Symposium

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow
29th and 30th June 2026

Intelligences from the Underground is a two-day international symposium bringing together artists, researchers, technologists, and community organisers exploring alternative approaches to AI through creative practice, improvisation, and collective inquiry.

Convened by Dr Maria Sappho and Dr Una MacGlone (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Professor Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana), the event gathers collaborators working at the intersection of art, technology, and social practice.

Across talks, performances, workshops, prototyping and building, and open discussions, the symposium will explore:

• What can we do about AI? Those of us at the fringe, the underground, the countercultural.
• How might AI emerge from community knowledge and artistic experimentation?
• What can improvisation, feminist technology, and ecological thinking contribute to AI research?
• How can creative technologies support more ethical and socially embedded futures? Can it?

The symposium will feature:

• Conversations on creative and ethical AI design and usage
• Short talks from international research and artistic partners
• Hands-on Underground Labs exploring experimental technologies and new instruments and artistic works pushing the boundaries of AI in creative practice.
• A live gig featuring international visiting artists and Glasgow’s favourite Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
• Roundtable discussions shaping future research and artistic networks

The event is open to artists, researchers, students, technologists, and curious members of the public interested, worried, or ambivalent to the arrival of AI in everyday, creative, and social practice.

This event is funded by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Athenaeum Award.

Get in Touch

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This is a free event and all are welcome.

Participants

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Meet the contributors to Intelligences from the Underground on the dedicated participants page.

Programme

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View the provisional symposium programme on the schedule page.