As we anticipate a world facing increased climate damage, rising authoritarianism, and the failure of centralized infrastructures, working towards solutions that are local-first, globally connected, tangible, and resilient will ensure that the communities we care for can, in turn, care for us.

In the design and delivery of Intelligent Terrain, a set of ecological metaphors was leveraged to reimagine arts and cultural production through the lens of  climate and ecological repair.

This program, designed for arts professionals, cultural workers, and creatives, aims to research possible ways to interrogate digital representation, algorithmic systems, and internet censorship while learning from the landscape.

Just as we inhabit our physical bodies, we inhabit landscapes and live within and from them. We have seen the impact of failing to acknowledge our entanglement with natural systems. From stone tablets to silicon chips, intelligent machines are not further away from the land than an engraved piece of stone. To varying degrees, we are organized by our landscapes, and how might land inform the development and responses to AI? How might we change the focus of surveillance from monitoring and control to understanding the relationships among people and environments? How might traditional knowledge and stewardship underpin ethical AI?

According to legal scholar and member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation John Borrows, in oral and visual cultures, law flows from the people and from the natural world and is reflected in the artistic and physical world. To imagine ourselves as disentangled from our landscapes creates the conditions for the evacuation of these spaces. How might an ethic of stewardship, centered in natural environments, suggest developmental pathways for AI and responses to its excesses?

Independent research cohort (2025)

This research and site-specific learning program is organized in 2 segments.

Segment 1 is an introductory program to recognize and acknowledge our entanglements with the places we inhabit and the “more-than-human” relationships in our digital and material environments. While research will be self-directed, participants will take part in online programming once per week before and after the on-site portion. Segment 1 serves as a prerequisite for Segment 2. However, exceptions will be made for those with connections and relationships to the region where the place-specific prototyping will be implemented.

Segment 2 is a chance to deepen the understanding of multiple approaches to move from “caring about” to “caring for” and experiment with implementations in your own fields of practice.
Segment 2 focuses on place-specific prototype development that can be applied to an array of creative practices. Prototyping support includes writing, immersive media, AI, and more.

Each segment includes 8 weeks of virtual program activities and a 1-week site-specific program to build relationships, have an in-depth encounter, and uncover new perspectives. Anticipate 1.5–2 hours per week of activities during virtual program and full immersion in the landscape for site specific program.

Segment 1:

May–July, 2025 virtual program with 1-week on-site learning in June at Ferme Lanthorn

Segment 2:

August–October, 2025 virtual program with 1-week on-site in September at Ferme Lanthorn

Anticipated Outcomes

The Intelligent Terrain program for 2025 fosters skills in ecological metaphor and AI ethics, offering insights into digital systems, environmental entanglements, and place-specific learning. Participants will explore caring for landscapes, experimenting with prototypes that integrate AI, narrative development, and immersive media. Prototypes can include artistic works, research, writing, learning program design in the arts, and other means of cultural production. The program emphasizes shifting perspectives from passive observation to active stewardship, with an on-site retreat component designed to deepen this transformative approach. 

Application Closed

Researchers in the 2025 cohort will be announced soon.

About UKAI Projects

UKAI Projects is a federally incorporated non-profit cultural organization based in Canada and operating globally. Our mission is “culture for what’s coming.”

Since our founding in 2017, UKAI Projects has provided thousands of people encounters with large-scale changes that are hard to put a finger on. We have delivered projects on intellectual freedom, artificial intelligence, climate change, and rising authoritarianism in Germany, Canada, Italy, Iceland, Malawi, Egypt, China, and the United States.

At UKAI, we seek and test out approaches to culture that make sense of the world we are creating and handing down to future generations.

We call this work cultural research and development, and just like R&D in other fields, we are trying to make things better.

In our case, we are trying to build resilience to massive volatility and change.

About Ferme Lanthorn

Ferme Lanthorn is a regenerative farm growing sustainable materials for fine arts and functional craft, in the thriving arts and maker community of Wakefield, Quebec. Ferme Lanthorn specialize in basketry willow with over 20 specialty varieties for weaving, furniture making, living structures, and sculpture. With backgrounds in Arts and Education, we host residencies, workshops and cultural events. Lanthorn is led by co-directors Bob Labbe and Mary Ellis, who has joined the Intelligent Terrain research group to explore the role of living willow structure in arts pedagogy, relationship with technology, and culture.

Place-specific learning during the on-site retreat component for Intelligent Terrain 2025 at Lanthorn will be delivered in collaboration with Lanthorn’s co-director Mary Ellis.

Mary Ellis has a background in Education and Art with over a decade of experience teaching and creating.

Mary’s experience in software development as Creative Director for MasterpieceVR, 3D software company using virtual reality to make 3D modeling intuitive and efficient. As an educator, Mary has worked with artists with varying skill sets and levels of experience. They are passionate about representation, and making content creation and creative expression more accessible.