Beyond the Human?: From the Metaphysical to the Physical - A Symposium on AI and the Arts

Co-curated by USC Vice Provost for the Arts Josh Kun and renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, Beyond the Human?: From the Metaphysical to the Physical is a daylong symposium that explores the impact of AI on the arts.

Speakers and performers from the worlds of visual art, dance, technology, literature, architecture, film, and music will ponder and explore questions including:

> What is the role of the artist in a computational future?
> What are the promises and perils of AI’s expansion of what it means to be human?
> What is AI’s potential for moving us beyond human exceptionalism into realms of inter-species and inter-materialist consciousness?
> Can AI move us beyond a singular self?
> How does AI impact our sense of the physical?
> How does AI imagine and enact the metaphysical?
> How can artists use AI to build new worlds?

Confirmed participants:
- Refik Anadol, New Media Artist and Designer
- Minne Atairu, AI Researcher and Multidisciplinary Artist
- Nancy Baker-Cahill, New Media Artist, Expanded Filmmaker
- Burçin Becerik-Gerber, Dean's Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at USC Viterbi
- Cai Guo-Qiang, Contemporary Artist
- Catie Cuan, Entrepreneur, Engineer, and Artist
- Aroussiak Gabrielian, Environmental Designer, Bioartist, and USC Professor of Landscape Architecture and Media Arts
- Zoë Hitzig, Poet and PhD Candidate in Economics at Harvard University
- Troy Therrien, Mystery Architect
- Ben Vickers, Curator, Writer, Explorer, Publisher, Technologist, and Luddite
- Harry Yeff aka Reeps100, Neurodivergent Media Artist and Vocalist
- Kira Xonorika, Multidisciplinary Artist, Author, and Futurist

Pop-up film screenings will be curated by Holly Willis, USC professor of cinematic arts.

Lunch generously provided by Tigawok powered by Next Robot AI Cooking Robot.