[Air-L] CFP: networking session/Visual AI politics/politics of visual AI

[Adi Kuntsman]

 Our *Digital Politics Summer School* is celebrating its fifthanniversary! This year, the school is focusing on visual generative AI. We areinviting applications for participation in a networking and co-production session. This sessionis for you if:
- Your research focuseson the use of visual generative AI in contexts of politics, violence or socialinjustice- You would like tocollaborate on a jointly produced map of ideas and concepts- You are interested inbeing part of an international research network on the politics of visual AI
To be considered, please send a 200 worddescription of your research and a short bio (no longer than 50 words) to digitalpoliticsmanmet at gmail.comby 19th May 2025.

 

**Digital Politics Summer School 2025: Visual AIpolitics/politics of visual AI**

23-27 June, online

When AI image generators were first popularised in 2023,they were perceived as leading to a new crisis of deepfakes and misinformation,particularly dangerous in cases of reporting war and human suffering, becauseof the dire consequences of war-time misinformation. Many media scholars viewAI as a significant threat, that can lead to a new scale of media manipulation,an erosion of sense of truth, and a crisis of visual evidence. Others suggestthat visual generative AI leads to a new form of synthetic realism and apotentially powerful political storytelling. Between these polarisingapproaches, much remains unexplored when it comes to visual AI politics and thepolitics of visual AI: the biases in representation; the absence of visualdigital and political literacy; the lack of social justice considerations inboth the techno-hype around AI-enabled possibilities and the fears aroundAI-induced harms; and the need for complex and interdisciplinary thinkingaround the rapidly expanding use of AI-generated images in politicallandscapes.

This summer school brings together established scholars,early career researchers and PhD students, to learn about, discuss, andexperiment with visual generative AI, combining insights from media andcommunication studies, politics, visual criminology, AI art, and computationalscience. The programme will consist of a keynote by Prof Liv Hausken, aroundtable exploring the politics of visual generative AI, and a workshop onvisual AI tools for academic research with Dr Sam Martin. Further details aboutspeakers, programme and registration links are coming soon, and will be availablehere https://digitalpoliticsmanmet.bloggi.co/visual-ai-politics-politics-of-visual-ai-digital-politics-summer-school-2025

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DrAdi Kuntsman, Reader in Digital Politics

Head of Ethics, Faculty of Artsand Humanities
Co-Lead, Digital Society Research Group
Director, Digital Politics Summer School
Department of History, Politics and Philosophy
Manchester Metropolitan University

Series Co-editor, Digital Materialities and Sustainable Futures

Latest books:
2024 Digital Technologies, Smart Cities and the Environment:in the Ruins of Broken Promises (with Liu Xin, BristolUniversity Press)
2023 Digital Disengagement: COVID-19, Digital Justice and thePolitics of Refusal (with Sam Martin and Esperanza Miyake,Bristol University Press).
2022 Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement : In Search of the OptOut Button (with Esperanza Miyake, Westminster UniversityPress)