Aberrant Creativity
About the Exhibition
The Institute for Applied Creativity, which is part of the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University, announces a call for work for the second iteration of “Aberrant Creativity,” a juried, international art exhibition.
As artificial intelligence-generated imagery becomes increasingly pervasive, creatives are approaching generative AI with a mixture of curiosity, caution and critical intent. The question is no longer whether to engage with machine-learning systems, but how to do so on one’s own terms, creatively and reflectively. We are no longer just spectators of the shadows on Plato’s cave wall. We are now engaged in a conversation with the very mechanism that creates them.
The “Aberrant Creativity” exhibition offers a space for such engagement: not simply rejecting or submitting to this new paradigm but inquiring and conversing with it.
Drawing on Deleuze’s concept of the machine as a site of becoming and experimentation, we see this as an opening for collaboration, subversion, speculation and play. Artists are invited to explore how AI might act as medium, provocateur or foil, testing boundaries while maintaining creative agency with work at the margins of artistic practice. They can explore how shared authorship with the machine raises unsettled questions of agency, intention and the evolving nature of creativity and form.
This exhibition will explore a future — and the present — in which human thought, emotion and imagination become the creative wellspring for machine intelligence.
Inspired by J.C.R. Licklider’s vision of “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” we invite artists to consider machines not as independent creators, but as creators shaped by human presence — responding to us, reflecting us and even dreaming about us.
We invite artists to demonstrate the potential of creative collaboration with AI. Show us how your partnership with generative systems can reveal new forms, emotions and ways of seeing. Submit works that embody this synergy and challenge our understanding of authorship and creativity.
Eligibility
This call for artwork is open worldwide to artists using artificial intelligence in their creative workflows. Submissions must feature original works created in collaboration with AI or works that explore the relationship between humans and AI in the creative process. This can include, but is not limited to, works that incorporate AI algorithms, machine learning and other forms of technology as integral components in the creative process.
Submit Your Artwork for Consideration
We will accept works in the following categories:
- Print work
- 2D and 3D digital works
- Time-based works
- Installations (interactive and noninteractive)
- Virtual, augmented and mixed reality works
- 360 videos
- Game-based works
- Generative art
- Sculpture
- Traditional flatwork
There will be two submission categories for the purposes of jurying and awards:
- Professional artists
- College-level students
All works must be original and not violate any copyright laws.
Awards and Prizes
- Best in Show: $800
- Creative Process: $500
- Best of Student Category: $300
- Application Deadline
- May 1, 2026
- Acceptance Notification
- Early June
- Artwork Delivery Deadline
- Aug. 1, 2026
- Exhibition Dates
- Aug. 25-Oct. 17, 2026
View the Exhibition
Location
The in-person exhibition will be held at the Arts Center of Brazos Valley in College Station, Texas, starting Aug. 25, 2026, and ending Oct. 17, 2026.
View on Google MapsOnline Exhibition
Alongside the physical exhibition, there will be a virtual twin hosted online. The virtual exhibition will be live one week after the physical exhibition has opened. The link will be made public and shared at the time of the installation.
About the Organizers
The Institute for Applied Creativity is a forum for collaboration among domains and disciplines intent on creating a radiant future. We champion combinations of experimental, rational, intuitive and analytical methods to realize tangible accomplishments. The inherent creativity of individuals, the deep knowledge within disciplinary practice and research and the rapid pace of transformation in society collectively contribute to an institute that exercises iterative, regenerative and nimble practices.
With a technology-infused foundation, the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts was created to bring together visual arts, performing arts, interactive media, visual computing and humanities. It’s for those who love to explore new ways of seeing the world and who understand the magic that can happen when beauty and technology merge. Leading the way are faculty and staff with significant experience working at the intersection of theory and practice across the arts, sciences and technology. This is home for actors, animators, musicians, dancers, composers, choreographers, painters, game designers, ethnomusicologists, art historians, costume designers, virtual production specialists and more.
The Arts Center of Brazos Valley, a nonprofit organization chartered in 1970 by a group of visionary local arts patrons, was established to lead local arts advocacy and cultivate a vibrant arts community. Over 50 years later, the Arts Center now serves the 5,000-square-mile Brazos Valley region. Since 2008, it has provided over $4 million in direct funding support to arts organizations throughout the area.
Governed by a board of community leaders, the Arts Center faithfully serves as the leading advocate for arts and culture in Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Robertson and Washington counties. It provides innovative and impactful artistic opportunities for both residents and visitors of the region.
Contact
If you have any questions or concerns, please email artfestival@tamu.edu.