Art, AI, and Cultural Ecologies in Transformation

The forum examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping artistic practice, knowledge production, and regional cultural ecologies.

On 26 March 2026, the Hong Kong edition of ATC Forum took place at the University of Hong Kong. As the third event in the series, the forum continued conversations initiated in Beijing and Shenzhen and extended them toward the relationships among artificial intelligence, knowledge structures, urban cultural ecologies, and regional infrastructure.

The programme combined individual presentations with roundtable discussions. Speakers from artistic practice, curatorial research, institutional leadership, and architecture considered whether AI should be understood as a creative tool or as a technological condition that is reorganizing artistic cognition, judgment, and systems of knowledge production.

The first part focused on art, AI, and the reconfiguration of knowledge. The discussion moved beyond the practical use of generative tools and examined what happens when algorithms participate in authorship, selection, classification, and interpretation. Under these conditions, aesthetic criteria, curatorial methods, and academic judgment all require renewed examination.

Artificial intelligence is changing how artworks are produced. It is also affecting how knowledge is organized, circulated, and validated. Artists are no longer responding only to a new medium. They are working within a technological environment structured by data, models, and platforms. Curators and researchers must therefore consider how cultural institutions can preserve critical judgment and public responsibility as machine systems become increasingly involved in evaluation and decision-making.

The forum approached AI as an infrastructure becoming embedded within cultural production. It shapes artistic practice and alters how knowledge moves among disciplines and institutions. What is emerging may not simply be a new visual style or method of production, but a new cognitive environment in which art, technology, and institutions jointly produce forms of knowledge.

The second part shifted from knowledge structures to urban and regional cultural ecologies. Taking Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Seoul, Bangkok, and the Greater Bay Area as points of reference, the speakers examined how artistic production intersects with cultural policy, technological industry, spatial development, and civic narratives.

Each city operates through distinct institutional histories and technological conditions. Shenzhen provides a case for understanding the relationship among manufacturing, innovation, and artistic experimentation. Hong Kong connects international cultural networks with university research and public institutions. Seoul and Bangkok present different policy environments, organizational models, and forms of regional collaboration. These comparisons position art and technology within specific social and cultural contexts instead of treating them as a single global trajectory.

As technology companies, digital platforms, and manufacturing systems become part of cultural infrastructure, museums, art centres, architectural spaces, and public platforms must reconsider their roles. Institutions need to collaborate with technological industries while preserving academic independence and public value. They also require new organizational models capable of supporting interdisciplinary research, long-term artistic production, and regional knowledge exchange.

The Hong Kong edition of ATC Forum therefore raised an ongoing question: as artificial intelligence reshapes artistic judgment, knowledge production, and urban cultural structures, how should cultural institutions respond? How can new regional ecologies balance technological development, public responsibility, and cultural difference?

Initiating Unit: Robb Report China
Organizers: Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Institute of Science and Technology for Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts, 798 CUBE
Co-Organizers: Asia-Pacific Youth Innovation Art Committee, ACSE Foundation, New Media Arts Foundation, COLLECTA
Opening Remarks: Zhikun Chai, Eunice Seng
Moderator: Zhenhua Li
Panelists: Yuyang Wang, Roh Soh Yeong, John Lin, Chang Su, Weixin Yan, Stefano Rabolli Pansera, Olivier Ottevaere, Alessandra Cianchetta
Location: The University of Hong Kong

Fujiko Nakaya, Khao Yai Fog Forest, Fog Landscape #48435, 2024, Khao Yai Art Forest. Courtesy of Khao Yai Art. Photograph by Andrea Rossetti

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