The Serpentine’s artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist called 2024 the “Year of AI” in an interview with ARTnews. Now, the gallery is diving further into technology by launching the Future Art Ecosystems R&D Fellowship.
The program picked four international applicants out of nearly 1,000 for a six-month fellowship commencing this month in London along with a cash prize of £10,000 ($13,480) each. The chosen applicants are artists Alice Bucknell from the United States, Alfredo Salazar-Caro from Mexico, and Auriea Harvey from Italy, as well as designer and researcher Reina Mun from the US. The four applicants will attend online sessions, tailored mentorship through specialist seminars and workshops, and in-person intensives in London.
The program has been in the making since 2019 and operates on a three year partnership with the London arts charity Glass Castle Foundation. The deal with the Serpentine also includes a major commission each year.
Bettina Korek, CEO of the Serpentine, said in a statement that the fellowship will build “connective tissue between art and emerging technology, so they develop together rather than in sequence.”
Korek was part of the jury, alongside artists Refik Anadol, Cao Fei, and Holly Herndon; Google Deepmind chief AI readiness officer Lila Ibrahim; author and economist Mariana Mazzucato; writer and consultant Venkatesh Rao; chair of Glass Castle Foundation Suneil Setiya; and cofounder and CEO of Snap Inc Evan Spiegel.
Setiya, a UK billionaire that cofounded the hedge fund Quadrature Capital, described the fellowship cohort as a reminder that “artistic inquiry is not a purely speculative pursuit, but a vital tool for building public agency and keeping us anchored in our values.”
Ibrahim added, “By confronting the human dimensions of advanced systems, these artists are helping lay the bedrock for a technological future we can all be proud of.”
