FIT BUT helps connect artificial intelligence and art for the future of agriculture

What will agriculture look like in the future? How will we feed large cities, where an increasing proportion of the world's population is concentrated, in the coming decades? It is time to think differently about agriculture and choose new approaches. A large four-year European project called Hungry Ecocities, coordinated by the Faculty of Information Technology at Brno University of Technology, is seeking innovative answers to these questions.

The goal of the international consortium of eight research institutions, including FIT BUT and the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences at MENDELU, is to create more sustainable food systems using data, artificial intelligence, and interdisciplinary cooperation. As part of the research, growers and agricultural experts are working closely with artists, designers, and scientists in the fields of information technology, food science, and biotechnology. Together, they are coming up with new ideas for the future of the food system.

One of the current outputs of the European initiative is the Acoustic Agriculture project, a collaboration between new media artist Helena Nikonole and experts from Mendel University. Nikonole is exploring the fascinating question of how sounds affect plants, their growth and production – in other words, how urban noise pollution can modify agricultural production itself. The research is being carried out on an urban hydroponic farm. The aim is to understand the relationship between sounds and plant growth and, using artificial intelligence, to create optimal sound sequences that could increase production and help small farmers. FIT BUT, represented by doc. Pavel Smrž, is responsible for technological coordination in the Hungry Ecocities project.

"Collaboration between art and science is nothing new, but now these interactions are being shaped by a powerful new element: artificial intelligence. AI is becoming a tool that creative people can use to deliver results that were not possible before," says Pavel Smrž.

You can find out more about Helena Nikonole's research and other outputs of the Hungry EcoCities project (including AI-generated marketing outputs for small European farmers) in the original article in Horizon magazine.