identities and speculative worlds. Yet their apparent coherence can obscure the partial and contingent processes through which such forms are produced.

Creative AI is therefore an epistemological as well as an aesthetic question. Greater fluency does not necessarily amount to greater understanding, and technical capability does not in itself produce judgement. AI systems increasingly participate in determining what becomes visible, measurable, credible and actionable. In this sense, they operate as forms of epistemic governance, shaping not only creative production but the terms through which knowledge is organised and encountered.

Artistic and practice-based research has a particular role within this field because it can make these mediating conditions perceptible. Datasets, prompts, interfaces, errors, model behaviours, infrastructures and audience responses can all become materials of inquiry. The purpose is not merely to demonstrate what AI can do, nor to repeat familiar positions of technological celebration or alarm. It is to construct situations in which the relations between human intention, machinic process, institutional power and cultural interpretation can be examined.

The symposium therefore proposes Creative AI as a field in which making becomes a form of thinking. Its central concern is not whether machines can be granted an autonomous creative status, but how creative meaning emerges through distributed encounters between systems, practitioners, audiences and worlds. The future of AI will not be determined only by improvements in scale, speed or computational capacity. It will also depend on how artists, scientists, researchers and communities make its conditions legible, contest the forms of authority it acquires, and decide what kinds of worlds it should help bring into existence.

Who is the event for?

  • The symposium is for artists, researchers, scientists, designers, technologists, educators, postgraduate students and cultural practitioners working with Creative AI or seeking to understand its wider implications. It will also be relevant to professionals from the creative industries, museums, galleries and cultural heritage organisations, as well as policymakers and prospective research, cultural and industry partners.
  • Participants will encounter current research, creative practices and critical perspectives through presentations, moderated discussions, demonstrations and workshops. They will gain a deeper understanding of how AI is transforming creative practice, culture, education, industry and governance. The event will also provide opportunities to exchange methods, meet potential collaborators, develop future research partnerships and register their interest in the UCL Network for Creative AI.

People

  • Professor Brigitta ZicsSymposium Chair, The Art and Science of Creative AI Co-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI Professor of Computational Media, UCL Computational Media Research

  • Dr Fiona ZischCo-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI Associate Professor, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

  • Dr Szilvia RuszevCo-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI Lecturer in Fiction Film Production, UCL Computational Media Research

  • Annarita PapeschiCo-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI Lecturer (Teaching), The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

About UCL Network for Creative AI

The UCL Network for Creative AI is an interdisciplinary research community connecting artificial intelligence with the arts, humanities, design, architecture, cultural heritage and creative technologies. The Network explores how AI can extend human creativity, enable new forms of artistic and design practice, and support the interpretation, restoration and re-presentation of cultural knowledge.

It brings creative experimentation into dialogue with critical research on aesthetics, labour, intellectual property, ethics, governance and justice. Through collaborative research, teaching, public engagement and partnerships with cultural and industry organisations, the Network develops responsible Creative AI tools, methods and practices.

The Network connects expertise across UCL, supports research and enterprise development, engages a broad range of cultural, creative, civic and industry partners, and provides a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Key Themes

Theme 01

Epistemologies of Art and Science

This theme examines how art and science produce knowledge through different, but increasingly interconnected, methods. It asks how Creative AI alters the relationship between experimentation, observation, interpretation, evidence and imagination. Particular attention will be given to whether AI generates new knowledge or reorganises existing cultural and scientific material, and how artistic practice can reveal the assumptions and limits of computational systems.

Theme 02

Creative AI Industries

This theme explores how AI is transforming professional practice across film, moving image, sound, design, games, media production and the wider creative industries. It considers emerging workflows, creative roles, production infrastructures, business models and forms of platform dependency, alongside questions of labour, authorship, access, skills and responsible implementation.

Theme 03

Philosophy and Aesthetics of Creative AI

This theme addresses the philosophical and aesthetic questions raised by machine-generated and computationally mediated culture. It considers how concepts such as creativity, intelligence, judgement, agency, perception and meaning are being redefined through AI. It also examines how the apparent immediacy of AI outputs can conceal the technical, institutional, material and human relations through which they are produced.

Theme 04

The Practice of Creative AI

This theme focuses on how artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians and researchers work with AI in practice. It explores models, datasets, prompts, interfaces, code, sound, moving image and interactive systems as creative and research materials. Demonstrations and case studies will examine experimentation, iterative making, collaboration, failure and the development of new creative methods.

Theme 05

Embodied Creative AI

This theme investigates how AI operates through bodies, spaces, materials and environments rather than only through screens and text-based interfaces. It brings together interactive art, performance, architecture, spatial practice, robotics, immersive media and sensory technologies to examine embodied experience, human-machine interaction and situated forms of intelligence.

Theme 06

Creative AI Governance

This theme considers how Creative AI should be governed across cultural, educational, institutional and industrial contexts. It addresses responsibility, transparency, intellectual property, labour, data, bias, environmental impact, cultural representation and justice. It asks how governance frameworks can support experimentation and innovation while remaining accountable to creators, institutions and wider publics.

Theme 07

Creative AI in Education

This theme examines how Creative AI is reshaping teaching, learning and creative practice across art, design and media. It considers the use of off-the-shelf tools, the adaptation of existing models and the development of new AI tools for creative making. A cross-cultural perspective will explore how educational and technological contexts in the UK and China shape experimentation, curriculum design, assessment and responsible use, while supporting reciprocal learning and collaboration.

Programme information: The full list of talks will be released closer to the event dates.

Day 1: Friday 13 November 2026

TimeThemeMain Symposium Programme
09:00
– 09:30		Registration and Welcome Coffee
09:30
– 10:00		UCL Network for Creative AIWelcome and Launch of the UCL Network for Creative AI

Introduction to the Network, its research themes and the Creative AI@UCL mapping initiative

10:00
– 11:15		Epistemologies of Art and ScienceThe Art and Science of Intelligence

This panel examines how AI is reshaping ideas of intelligence, knowledge and creativity. Bringing scientific, philosophical and artistic perspectives into dialogue, it questions the limits of defining intelligence through performance, prediction and optimisation. The discussion explores how ambiguity, embodiment and failure can open alternative ways of thinking about machine intelligence and its relationship to human cognition.

11:15
– 11:30		Coffee Break
11:30
– 12:45		Epistemologies of Art and ScienceThe Science of Creativity and AI

This panel examines how creativity is studied, modelled and generated through AI. It considers how concepts such as novelty, imagination and invention are translated into computational systems. The discussion asks what these models reveal about creative processes and where their conceptual and methodological limits lie.

12:45
– 14:00		Lunch and Networking
14:00
– 15:15		Philosophy and Aesthetics of Creative AIRadical AI: Experimentation, Aesthetics and Critical Interventions

This panel explores unconventional approaches to AI through artistic and scientific experimentation, aesthetics and critical practice. It challenges established definitions of computation, intelligence and agency, including approaches that locate computational processes within biological, living and material systems. The discussion asks how alternative models of intelligence might reshape creative agency and aesthetic experience.

15:15
– 15:30		Coffee Break
15:30
– 17:00		Creative AI GovernanceWho Gets to Shape AI? Power, Creativity, and the Limits of Governance

As generative AI moves from experimentation to infrastructure, this panel examines how it is reshaping power, ownership and responsibility across creative and cultural production. Bringing together perspectives from speculative futures, intellectual property law, filmmaking and critical media studies, it considers how AI establishes new norms of creativity, legitimacy and value while complicating consent, authenticity and accountability. The discussion asks whether responsible AI requires adapting existing institutions or redistributing the power to shape technological change.

17:00
– 17:15		Coffee Break
17:15
– 18:45		The Practice of Creative AIAI, Curation and Cultural Infrastructures

This panel examines how AI is reshaping contemporary cultural production, curatorial practice and institutional infrastructures. It considers how computational systems intervene in selection, classification, interpretation and knowledge production, while drawing attention to the data, labour, energy and governance structures that sustain them. The discussion explores new forms of curatorial agency, institutional responsibility and the digital commons.

Book Launch: Curating Superintelligences
18:45
onwards		Closing Remarks

Day 2: Saturday 14 November 2026

The Industry Track: Workshops and Demonstrations runs in parallel with the main symposium programme from 10:00.

TimeThemeMain Symposium Programme
09:30
– 10:00		Arrival Coffee and Welcome to Day 2
10:00
– 11:15		Creative AI IndustriesCreative AI Industries: Rethinking Creative Workflows in the Age of AI

This panel examines how generative AI is reshaping workflows across film, visual effects, design and contemporary art. It considers how practitioners negotiate automation, creative control and experimentation as AI becomes integrated into production. The discussion asks whether these systems are opening new creative possibilities or primarily optimising existing practices.

11:15
– 11:30		Coffee Break
11:30
– 12:45		Creative AI in EducationCreative AI, Art and Education: Perspectives from China

This panel examines Creative AI in contemporary art, technology and education in China. It considers how cultural, institutional and technological contexts shape experimentation and learning. The discussion compares emerging models of creative practice and education.

12:45
– 14:00		Lunch and Networking
14:00
– 15:15		Embodied Creative AIEmbodied and Affective AI

This panel examines AI through embodiment, perception, affect and interaction. It considers how bodies, environments and sensory relations participate in intelligent behaviour and how computational systems interpret or respond to human states. The discussion explores the implications of these approaches for creative practice and human–machine relations.

15:15
– 15:30		Break
15:30
– 16:45		The Practice of Creative AIExperimental Creative AI

This panel presents practices that treat AI as a material for artistic research and experimentation. It explores unfamiliar forms of interaction, machine behaviour and computational expression beyond established workflows and definitions of authorship. The discussion considers how experimentation can reveal the assumptions embedded within AI while generating new aesthetic forms.

16:45
– 17:00		Coffee Break
17:00
– 18:30		The Practice of Creative AIOntologies of Vector Space: Multimodality, Representation and Agency in Architectural AI Research

This panel examines how vector-space models and multimodal AI are transforming architectural representation and research. It considers how spatial, visual and linguistic information is organised within computational systems and how this redistributes agency between designers, models and data. The discussion asks how architectural practice can critically engage with the assumptions embedded within these technologies.

18:30
onwards		Closing notes

Industry Track: Workshops and Demonstrations

Participant information: Please bring a laptop for the workshops and demonstrations. External visitors should register for UCLGuest Wi-Fi access in advance using the UCL visitor Wi-Fi guidance.

TimeWorkshop / Demonstration
10:00
– 11:30		IPVISE Workshop

A generative AI platform for image and video creation, integrating scriptwriting, storyboarding and production workflows.

11:45
– 12:45		Gendo AI Workshop

An AI visualisation platform for architecture and design that transforms sketches and images into rendered design variations.

13:00
– 14:00		Film Production Management Tools

A demonstration of AI-supported tools for film production planning and management.

14:15
– 15:45		Guru AI Demo

An AI-powered music-learning platform that provides personalised feedback on performance and technique.

16:00
– 17:30		Higgsfield Workshop

An AI image and video generation platform with cinematic camera, motion and style controls.

17:45
– 18:30		Sound Production Workflows

A demonstration of AI-assisted sound design and music production workflows.

Programme information: The full programme, including confirmed speakers, presentation details and further workshop content, will be released closer to the event as information is finalised.

Speakers

  • Annarita PapeschiLecturer; Co-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; UCL Network for Creative AI
  • Ardeshir AbdolrahimiFilmmaker UCL Computational Media Research
  • Brigitta ZicsSymposium Chair; Professor of Computational Media; Research Lead; Co-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI UCL Computational Media Research; UCL Network for Creative AI
  • Chris RhodesAssociate Professor in Interactive Music and Creative AI UCL Knowledge Lab
  • Christian BabskiResearch Scientist ECAL / University of Art and Design Lausanne
  • Daniel RothschildProfessor of Philosophy of Language Department of Philosophy, UCL
  • Dominic LeesAssociate Professor of Filmmaking University of Reading
  • Elly SelbyLecturer; PhD Researcher UCL; The Bartlett School of Architecture
  • Fei JunProfessor of Art and Technology Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
  • Fiona ZischAssociate Professor; Co-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; UCL Network for Creative AI
  • Francisco Durán del FierroSenior Research Fellow UCL Knowledge Lab
  • George ProudCEO and Co-founder Gendo
  • Georgina VossArtist Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL; Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
  • Jasper StevensCo-founder and Design & Technical Director Liquid City
  • Jessica InAssociate Professor The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
  • Joasia KrysaProfessor of Exhibition Research; Director of the Institute of Art and Technology Liverpool John Moores University
  • Kieren ReedProfessor of Fine Art Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
  • Leah LovettArtist and Senior Research Fellow Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL
  • Lourdes de Agapito VicenteProfessor of 3D Vision; Co-founder of Synthesia Department of Computer Science, UCL; Synthesia
  • Luca ZappalaLecturer in Film Production Department of Culture, Communication and Media, UCL
  • Lydia FarinaAssistant Professor in Philosophy University of Nottingham
  • Lívia Nolasco-RózsásLecturer in Media Practice and Curation UCL Computational Media Research
  • Magdalena Tyżlik-CarverAssociate Professor of Digital Communication and Culture Aarhus University
  • Marc BartoSenior Digital Producer Victoria and Albert Museum, London
  • Mattia PaganelliLecturer in Computational Arts Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Min HanVice Chair of Open Media School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
  • Neill CampbellProfessor of Visual Computing and Machine Learning Department of Computer Science
  • Parashkev NachevProfessor of Neurology UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
  • Patricia ReedArtist and theorist; Head of the Critical Inquiry Lab Design Academy Eindhoven
  • Patrick KellerAssociate Professor in Media and Interaction Design; Researcher ECAL / University of Art and Design Lausanne
  • Penelope HaralambidouProfessor of Architecture and Spatial Culture The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
  • Petra MolnarAI Animation Director; Founder AI CineLab
  • Phoenix PerryReader in Games and Creative Technologies Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London
  • Roberto BottazziAssociate Professor; Course Leader, Urban Design MArch The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
  • Sean HannaProfessor of Design Computing The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
  • Shu CaoAssistant Professor School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art
  • Szilvia RuszevLecturer in Fiction Film Production; Co-convenor, UCL Network for Creative AI UCL Computational Media Research; UCL Network for Creative AI
  • Tamas CzuperSound Artist UCL Computational Media Research
  • Tanya AplinProfessor of Intellectual Property Law The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London
  • Terence BroadSenior Lecturer in Data Science and AI for Creative Industries Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London
  • Thomas ParkerAssociate Professor; Media Director The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
  • Tobias Nolte (TBC)Professor of Media Architectural Representation; Co-founder Leibniz Universität Hannover; Certain Measures, Berlin / Cambridge, USA
  • Tom HolbertonAssociate Professor The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
  • Tommie IntronaR&D Platform Producer, Arts Technologies Serpentine Gallery, London
  • Valentina SoanaLecturer; PhD Researcher The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; Mechanical Engineering, UCL
  • Viktor BedöDesigner and Lecturer, Service Design MA Royal College of Art
  • Wang ChunchenProfessor; Curator and Art Critic Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
  • Wenzel MehnertScientist and Futures Researcher AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
  • Winnie SoonAssociate Professor of Art and Technology Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
  • Yulia GryaditskayaSenior Research Scientist Adobe Research, London