And just like that, Anti Artificial Week and my final year at Royal Holloway is coming to an end…
And just like that, Anti Artificial Week and my final year at Royal Holloway is coming to an end…
Roughly a year ago today during my third term in second year, I made the bold move to run for Art Society President. I might sound slightly overdramatic in saying that but it is very true! I was incredibly uncertain whether the role was right for me and I kept feeling like I was not good enough to be the role. Evidently, I did not let those worries get to me and here I am a year later with a whole student-led campaign and five Society Awards under my belt!
The idea for Anti-Artificial first spurred from the Student Leader Conference 2025 when I attended the Campaigning session. I always had in the back of my mind an itch to run an Anti AI Campaign with the SU if I began Art President. In our current times, generative AI art is everywhere and impossible to avoid. It would have been so easy for Art Society to have been lost within the mass of AI slop and stolen art in a time that it is so easy to ask an AI machine to generate an image. I did not want that to be the future of the RHSU Art Society, nor did my Committee, and evidently so did the wider Student Community. With the support of my incredible Committee and support from my Society members, I created the Anti-Artificial Campaign!
The name was made by me whilst I sat pondering in our Sketch n’ Socials (our bi-weekly socials that was established this year by yours truly) and it came to me like a flash! After lots of decision making, delegating, and many meetings later, the campaign was in full swing and was a complete success. Not only were the events something students enjoyed, but we also had so much support and feedback in the questionnaire given out to see students’ views on AI across the Students’ Union and the University as a whole. With the feedback collated, we have begun lobbying with the SU and wider University to see how we can have more rules and regulations regarding the use of AI.
It has been so fulfilling to have so much support from my committee who I will now list: Vice President: Baar, Secretary: Sameen, Treasurer: Maryam, Trips & Exhibition Officer: Eylem, Fundraising Officer: Morgan, and Wellbeing Officer: Ria. This campaign would not be possible without any of them. Also a massive thank you to Fran from the SU for all her help with making this completely new campaign from scratch. I am excited to see where this campaign will lead, both with lobbying with the SU and also it being a possible yearly campaign. Whether you participate in Anti Artificial Week in 2026 or are reading this in many years in the future, I deeply thank you for all of the support and care.
Art will always be made by humans, for humans and I leave my final year at Royal Holloway rest assured the student body is fighting for the same.
Hania Ahmed
Art Society President 2025/26
✎°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･