Global Dialogue on Art and Technology kicks off in Beijing, pooling insights on art-technology convergence

By Xue Lingqiao

(ECNS) -- The Global Dialogue on Art and Technology, a high-end conference in fields of art and technology was held in Beijing, on Tuesday.

The conference is sponsored by the international liaison department of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC), the theoretical research office of CFLAC, and China Economic Information Service.

With the theme of "Evolution & Creation, Integration & Innovation of Art & Technology," the event brought together leading Chinese and international experts and industry figures from the fields of art and technology to discuss key issues such as digital art innovation and cutting-edge technology applications.

During the opening ceremony, Zhang Zheng, Party secretary and vice president of the CFLAC, and Lyu Yansong, editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, delivered leadership speeches.

Zhang said that art permeates technology, and technology carries art. The more technology advances, the more attention should be paid to the humanistic value of art. Facing the global challenge of integrating art and technology, we should focus on mutual learning among human civilizations and the symbiotic integration of art and technology.

It is essential to jointly establish a collaborative mechanism for the integration of art and technology, implement a number of demonstration cooperation projects, promote the research and formulation of key standards and ethical guidelines, and facilitate the global sharing of the benefits of such integration, he added.

Lyu said that in the process of integrating art and technology, the media serve not only as witnesses and recorders but also as participants. Xinhua News Agency has always actively embraced technological transformation, directly responded to the profound changes in the reading and aesthetic needs of audiences in the information age, and adhered to a production philosophy of “content + technology + inspiration + aesthetics” to continuously create high-quality integrated reporting pieces.

Laurent Petitgirard, permanent secretary of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France, delivered a speech as the foreign representative.

Laurent noted that the era of digital intelligence has renewed relevant theoretical categories and reconfigured the paradigms of creation and collaboration. Digital intelligence is a powerful enabler of original creative thinking—a medium that carries creative ideals rooted in profound knowledge and artistic accomplishment.

Subsequently, distinguished Chinese and international guests, including former Fields Medalist Efim Zelmanov, Fan Di'an, president of the China Artists Association, former Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek, and Te Hu, senior technical artist of Meta, delivered academic speeches covering multiple research fields.

The opening ceremony also witnessed guests from China, New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom, and other countries jointly release the Beijing Initiative for Global Art and Technology.

The initiative puts forward that art and technology are creative forces driving the development of human civilization. It undertakes the historic mission of exploring the world, expanding cognition, and shaping the future.

It also calls for cultivating new sources of art within the soil of technology and constructing an aesthetic system of science and technology for the digital intelligence era.

The initiative also asks for supporting technological innovation with artistic creativity and stimulating the vitality of innovation and creation through sensibility, imagination, and insight.

It is also necessary to anchor humanity amid the torrent of technology, ensuring that all innovations adhere to humanistic ethics and contribute to the comprehensive development of human beings and their spiritual freedom, foster new quality productive forces to benefit human society as a whole, build a bridge between technological innovation and industrial innovation through the deep integration of art and technology, and thereby facilitate the innovation of application scenarios as well as industrial transformation and upgrading.

The event also features four parallel dialogue sessions, focusing on topics such as the integration of art and technology and the cultivation of new quality productive forces, artificial intelligence and new paradigms of artistic creation, cross-cultural mutual learning under the integration of art and technology, and the revolution of digital perception and the construction of contemporary aesthetics.