Electric Dreaming: Generative AI & Creative Practice is an open event surveying the current creative AI landscape and how we arrived here: what tools exist now, how they are actually being used by artists, what myths and fears persist, and where things might be heading next.
Led by BRiGHTBLACK, whose work spans over a decade of artistic experimentation with AI, this accessible, critical and conversational event includes live demonstrations of cutting-edge tools – from generative video and music to voice cloning and experimental “infinitely explorable” media. There will also be space to explore topics of particular concern such as authorship, copyright, sustainability, labour, bias and creative agency.
This introductory exploration of the impact and opportunities of AI is also an invitation into dialogue with Screen South on future programme interventions in this area. It precedes a forthcoming 2-day lab led by BRiGHTBLACK which will focus on AI and linear video practices (dates to be announced).
Attendees are invited to continue the conversation over networking drinks following the event.
– Artists and creatives working across disciplines
– Film-makers, musicians, designers, writers, game-makers and technologists
– Cultural workers, producers, students and educators
– No prior AI or technical knowledge required
BRiGHTBLACK create immersive playable exhibitions, music, fashion, VR, video games and printed media. Their work has featured at Tate Modern and toured to 36 nations.
Their research and expertise centres around the use of immersive technologies, real time engines, artificial intelligence, electronic music, digital video and software development for story making, live performance and interactive artworks
ELECTRIC DREAMING is the name given to BRiGHTBLACK’s new artificial intelligence lab and residency programme, created in partnership with Cambridge University’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and Liverpool John Moores University. The programme helps artists to understand the theory and practice of using AI in their practice both creatively and to make their careers more sustainable.
Myra Appannah is an immersive artist and BAFTA nominated writer whose large scale immersive work SOMANI was described by UKRI as “one of the most influential British immersive productions of the past 20 years”. She has co-run BRiGHTBLACK’s Electric Dreaming Artist Residency program at Cambridge University and LJMU since 2024 with use of AI since 2023 being an intrinsic part of her daily production work. She is co-director of BRiGHTBLACK Productions
Simon Wilkinson is an artist who has been described as”one of the most notable names in Europe to be dealing with VR and it’s application in cinema” [CINEUROPA].
His work has featured at Tate Modern and toured to 36 nations in the past 15 years. He has been working with AI in a creative context since being artist in residence at Cambridge University’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence in 2017. He is co-director of BRiGHTBLACK Productions.
