Mariya Dzhimova is a sociologist with a research and interest focus on digital innovations in the arts and culture sector. As a research associate at the Institute for Culture and Music Management at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, she is concerned with the use of artificial intelligence in artistic practice on the one hand and in the working practice of cultural institutions on the other. She has worked in various projects at the interface of science, art and technology. Since the end of 2022, Mariya Dzhimova leads the Digitization Lab AICA.

Gudrun Socher has been a professor of computer science at Munich University of Applied Sciences since 2006 and has been head of the Munich Center for Digital Sciences and AI at Munich University of Applied Sciences since 2020. Since completing her doctorate, she has been working on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and wants to ensure that as many students as possible in all degree programs acquire a basic technical understanding of AI and are thus able to play an active role in shaping the digital transformation.

Helena Held is an art and culture manager. She has already worked on projects related to the topics of science, art and technology. As a research associate at AICA, she develops project ideas and the student program. Her master degrees in Visual Anthropology and Environmental Studies help her to take different perspectives in this interdisciplinary field.

Esther Fee Feichtner is an expert in deep neural networks and data analysis. She studied computer science and musicology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg. She then completed her doctorate at the International Audio Laboratories Erlangen (a joint research facility of Fraunhofer IIS and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)). Her research focuses on timbre analysis in audio signals using feature-based approaches and optimized artificial neural networks and the juxtaposition of machine and human creativity.

Benedikt Zönnchen is the head of the Digitalization and AI research group at the Munich Center for Digital Sciences and AI of the Munich University of Applied Sciences. He studied computer science at the University of Applied Sciences Munich and the Technical University Munich and received his PhD in the field of person flow simulation in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences Munich at the Chair of Scientific Computing of the TU Munich. He designed the courses „Computational Thinking“ and „Sustainability and AI“ and is in the process of establishing the research of the Munich Center for Digital Science and AI (MUC.DAI) in the area of generative machine learning methods. Privately, he is also interested in algorithmic composition, sound design, live coding, and generative design.

More exciting projects can be explored on his Website.

Tanja Huber is a photographer and is studying cultural studies with a focus on philosophy at the FernUniversität in Hagen. She is currently completing her bachelor’s degree and is taking a critical look at the question of whether machines can think and be creative.

With her creative and design skills and her scientific interest in philosophy, art, culture and artificial intelligence, she supports the AICA team as a student assistant.