Established 2019, The New Real is a unique hub for AI, creativity and futures research.
It is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, Alan Turing Institute, and Edinburgh’s Festivals.
“We explore transformative ideas through arts and AI, to equip future generations to flourish on a thriving planet in the midst of surprising, joyful, and inclusive forms of intelligent life.”
Drew Hemment,
Project Director and Principal Investigator
Our research explores how AI impacts on life at a profound level, often interacting with us in fascinating and unanticipated ways, and illuminates how emerging technology can become a creative, playful and deeply impactful part of everyday living.
We believe art and creativity can help to radically change how we think about AI design, moving beyond the current paradigm of learning patterns from large amounts of data, to embrace human traits such as bias, disagreement, and uncertainty as a signal with creative potential rather than noise that needs to be removed.
We devise imaginative ways to experiment with new experiences, practices, infrastructures and business models, and to empower people be agents of positive change.
The New Real emerged from the Experiential AI research theme and group, it conducts research on the following themes:
Creative AI for good
Human-centred creative AI
Next generation intelligent experiences
Public XAI and socio-technical literacy
The New Real is developed in partnership with:
The Alan Turing Institute
The Alan Turing Institute is the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, headquartered at the British Library. The AI & Arts Group is a multi-disciplinary expert group based at the Institute. It explores the interplay between AI, data science, the arts, creativity and heritage.
Edinburgh Futures Institute
A new institute within University of Edinburgh to pursue knowledge and understanding that supports the navigation of complex futures. In 2022, EFI will move into a new space in Edinburgh’s Old Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place. This will include state-of-the-art teaching facilities, space for co-working with industry partners, incubation space for businesses, labs for innovation and prototyping, and exhibition and performance space.
Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh International Festival is the world’s leading performing arts festival, featuring the finest performers from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre. Created in 1947 to celebrate the human spirit, the International Festival normally serves as an annual cultural exchange, every August, for an international audience exceeding 400,000 per year.
The 2020 Edinburgh International Festival was cancelled for the first time in its history due to concerns around the Covid-19 pandemic, but remains actively engaged in Edinburgh’s community and in creating cultural content for both Scotland’s capital city and the world.
Edinburgh Science Festival
The Edinburgh Science Festival is the UK's largest Science Festival with almost 270 events for families and adults over the course of two weeks. The festival is organised by the Edinburgh Science Foundation whose mission is to inspire, encourage and challenge people of all ages and backgrounds to explore and understand the world around them.