ELISAVA REWRITES THE CULTURAL CODE THROUGH INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
Elisava’s Master in Applied AI for Arts and Design (MAIAD) is a program on technological intervention for thinkers, designers, and creators. Under the conviction that those who understand artificial intelligence are the ones who will shape the future of culture, the master – offered in Barcelona (in English) and Madrid (in Spanish) – frames the algorithm as a raw material for artistic innovation and critical reflection. It is a curriculum designed to train a new kind of creative – one who dissects, builds, and provokes with intelligent systems to rewrite how culture is produced, distributed, and believed.
Zeynep Atik’s project Generated Nostalgia | all images courtesy of Elisava
MAKERS AND THINKERS AT THE EDGE OF THE LIVE PRACTICE
Built onElisava’s 65-year legacy of engineering and design excellence, the Master in Applied AI for Arts and Design (MAIAD) is led by a faculty of active professionals and award-winning practitioners working at the forefront of the industry.. Directors Pau Garcia and Marta Handenawer from Domestic Data Streamers, alongside Paadín, bring a rigorous, activist sensibility to the program’s direction.
The teaching staff includes award-winning contributors recognized by Ars Electronica, alongside internationally known artists (Taller Estampa or Mans-O), curators (Lluís Nacenta), and guest lecturers from across multiple countries. This collective of experts guides students through unconventional territories, with modules like Writing Against Algorithmic Mediation, Resistance and Poetic Dissidence (with Anne Quito), AI & Sculpture (with Marce Maderios), and Hype & AI (with Andreu Belsunces), ensuring the curriculum does not resonate with the industry’s radical default optimism or pessimism.
the faculty is led by active professionals and award-winning practitioners
MAIAD FROM TECHNICAL FLUENCY TO PURPOSEFULLY UNCOMFORTABLE PROJECTS
Over the course of one intensive year, MAIAD students move through five interconnected practices that balance deep technical rigor with critical social inquiry. This progression moves from the ethical foundations of AI into intensive tool-building — mastering everything from Python and Midjourney to TouchDesigner — before expanding into interactive applications and research. The curriculum culminates in a final thesis project that demands more than mere aesthetic output; students are challenged to articulate a vision that says something meaningful beyond simply showcasing what an algorithm can do.
a new kind of creative one who dissects, builds, and provokes with intelligent systems
The impact of this approach is already evident in the purposefully uncomfortable work emerging from the program’s current cohort. For instance, Zeynep Atik’s ‘Generated Nostalgia’ uses generative image tools to test the machine’s reconstruction of memory, testing the boundaries of how we perceive our own history. In a similar vein, Tara Monheim’s ‘Great Again: The Politics of Nostalgia’ treats AI as a political analytic tool, mapping how algorithmic logics codify and scale a reactionary sensibility.
By pushing creators to move beyond the role of a passive user and take on the responsibility of an author, the program forces a direct engagement with the central provocation: if you could shape how AI behaves in culture, what would you make it do?
Zeynep Atik’s uses generative image tools to interrogate the idea of memory reconstruction
technically fluent Zeynep Atik’s work ‘Generated Nostalgia’
AI generated image by Zeynep Atik’s
‘Great again. The Politics of Nostalgia’ by Tara Monheim
‘The Politics of Nostalgia’ by Tara Monheim maps how algorithmic logics scale reactionary sensibility
project info:
program: Master in Applied AI for Arts and Design (MAIAD)
school: Elisava | @elisava.school
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