2025 Youth Space Workshop

Interfaces of Imagination: AI, Creativity, and the Futures of Cultural Experience

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

Workshop Overview

As artificial intelligence enters the domains of creation, perception, and experience in the cultural and creative industries, the boundary between human imagination and machine computation is continuously being redefined. The interface is not merely a point of contact between humans and intelligent agents—it is the space that shapes and mediates the very possibilities of interaction. As such, the interface becomes a critical lens through which we can explore, question, and imagine the roles AI plays in reshaping human-machine relations and in reconfiguring emotional and cultural experiences.

This workshop invites participants to engage with these dynamics from critical and forward-thinking perspectives, exploring how AI is entangled with cultural practices in ways that are at once collaborative, disruptive, and transformative.

Why Young Scholars Matter

Young scholars not only carry the legacy of intellectual traditions but are also poised at the forefront of contemporary transformation. They draw connections across past and present, bringing new insights to light. This workshop is guided by a commitment to small-scale, high-quality, and deep interdisciplinary exchange. We aim to bring together 8–10 early-career researchers for exploratory and applied discussions around emerging questions at the intersection of generative technologies and cultural and creative practices.

We warmly welcome doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career scholars from disciplines such as the humanities, social sciences, arts, natural sciences, and design. The workshop offers a platform for interdisciplinary collisions—where new ideas, perspectives, and methods can take shape—and fosters collaborative innovation around AI-driven practices and their cultural implications.

Organizers and Structure

The workshop is hosted by the USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The main program will include a roundtable discussion, a closed-door lunch, and a session of invited talks.

Workshop Panels:

Beyond the Binary: Envisioning Post-Human Creativity

This roundtable explores shifts in authorship and creative agency in the age of generative intelligence. From digital artists and AI-assisted tools to affective AI and inclusive design, we examine the possibilities and anxieties of human-machine co-creation. What does it mean to co-create with machines? How are aesthetics, identity, and agency being redefined as AI takes part in design and expression?

Reframing Experience: The Intelligent Turn in Cultural Practices

This session focuses on how AI, virtual reality, and digital technologies are transforming the ways we experience, preserve, and communicate culture. Topics include cultural tourism, digital heritage, and immersive cultural storytelling. How is AI reshaping perception, memory, and cross-cultural engagement? What new modes of cultural experience emerge when intelligent systems take center stage?

July 7, 2025 (all day)

Workshop

July 8, 2025 (full day)

Morning

Mid-term exchange session (closed-door) for the 2nd cohort of IACCIR projects

Noon

Closed-door lunch

Afternoon

Public roundtable discussion

Venue

USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry,

155 Tanjiatang Road, Zizhu International Education Park,

Minhang District, Shanghai, China

This workshop will include roundtable participants from the second cohort of IACCIR-funded research projects (12 in total). In addition, we invite approximately 8–10 emerging scholars (including PhD students, postdocs, and early-career faculty) working in fields such as art, communication, philosophy, management, design, sociology, law, anthropology, and computer science.

Interested applicants should submit either a discussion proposal or an extended abstract (approx. 1000 words) in English or Chinese by June 27, 2025, to: icci-conf@sjtu.edu.cn

The workshop is supported by Digital Culture and Creative Management (数智文创与管理), Telematics and Informatics Reports, Telematics and Informatics, and other domestic and international academic journals.

The organizing committee will select participants based on the quality and relevance of submissions. Invitations will be sent by June 30, 2025.

There is no registration fee, and a travel subsidy will be provided for all selected participants (reimbursed with official receipts).

A small number of observer spots are available. Please fill out the form below if you wish to attend in person.Let us gather at this interface—where imagination meets intelligence—to envision futures that are possible, just, and plural.