Tate’s IK Prize 2016, an annual award in partnership with Microsoft that celebrates creative talent in the digital industry, has gone to a team based at Fabrica, a communication research centre in Treviso, Italy.
The winning team of Angelo Semeraro, Coralie Gourguechon and Monica Lanaro were chosen for their artificial intelligence project, RECOGNITION.
Tate describes the technology for the project as an ‘image-hungry brain’, searching the never-ending stream of news images on the internet and learning to analyse thousands of photographs in terms of composition, style and content.
It will use powerful algorithms and machine learning to help uncover the links between current events and art from the Tate collection, merging art from the past with today’s photojournalism.
The team will receive a £15,000 prize and £90,000 production budget to turn their concept into reality. The final results will be unveiled online and through an installation at Tate Britain later this summer.
Changing perceptions
Fabrica’s team said: “We were interested in how digital technology is changing perception of time and the world around us. Training a form of artificial intelligence to compare Tate’s collection and archive with contemporary photojournalism is a unique opportunity to explore how we look at the world.”
Kerstin Mogull, managing director, Tate, said: “I’m excited to see what artificial intelligence can bring to our audience’s understanding and enjoyment of the collection.”
The IK Prize, named in memory of the philanthropist Irene Kreitman, was set up in 2013 by the Porter Foundation. It is presented by Tate to a team, company or individual for an original idea that uses digital technology to explore art on display at Tate Britain and on the Tate website.
The selection panel for the 2016 edition included: Paul Benun (CCO, Somethin’ Else); Alex Farqhuarson (director, Tate Britain); Eric Horvitz (director, Microsoft Research Lab at Redmond); Marguerite Humeau (artist); and Aleks Krotoski (journalist and broadcaster).
Previous winners of the prize include The Workers for their project After Dark, and Flying Object for Tate Sensorium.
www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/ik-prize
Image:
Fabrica team: Angelo Semeraro, Coralie Gourguechon and Monica Lanaro
More on a-n.co.uk:
Artists announced for Culture and Climate Change residency
Antiuniversity Now! festival: “The idea is that knowledge is created and shared by people”
