The open call for HUMANS NEED NOT APPLY has gone live and Science Gallery Dublin are looking for your proposals.

In an automated world, is it nearly time to put humans out to pasture? Does the future resemble a leisure-time utopia or a robot-tended human-zoo? Will the notion of work become a thing of the past if machines really can do everything better, faster and for longer? From driving taxis, to writing reports, to designing websites, there is or may soon be an artificially intelligent system better equipped to do your job at a fraction of the cost. If this trend reaches every corner of employment then what will be left for humans to do to in a world of work for which they need not apply?

In early 2017, Science Gallery Dublin will interrogate the supposedly seismic changes that artificial intelligence (AI) is foisting on society. Could this time really be different? Or is this another step in the familiar economic progression from agrarian to industrial to service, in which new technologies eventually create more jobs than they destroy? Are we facing a future where machines take on roles long believed to be the exclusive domain of humans, like artist, musician, writer or designer? For that matter, can machines create works of art, and if an AI creates it, is it ‘Artificial Art’?

The exhibition will include current demonstrations of AI capability and creativity, plus art and design speculations on a post-work world. Science Gallery Dublin will showcase the future of AI, but also ask how economists, sociologists and educators are (or are not) preparing us for a world where intelligent machines surpass us in nearly every skill our labour market values. Are we in a golden age of AI, or the dusk of our dominance?

Do you have a project that demonstrates the emerging abilities of artificial intelligence? Are you creating a new work of art or design that critiques or speculates on a future in which robots hold every job? Or maybe you’re dreaming up a performance in which artificially intelligent systems debate one another, do a stand-up comedy set or sculpt Michelangelo’s David in a new pose? We’d love to hear from you about your installation, object, interface, design or experiment.

To find out more about what we're looking for, budget and some tips on what helps make a successful Science Gallery open call proposal, please visit opencall.sciencegallery.com. The open call for HUMANS NEED NOT APPLY will close at 1pm on 1 September 2016.