Guest Professorship at Diriyah Art Futures

Alex May and Anna Dumitriu were guest professors at Diriyah Art Futures in Riyadh from 12 to 17 January 2025, contributing to the institution’s Emerging Artist Programme under the theme Human, Nature, Non-Human.

Across the week they led lectures, workshops, and public events that opened up questions around biomedia, digital systems, memory, ecology, and the material life of technology. Publicly listed sessions from the week included Fragile Microbiomes, Understanding Infection through AI and Art, The Mutability of Memories and Fates, and Making Biomaterials from Waste, culminating in the public conversation Creative Convergences: The Intersections Between Art and Science and Alex’s two-day masterclass Creative Photogrammetry: Digital Memories and Intangible Moments.

The guest professorship brought together strands that run through May’s practice: the translation of physical experience into digital form, the poetics of memory and transformation, and sustained dialogue between contemporary art, scientific research, and emerging technologies. Within DAF’s January programme, the week created a concentrated context for teaching, experimentation, and exchange with artists in Riyadh.

Further information about the programme was published by Diriyah Art Futures, with related coverage appearing via SPA, OneArabia, and Anna Dumitriu’s talks and workshops pages.