SHIFT HAPPENS was a project created by artists Sarah Cole and Annis Joslin in partnership with Brighton Women’s Centre — a safe, experimental space for making, sharing, and reflecting on ideas and feelings. For the open mic night on September 7th, I built an AI system where words became images as they were spoken.
The Technical Setup
The system listened to live performances — music, spoken word, stories, poetry — and generated images in response to what was being said, in real-time. The aim was to create a visual conversation between the performer and the machine, where the AI’s interpretation became part of the performance itself rather than a separate output.
The Context
The open mic was part of the broader Community Takeover exhibition at Phoenix Art Space, running September 2-17, 2023. SHIFT HAPPENS was made by twelve people who met regularly throughout the year, trusting a creative process and each other. The work created at SHIFT included monoprints, large-scale and collaborative drawings, 360 video, performance, animation, and playing with objects and words.
What I Took Away
This was a useful test case for AI in live creative contexts. The technology worked best when it was responsive rather than prescriptive — following the performer’s lead rather than trying to direct the experience. It reinforced something I keep finding: the most interesting AI applications are the ones that amplify human expression rather than attempting to replace it.