ACE to officially support ‘digital arts’ following £4m investment in AI projects

The announcement coincides with the publication of a report that reveals that ACE has already invested about £4m in almost 200 projects that make use of AI technologies between 2019 and 2025. 

Among them are award-winning VR experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats and Studio Wayne McGregor, which has developed choreographic tools powered by AI. 

"We recognise that AI is a transformative, increasingly ubiquitous general-purpose technology with wide ranging implications for creative production and consumption," reads report, entitled AI Technologies and Emerging Forms of Creative Practice. 

"We will remain flexible in response, but currently our perspectives and criteria have been able to accommodate this new sector reality."

Introducing digital arts to ACE’s formal list of disciplines will support investment in the area, which ACE representatives said would stimulate economic growth. The representatives also claim the change is in keeping with a surge in the use of digital technologies by the creative industries. 

Meanwhile, an "AI tech champion" is to join ACE’s pre-existing specialist digital team. 

"With the rapid expansion in digital technologies in recent years, I have witnessed first-hand the pivotal role artists and arts organisations play in harnessing their creative potential and how this can help our country’s creative industries to flourish," Nelson said. 

Owen Hopkin, ACE’s director of new technologies, added: “Today’s announcement marks an important shift in placing digital arts on an equal footing with our other supported disciplines and it shows that this work is already playing an integral role in the future of our creative and cultural sector."

Creatives working in the field across the UK have endorsed the move. Matt Adams, co-founder of Brighton-based interactive arts organisation Blast Theory, said the move would "nurture the next generation of great artists". 

“Whether it’s AI, mobile phones or social media, digital innovations continue to dominate our discussion about who we are and where our society is headed," Adams said. 

He added: "I think it’s a really significant moment that Arts Council England is recognising the discipline of digital arts."