The Artistic Research Forum Expanded was carried out during the Artistic Research Forum and NTNU Artistic Research Week 2024, opening up a space for experimenting with new ideas and to show work in a format complementary to the presentation format of the forum. During the NTNU Artistic Research Week we opened Galleri KIT and the Artistic Research Concept Store (Rosenborg gate 22) for events, workshops and small scale experiments organised by artistic research fellows at NTNU.
Playing Future Narratives – an AI-driven Storytelling Experience
During Artistic Research Week 2024 at NTNU, the Futuring Together research group hosted an interactive installation featuring a collaborative storytelling game. Participants were invited to engage in short writing sessions in collaboration with AI, complemented by a visual essay displayed as posters.
The experience was set in a future version of Trondheim, focusing on energy transition scenarios and their associated challenges and contradictions.The installation explored questions about future energy consumption management, potential obstacles in finding solutions, and the possibility that today's solutions might become tomorrow's challenges.
The game involved multiple players at individual screens, taking turns to contribute to the narrative in response to AI prompts. The AI system also contributed with storylines, creating a hybrid human-AI storytelling experience. Sessions concluded either when time expired or when participants felt their narrative was complete.
The AI engine was crafted with imputs from the research group consisting of 4 different scenarions and descriptions of the characters the stories could evolve from.
The project examined participant interactions with AI-based storytelling, analyzed the types of narratives created, and studied perceptions of Trondheim's future within the context of energy transition dynamics. As a work-in-progress research project, both technically and in terms of format and criticality, participant feedback was collected to aid in the installation's development and improvement.
Through collective imagination of various scenarios, participants contributed to envisioning potential future worlds.
The installation was created by Futuring Together, a group of PhD candidates at NTNU including Ayodele Arigbabu, Kristian Byskov, Ysabel Muñoz and Margarita Torrijos, whose work focuses on futuring and narratives across various dimensions.
The installation was supported with funding from the NTNU Artistic Research Week and was also funded as a PHKUNST Community initiative 2024.
Working session #1
Galleri KiT, 1st Floor,
October 23, 17:00 - 18:30
This working session was open to all who wanted to come and share their experiences and strategies towards a just climate transition. This session emerged from initiatives by members of Forskerforbundet (FF) who are trying to build alliances across FF to take a stand against further exploration of new oil fields, and members of Unge Kunstneres Samfund (UKS) who have been working on a Climate Action Plan, and members of research projects investigating how arts and culture can address the challenges of climate justice.
The meeting resulted in a series of action points for the group:
1. Find referat from NTNU FF meeting. Follow up and publicise their decision to send this to the national board
2. Draft the resolution as a petition, get signatures and maybe this can be forwarded as a proposal for a political statement signed by FF
3. Follow up specifically on the DSM clause we proposed. Contact Kaja from WWF as potential ally
4. Map oil funding and sponsorship, visualise it and submit to FF magazine. Get it on the cover for max impact
5. Build networks and alliances with those protesting Equinor in Rosebank
6. Build networks with FF in UiB
7. Fossil fuel Disinvestment in other sectors like advertising, gaming etc. this can be pushed via the dinners at UKS that aims to bring together unions from the creative sector and @Thomas Østby
8. Database of research projects on climate justice
The meeting was attended by:
From NTNU: Kristiina Visakorpi, Olga Lucko, Prerna Bishnoi, Mari Sanden, Kaja Engseth Dahlen, Kristian Byskov, Marie Ellen Preston, Florian Schneider,
From KhiO: Marte Eknæs
From MF: Marion Grau
From LAB Genalguacil: Joseph Lockwood
From GSA: Gordon Hush
Reflection session #1
Galleri KiT, 1st Floor,
October 24, 19:00 - 23:00
The gallery was open for ARW and ARF participants for a relaxed evening to meet and talk with peers.
Working session #2 : If the future is rural, what role can arts and culture play?
Galleri KiT, 1st Floor,
October 25, 17:00 - 18:30
This working session brought together allies and colleagues sharing experiences and ambitions on how to build new forms of collaborations and to challenge the hierarchies of knowledge. We discussed how artistic techniques and approaches can be useful in challenging conventional knowledge production that are based on extractive models. If the future is rural, what role can arts and culture play?
We had an in-depth discussion led by the artistic research fellows hosting the Forum Expanded with contributions by Joe Lockwood, co-founder and co-director of the LAB Genalguacil - International Laboratory of Rural Innovation; Emil Røyrvik, Professor, Department of Sociology and Political Science at NTNU/ and researcher in PACESETTERS; Florian Schneider, Professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art at NTNU/ and coordinator of PACESETTERS; Annett Busch, Assistant Professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art at NTNU/ and coordinator of Marginal Notes, and collagues and visiting researchers attending the Artistic Research Forum.
The Artistic Research Concept Store
The Artistic Research Concept Store and the Instrumentality Tolerance Ladder was the final presentation of PhD candidate Mari Sanden and was part of the Artistic Research Forum Expanded program.
The Artistic Research Concept Store is your trusted companion in navigating the urgencies of collaborative knowledge production through the arts. Our mission is to provide you with a fine selection of tools to support your professional enquiries across and beyond disciplines. We cater to the specific needs of artistic researchers within, outside and beyond academia, providing unexpected insights while increasing the complexity of your pathways to impact. Visit us at https://artisticresearch.store/
Opening hours:
23 October 18:00 - 20:00
24-26 October 12:00-16:00
Rosenborg gate 22, Trondheim
