School of Arts
Dr Ali Hossaini
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Key information
Key information
- Roles
- School of Arts Professor of Digital Media and Culture
- Department
- School of Arts
Biography
Dr Ali Hossaini works at the cutting edge of art, science and technology. After launching several television networks, where he pioneered digital platforms, he began creating immersive art installations, winning acclaim from the New York Times, which calls him “a biochemist turned philosopher turned television producer turned visual poet.”
Hossaini re-entered academia in 2016 when he launched Connected Culture at King’s College London. Sponsored by Ericsson, the project used artistic creations as a medium for developing 5G standards. He then co-founded, and co-directed, National Gallery X, a partnership with King’s College London, where engineering researchers confronted the real-world challenges of an iconic art museum. He also worked with security think tank RUSI to combine art and fundamental theory of biology to model challenges from AI, a project supported by the Institute for Advanced Study of Nantes.
Still an active artist, mostly in digital media, Hossaini is active in the IEEE Standards Association, where he has contributed to standards for ethical AI and BCI (Brain-Computer Interface), the European Public Policy Committee, and various UK advisories.
Research interests
Developing a humane, sustainable approaches to engineering drives Hossaini’s research. Specialisation and research silos have driven technical progress, and they have also invited equally large challenges which living generations must confront. Hossaini’s research is resolutely interdisciplinary, collaborative and boundary-breaking: he advocates cross-training in the arts, engineering, sciences and humanities, often led by design thinking, and he champions the inclusion of experts-by-experience, the end users of technologies and policies, in investment decisions as well as development.
For the past several years, Hossaini has been redefining / refining Creative R&D. Going beyond artist residencies, he seeks to develop rigorous methods for art to probe perception, cognition and agency. Much of his work centres on maximising the benefits of AI and media networks.
To ground his experimental practice, Hossaini has been working with a global cohort of biologists to introduce theory of the organism, an approach to biology which defines life in terms of agency, thermodynamics and cellular organisation. He aims to weaves contemporary disciplines, which often operate in isolation, into a culture of ecology which supports human dignity in a flourishing natural environment.
