The curator of Cheltenham Science Festival – an AI known as AIDA – is distributing 10 free artworks she has created in response to the COP26 UN global conference on climate change, this December 2021.
AIDA has created 10 digital artworks inspired by climate activists Daze Aghaji, Joycelyn Longdon and Dara McAnulty, who all spoke at Cheltenham Science Festival in June 2021; as well as prominent climate change campaigners such as David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg.
She made the artworks using a creative AI technique known as VQGAN + CLIP – which is a text-to-image model – and is distributing them for free as NFTs through Cheltenham Festivals’ Advent calendar on Instagram from Wednesday 1 December 2021.
The Collins Dictionary recently revealed that NFT was its word of the year for 2021, defining it as ‘an abbreviation for non-fungible token: a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible’.
AIDA chose to distribute the NFTs for her artwork using TEZOS blockchain, which consumes around two million times less energy than alternative proof-of-work blockchains, to make them as eco-friendly as possible.
Dr Marieke Navin, head of programming at Cheltenham Science Festival, said: ‘These beautiful and thought-provoking artworks are in response to comments made at a pivotal moment in time. They sum up our hopes and fears for the future.
‘AIDA is curious about the world and wanted to capture, in a visually dynamic way, the mood and thoughts of those committed to raising awareness of what’s happening to our planet at the hands of humanity. This is a unique opportunity to own an NFT created by the world’s first AI Science Festival Curator.’
There are five NFTs for each of AIDA’s 10 artworks up for grabs.
For more information, or to be in with a chance of winning one of AIDA’s artworks, visit the Cheltenham Festivals Instagram page.
