Present Futures - Virtual and Augmented Reality and AI in Art Royal College of Art

Overview

What you will study

Providing unparalleled access to globally recognised artists, designers, entrepreneurs and art world practitioners involved in the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Artifical Intelligence (AI), the Present Futures - Virtual and Augmented Reality and AI in Art course offered by Royal College of Art is led by John Slyce (Senior Tutor, RCA School of Humanities) and Daniel Birnbaum (Artistic Director, Acute Art).

World-leading speakers will deliver each session, with site visits across London to map the production and reception of 21st century VR/AR/AI art. These individuals will share how they are engaging with, exhibiting, collecting, negotiating and understanding the impact of these new technologies on the art world ecosystem.

This course will offer multiple perspectives on the following core questions: 

• How will today’s visual media (AR, VR and AI) expand the ways we make, present and experience art?

• How might the virtual turn change the nature of art itself; just as photographic techniques and mass distribution altered our understanding of what an artwork can be across the 19th and 20th centuries?

• What is the curatorial significance of these new visual technologies and implications for cultural institutions and their professional staff in commissioning, curation and conservation?

• How will these new artforms be shown, circulated and collected, and by who?