Anna Ridler (b. 1985, UK) is an artist and researcher. She has exhibited at institutions such as the V&A Museum, Ars Electronica, HeK Basel, Impakt and the Barbican Centre and has degrees from the Royal College of Art, Oxford University and University of Arts London. She was a 2018 EMAP fellow and was listed by Artnet as one of nine “pioneering artists” exploring AI’s creative potential. She is interested in working with collections of information, particularly self-generated data sets, to create new and unusual narratives in a variety of mediums, and what happens when things cannot fit into discrete categories. She is currently interested in the intersection of machine learning and nature and what we can learn from history.
Current/Upcoming Exhibitions
Solo Shows
Selected Group Shows
Entangled Realities, HEK Basel, 9 May – 11 August 2019
AI: More than Human, Barbican Curve, 16 May—26 Aug 2019
Artificial Creators, Eden Project, 15th June - 1st September 2019
Lying Sophia and Mocking Alexa, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, 12 July - 8 October 2019
City of Participatory Visions, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 8th August - 15th September 2019
AI and Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing, 15th August - 30th September 2019
Catastrophic Forgetting, Opera North, Leeds, September 2019 (location, date, tbc)
Stadstriennale Hasselt Genk 5, Belgium, 5th Oct 2019 - Jan 2020
Peer to Peer, OpenEye Gallery, Liverpool, 17th October - 21st Dec 2019
Network Effects and Online Imaginaries, M-Cult, Helsinki, 16th Nov 2019 - 15th Jan 2020
Deux Ex Machina, La Boral Centro de Arte y Creacion, Gijon, 22nd Nov 2019 - 16th May 2020
Cryptobloom, Espacio E+T Foundation Telefonica, Mexico CIty, September 2019
Dreaming, Automated, Robert L. Ringel Gallery Perdue Univeristy, USA, 19th August - 27th September
Traces of Things, Blitz Gallery, Valetta, March 2018
Screen Shots: Desire and Automated Image, Galleri Image, Aarhus, 8th March - 28th April 2019
Touching From A Distance II, Goethe Media Space, Toronto, 22 March - 23rd May 2019
Artistic Intelligence, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, 27th April - 30th June 2019
New Technologies, New Visions, Geffen Contemporary Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, April 2019
Error: The Art of Imperfection, Ars Electronica Export, Berlin, 17th November 2018 - 3rd March 2019
Translation of Complexity, Aa Collections, Vienna, January 2019
AGENCY, Nome Gallery, Berlin, October - December 2018
Post Truth: Algorithmic Superstructures, Impakt, Utrecht, October - November 2018
The Line Up: The Power of Drawing, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, September - November 2018
Touching from a Distance: Transmediations in the Digital Age, Literhaus, Berlin September - October 2018
Error Fake Failure, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, September 2018
Artificially Intelligent, V&A Museum, September - December 2018
Gradient Descent, Nature Morte, New Dehli, August - September 2018
Measures of Life, Humber Street Gallery, Hull, July - September 2018
Trajectories, Watermans Arts Centre, London, January 2018
NIPS Machine Learning for Creativity and Design, Long Beach, California, December 2017
Lumen Prize Winners, Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton, September 2017
Field of View: Storytelling, Exploratorium, San Francisco, September 2017
Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, September 2017
Machine Fictions, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, July 2017
Show 2017, Royal College of Art, June 2017
Alternate Realities, Sheffield Documentary Festival, June 2017
Making the Long Tail, RCA White City, June 2017
Art, Science and Quantum Computing, RCA White City, May 2017
Codes and Modes, CUNY, New York, March 2017
Becoming, Dyson Gallery, London, February 2017
Experiments in Machine Learning, Royal College of Art, London, January 2017
Narrating the Marginal, Arktikum, Rovaniemi, Finland, December 2016
Spheres of Influence, ACAVA Central Space Gallery, London, November 2016
Internet Black Market, Tate Modern, June 2016
Sensory Apparatus, Blitz, Valetta, April 2016
Selected Performances
Awards/Fellowships
Residencies
Invited Talks
Selected Workshops
Into the Forest, BBC Late Junction, July 2018
Nature's Nickelodeons, Sheffield Doc Fest, June 2018
Drawing with Sound, NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, May 2018
Speaking in Tongues, IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, March 2017
Honorary Mention Prix Ars Electronica in category “Artificial Intelligence and Life Art” 2019
UAL Creative Computing Institute Fellowship 2019
Adobe Award for Best Creative use of Technology at European Conference for Computer Vision 2018
EMAP Fellow 2018
DARE Art Prize 2018-2019
Tetley, Leeds, 2019
Opera North 2018 - 2019
Impakt Artist in Residence, EMAP/EMARE, Utrecht, April - June 2018
Blitz Residency, Valetta, Feb - March 2018
Machine Learning in a Creative Practise, Hek Basel, June 2019
Stanley meet Alexa, AI and Filmmaking, BFI, May 2019
AI and Creativity: what makes us human?, Barbican, May 2019Machine Learning in a Creative Practise, International Symposium on Computational Media Art, January 2019
The Artistic Potential of Data Sets, Post Binary Conference, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, November 2018
Using Technology Creatively, Science and Media Museum, October 2018
AI in Art, FACT Liverpool, October 2018
Datasets and Decay, V&A Museum (Digital Design Weekend), September 2018
Data and Training Sets in an Artistic Practise, European Conference of Computer Vision, September 2018
Art in an Age of Computational Creativity, Forecast Forum, HKW, May 2018
The Artistic Potential of Computer Vision, ZKM, April 2018
Deep Fake or Rendering the Truth, Impakt Festival, April 2018
Deep Fake or Rendering the Truth, European Media Art Festival, April 2018
The Art of GANs, Photographers Gallery, Feb 2018
Repeating and Remembering: Fall of the House of Usher, Ars Electronica, September 2017
Join the Resistance, Sheffield Documentary Festival, June 2017
New Forms, BFI, June 2017
Art, Science and Quantum Computing, V&A Museum, May 2017
Action Tells His Story: Language and Machine Learning, Language Games Conference, Chelsea College of Art, May 2017
Fairy Tales and Machine Learning, Data Publics Conference, Lancaster University, April 2017
Speaking in Tongues, IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, March 2017
Media as a Language for Art and Design, Royal College of Art, January 2017
Sensory Apparatus, Ideas That Matter, London, Jan 2016
Drawing Sound, MetaMarathon, NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, May 2018
ART+FEMINISM Wikipedia edit-a-thon, Blitz, Malta, March 2018
How Machines and Humans See, Watermans Arts Centre, Feb 2018
Things inside and out: augmented reality, Konstfack University, Jan 2018
Building a Narrative, Battersea Arts Centre, London, November 2015
Selected Publications
Education
Repeating and mistranslating: the associations of GANs in an art context in the proceedings for 31st Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS 2017), Long Beach, CA, USA.
Retelling, Reflecting, Recreating: Fairy Tales and Machine Learning in Arc magazine (2017)
Speaking in Tongues: Language and Machine Learning in Syrup magazine (2017)
Alice and Bob in Art, Science and Quantum Computing Catalogue (2017)
Radical Transparency in Spheres of Influence Catalogue (2016)
2018 - 2019 - Visiting scholar, Leeds University
2015 - 2017 - Information Experience Design, Royal College of Art (MA)
2004 - 2007 - English Literature and Language, Oxford University (BA)
2003 - 2004 - Foundation degree, University of the Arts London
Press
“17th century Tulip Mania is alive and well on the blockchain”, review and interview in Fastcompany, 27th June
“Anna Ridler uses AI to turn 10,000 tulips into a video controlled by bitcoin”, review and interview Its Nice That, 28th June 2019
“BBC Free Thinking: AI and Creativity - what makes us human?”, discussion on Radio 3, 4th June 2019
“AI: More than Human”, review in BBC Click 1 Jun 2019
“Digitales Tulpenfieber” (Digital Tulip Fever), interview and review in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 May 2019
“Artificial Intelligence as a Godlike Tool for Experimentation: Forging the Gods”, Hyperallergic, 8th May 2019
“Editors pick: Bloemenveiling by Anna Ridler”, review in Clot, 30th April 2019
“Malen nach zahlen” (Painting by Numbers), interview in Süddeutsche Zeitung, 18th March 2019
“Artificial intelligence: the art world’s weird and wonderful new medium” interview in Financial Times, 21 March 2019
“Using AI to Produce “Impossible” Tulips” interview in Hyperallergic, 1 March 2019
“A philosopher argues that an AI can’t be an artist”, MIT Technology Review, Feb 21st 2019
“New Keywords in Art”, Public Art, January 2019
“Art made by AI is selling for thousands - is it any good?”, BBC Culture, December 12th 2018
“The Arts and Artificial Intelligence” , interview on Front Row, BBC Radio 4, November 21st 2018
“Has Artificial Intelligence brought us the next great art movement?”, interview in Artnet, 6th November 2018
“AI Art at Christie’s Sells for $432,500”, in the New York Times, 25th October
“When the line between the Artist and the Machine becomes blurred”, in the Conversation, 16th October 2018
“Machine Dreams: Art and Artificial Intelligence” interview in Forbes, 24th September 2018
“This AI Dreams in Tulips” interview in FastCompany, September 17th 2018
“When Art Created by Artificial Intelligence Sells, Who Gets Paid?”, interview in Arsty, 17th September 2018
"AI-Generated Art Just Got Its First Mainstream Gallery Show. See It Here - and Get Ready", in Artnet, August 29, 2018
"‘Gradient Descent’: when Artificial Intelligence meets art" in The Hindu, 13 August 2018
"Is Artificial Intelligence the new artist we need to watch out for?" in Vogue India, 16 August 2018
"Artificial Intelligence Art: Parenting a new genre" in Forbes India, 21 August 2018
"Les Vocations Artisques de l"AI" in Science et Avenir, July 2018
"The Work of Art in the Age of Algorithmic Reproduction" in Medium 12 Dec 2017
"Life drawing and machine learning: An Interview with artist Anna Ridler" in Alphr 14 August 2017
"Something in the air" in Frieze 7 August 2017
"Artificially intelligent painters invent new styles of art", in New Scientist 29 June 2017
"Shef Doc Fest: WikiLeaks A Love Story" on HuffPost, June 2017