AI in Art
- joannasamuel5
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
A new exhibition has opened here at the Daphne Oram gallery space at Canterbury Christ Church University. Titled AI in Art, I was interested to visit the exhibition to see what approach the artists had used to incorporate AI in their work. Featuring two CCCU PhD artist-researchers Michi Masumi and Ju Li, they are questioning how Artificial Intelligence (AI) operates within creative practice.
The two artists have completely different approaches to using AI in art. The first that we encounter when walking into the exhibition is Ju Li, who has created a system that he has named Torchand which he describes as a tool and a methodology. He describes it as integrating artificial intelligence and mechanical automation, emphasising human-machine collaboration in artistic creation. It is essentially a robot arm which recreates how he used to create art before AI, using intricate dots and lines drawn with hard pens. He describes how his previous long hours of creation used to lead to significant physical exhaustion and injury from holding the pen for extended periods hence why he has been exploring solutions to this.
I found watching the system at work quite hypnotic, it was like watching a 3D printer, but the output was a 2D canvas. Li states that on the AI side, it involves and utilises open-source models such as generative adversarial networks, style transfer and diffusion modes. If I am being honest, I didn’t really understand all of the technological aspects of it, but I thought it was an interesting way of finding a solution to the physical exhaustion that he had previously undergone. Li regards Torchand as his personally tailored creative assistant, and he emphasises that every aspect of the creative process from concept to image processing and adjustment is personally undertaken and executed by him.
As we move through the exhibition, we are next met with the work of Michi Masumi. Michi is a photographer, poet and transdisciplinary artist who is a two-time recipient of the London Photography Awards (2023 and 2024). Her work is striking, beautiful and powerful. The collection is a practice-based exploration of black British female identity using photography, poetry and AI – assisted digital art.
The authenticity of her work shines through as she uses her own photographs in her work, using AI as a tool to explore background variations, lighting moods or surface patterns. Whatever she generates is reworked, layered or collaged back into the piece by hand.
I am fascinated by how Michi’s work is created and how she uses her research to be resistant to AI norms, for example, in her piece titled ‘Resistance – AI as refusal’, she states that she works against default datasets and neutral prompts that erase Black British disabled women, insisting on starting every AI image from her own photographs, poems and protest work.
If you are around Canterbury, I would highly recommend visiting the exhibition It is on until Monday 27th April 2026. Open 10am – 4pm Monday – Friday (Closed for Easter break 3rd - 10th April).
On the last day of the exhibition on Monday 27th April at 2:30pm - 3:30pm, Michi will be giving an artist talk called: DAIACHA & the Future of Living Digital Archives: AI, Black British Female Culture, and Creative Ethnography Talk with Q&A The talks outline how Michi's process operates in alignment with UNESCO’s frameworks for intangible digital cultural heritage archival assets, as well as leading UK standards for oral history and archival records, including the use of Dublin Core cataloguing.
I am delighted to say that I will be speaking with Michi in the next podcast episode about her work and the exhibition which will be out next Wednesday 1st April 2026.
You can find more information about the exhibition and book Michi's talk here: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/events/2026/ai-in-art
Comments