Generative Art Summit Berlin

2024, July 3rd – 6th – Akademie der Künste, Berlin Hanseatenweg
International Conference with Evening Events in the Academy of Arts and a Day Excursion

art meets science – Foundation Herbert W. Franke is proud to host the Generative Art Summit for the first time, with the aim of fostering dialogue about the history of generative art across generations and the globe in a two days conference at July 3rd and 4th.
Conference Program Day 1 – Hall of Fame
Conference Program Day 2 – From Algorithms to Artificial Intelligence

In the spirit of Herbert W. Franke (1927–2022), a pivotal figure in bridging the gap between art and science and the forefather of computer art, the foundation invites leading pioneers from early generative art to artificial intelligence to be part of the conference and an accompanying program: a film night about the history of computer art animation and the science fiction performance Sandfiction 4K: The Orchid Cage at July 6th based on Herbert W. Franke’s classic sci fi nocel. A new English translation of The orchid Cage is now published at Springer (e-book and print version). At July 5th, a day excursion to Wolfsburg (invited guests only) is planned visiting the Institute Heidersberger, pioneer of generative photography, and the preview of the Foundation’s exhibition “Code – Kunst – Konstruktionen” showing generative art of seven decades in the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg.

The starting point for the conversation about artists working with technology is Franke’s series “Oscillograms” from 1954, realized with an analog computer, that a study friend of Franke biult for him, a landmark photographic project completed prior to his shift to digital computing in the 1960s.

The Generative Art Summit will gather more than fifty invited guests of honor, including key pioneers of generative photography like Gottfried Jaeger and from 20^th century computer art – Frieder Nake, Larry Cuba and Christa Sommerer to name only three of them – with museum representatives, curators and researchers of historic media art like Wulf Herzogenrath, Margit Rosen and Grant Taylor as well as Anne and Michael Spalter, who built up the world’s most comprehensive private collection of early computer art up to today, comprising over 1000 works.

This international summit also allows for cross generational dialogue between today’s pioneering artists like Sasha Stiles or Mario Klingemann as well as practitioners and collectors, who are currently forging creative futures with Web3 and Artificial Intelligence. The second day of the conference “From Algorithm to Artificial Intelligence” will therefore focus on highly topical issues and themes in generative art. Who is the artist of the future: humans or AI? What significance can copyright still have in the modern network world? Which role does print play in an art form that is created algorithmically? Where are museums and art marketing heading? How will literature and artificial intelligence unite in the future? And how can artistic quality still be found in the huge flood of new works created every day?

Fotos: Herbert W. Franke/Akademie der Künste, Erik-Jan_Ouwerkerk / William Latham / Stadt Wolfsburg / “The Orchid Cage”, Hartmut Hientzsch

Program Overview