King’s Artists – new thinking, new making

An interactive sculpture providing an immersive experience of Disobedient AI and experimental knitwear featuring sensor-embedded yarns are some of the academic-artist collaborations on display as part of a new exhibition, King’s Artists – new thinking, new making, at King’s College London this October.

Six contemporary artists have collaborated with leading King’s academics over the last year as part of King’s Artists, a ground-breaking project which enables artists to develop their practice in parallel with academic research. An exhibition of creative responses to these collaborations will open on Tuesday 23 October at the Arcade in King’s iconic Bush House.

Design engineer Nassia Inglessis – whose work was displayed in the central courtyard at Somerset House during the London Design Biennale 2018 – has been resident in King’s Department of Informatics, working in collaboration with Dr Richard Overill, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science. Examining what happens when artificial intelligence behaves unpredictably, Nassia’s immersive interactive sculpture, Disobedient AI, explores inversions of the future where human and artificial entities coexist.

Artist Gen Doy has been resident in the Department of Classics, working in collaboration with Professor Michael Trapp, Professor of Greek Literature & Thought. Together they have explored the history of Strand Lane ‘Roman’ bath and cultural mythology from its origins as a 17th Century cistern to its reinvention as ‘Roman’ through colourful urban myths.

Professor Michael Trapp says: “King’s Artists has been an eye-opening and imagination-expanding experience. It has enriched my own research with unexpected perceptions and a sense of future possibilities that I doubt could have been created by any other means’.

Other collaborations include:

• Morphologix – Creative-writer-in-residence, Rebecca Lynch worked with Professor Elizabeth Sklar, Head of the Centre for Robotics Research at King’s to develop experimental short films imagining technological futures for human-robot societies. The artwork was inspired by King’s state-of-the-art robotics research and explores the design, development and testing of future robotic technologies. 
• We sat on a mat and had a chat and made maps! #MagicCarpet – Artist, curator and researcher Dr Kai Syng Tan worked with Professor Philip Asherson in the Department of Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry. Together they created a tapestry weaving together research, narratives and questions about mind-wandering.
• Unconditional – Multidisciplinary artist Teresa Albor worked with Professor Sir John Strang and Dr Sally Marlow in King’s Department of Addictions. This sound/video/visual installation is based on conversations with heroin users and the scientists and individuals who work with users and their families.  The piece aims to give voice to the emotions of the people in close relation to heroin users.
• Experimental smart textiles – The Brooke Roberts Innovation Agency (BRIA) and Dr Matthew Howard, Department of Informatics explored digital knitwear design and ‘wearable’ smart textiles that sense, actuate and capture human behavioural data through embedded sensors.