Seminar

Collective Intelligence, Collective Agency brings together artistic and scientific approaches to collective intelligence, cognition, and action across species and systems.

Convened with and featuring artist Agnieszka Kurant in conversation with neuroscientist and AI researcher Ida Momennejad, this seminar expands the question of intelligence beyond the individual to consider the group or community, foregrounding its social, relational, and networked dimensions. From complex adaptive systems, artificial life, swarms, and simulated societies, intelligence emerges as an ecological, ecosystem-wide property and ability to not only think but also move collectively. As they consider what makes behavior both collective and intelligent, the speakers also question what these terms mean and what forms of intelligence and agency make possible. What does it mean for a group or system to act intelligently, and what are the political implications of doing so? Introduced and moderated by Eriola Pira, Curator and Programs Director.

Matter of Intelligence Seminar Series
Through modes of shared study, rehearsal, and iterative dialogue with invited artists, thinkers, and the public, the VLC Seminar Series develops and presents artistic and scholarly research centered on the Vera List Center’s 2025–2027 Focus Theme, Matter of Intelligence. Comprising twelve sessions convened from September 2025 through May 2027—the Seminar Series is conceived as an open curriculum and a site for collective inquiry. Each seminar is paired with a curated reader on the Matter of Intelligence Are.na channel, grounding the dialogue and opening new paths for exploration.