The selected projects for Hungry EcoCities´s first open call, demonstrate a profound commitment to ethical food practices and sustainable approaches, showcasing the potential for art and technology to shape a better future.
As In4Art we have the honour to be the technical coordinator and overseeing of all the experiments in the project and particularly, we will be part of the experiment team as art-driven innovation partner for 7* of the projects.
10 Humanizing Technology Experiments
We are excited to start working with our winners and look forward to their experiments kick-off from their own studios located in Spain, Greece, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, England and Germany. They will add yet another multidisciplinary and multinational perspective to the Hungry EcoCities-teams, since the nationality of the artists differ from Isreali, Dutch, Russian, Spanish to American, Brazilian, Singaporean, Swedish, Belgium and Greek.
The Evaluation Process
The evaluation process was conducted by 24 esteemed professionals with each application receiving feedback from three independent evaluators, afterwards the results were analysed and discussed by the consortia and selected by the jury, consisting of consortium partners. The task was no small feat—to handpick ten exceptional projects from a plethora of impressive entries.
The careful review process, guided by a range of experts, revealed some interesting insights. Anneke Stolk, Co-founder of InstaGreen, found the artistic explorations of science and technology very impressive. “I was truly amazed by the quality of project proposals… The artists aimed for more than just changing agri-food systems,” Stolk shared. Dr. Dejan Mircetic, an AI engineer and scientist, noticed that artists and engineers see AI differently whereas Bart van Meurs, Founder of Division Q, praised the detailed planning and the knowledge in the proposals. These different views led to choosing ten exceptional projects that blend art and AI, ready to shape a better and more sustainable food world.
Monika Löve and Vincent Leung, partners at Carlo Ratti Associati, one of the 3 Studios that will host the artists and mentor them together with the technology and art-driven innovation partner, shared:
“We have dedicated a lot of time understanding how technology and other artificial elements could help nature thrive in urban settings. Agriculture is quickly becoming the frontier of the relevant research, and the proposals submitted to Hungry EcoCities are the perfect encapsulation of the many perspectives we can assume to create a more equitable, sustainable agri-food system. The artists have set a very high bar in establishing a new form of synergy between cities and farming practices. Their ideas not only address the shortcoming of the existing situation, but also envisage works of great artistic value – a significant factor to inspire and encourage the general public to partake in the conversation.”
About Hungry EcoCities
Hungry EcoCities will host 20 S+T+ARTS residencies to work towards defining, designing, and developing AI-enabled responsible, art-driven solutions for the end-users in the agri-food industries.
The project aims to harness the power of creativity and AI to revolutionize the food industry and address the challenges of urbanization and climate change by teaming up studios, universities, technological research experts, growers, agricultural specialists, artists and creative thinkers to come up with new ideas for the future food system.
In the first Open Call for proposals (2023-2024), the project consortium has chosen 10 artists for the “Humanizing Technology Experiments.” These artists have each selected one of three directions for experimentation: Mega Scale, Local Conditions, or City+Farming Synergies. The aim is to delve into digital inquiries by combining technology and art to achieve artistic agri-food AI usability outcomes.
The second Open Call (2024) will be focused on “10 Paths to progress Experiments”, where industrial end-user/SMEs from the agri-food sector and artists will jointly work on AI enabled use cases, potentially building upon the outcome sof open call 1 and work towards prototypes and awareness-raising artworks. The outcomes should make the food chain more transparent, inclusive and sustainable, build connections between different stakeholders in the food chain and promote more informed and sustainable consumption patterns.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101069990.
