How are African artists and global innovators using AI, XR, and immersive media to reshape storytelling, disrupt narratives, and build fairer digital futures?
Electric South’s New Dimensions Lab, in partnership with the Mozilla Foundation, presents a five-part webinar series that dives deep into the intersection of artificial intelligence, creative technology, and cultural production across Africa and the Global South.
From the promise and pitfalls of synthetic media to AI-driven augmented reality and the ethics of digital avatars, these conversations unpack how emerging technologies can amplify marginalised voices, resist visual standardisation, and reimagine new media culture in the age of rapid technological change.Whether you’re a filmmaker, XR creator, technologist, researcher, or curious about the future of AI in the arts, this series offers critical insights and radical ideas for building more inclusive and responsible creative ecosystems.
🎥 Violeta Ayala – AI as Alchemy: Transforming Codes into Social and Cultural Narratives
Violeta Ayala finds a balance between virtual and physical reality, discusses her fight against visual standardisation, and speaks to the overlap between the physical world and the metaverse, exploring how this will allow us to modify our environments in real-time. Violeta aims to create fairer forms of ownership within emerging digital economies and to experiment with developing the social capabilities of avatars to explore the depths of augmented reality. She touches on issues that inevitably arise during the production of digital experiences, whether in film, fashion, or virtual worlds, encompassing the development of culture through 3D design, sound design, motion capture, and real-time user interaction. “We should be envisioning and materialising our evolving digital identities instead of letting tech corporations determine them.” – Violeta Ayala.
🎥 AI as Alchemy
This talk features Violeta Ayala, a Bolivian-Australian filmmaker and multimedia artist, presenting at the New Dimensions Lab’s 2023 Responsible AI for African Artists webinar series.
In this session, Ayala explores how AI and code can be reinterpreted and woven into powerful social and cultural stories. She examines how technology can amplify marginalised voices while unpacking the ethical challenges and power dynamics that come with digital representation and creative AI tools.
🎥 How to Use Storytelling and AI – Karen Palmer
In this talk, Karen Palmer, known for her pioneering work in immersive storytelling and AI-driven narrative design, explores the powerful intersection of storytelling and artificial intelligence and how this synergy can shape more hopeful and sustainable futures. She discusses how combining narrative craft with AI tools can help communities envision, articulate, and work toward positive change, whether in climate resilience, social equity, or cultural preservation.
🎥 Synthetic Media – Francesca Panetta
In this insightful discussion, journalist and creative technologist Francesca Panetta explores the world of synthetic media—AI-generated content ranging from deepfakes to audio and video synthesis. Hosted as part of the New Dimensions Lab’s 2023 Responsible AI for African Artists webinar series, Francesca delves into how synthetic tools are reshaping storytelling, journalism, and creative expression, especially across underrepresented regions and the African creative landscape.
🎥 Disrupting Narratives: Creative XR + AI as Acts of Resistance – Sandra Rodriguez
In this provocative session, award-winning creative director and XR innovator Sandra Rodriguez unpacks how XR (Extended Reality) and AI can be wielded as radical tools for creative resistance. She explores how artists and communities can subvert dominant power structures, reclaim cultural narratives, and expand the possibilities of immersive digital storytelling as acts of social and political defiance.
Produced by Electric South’s New Dimensions Lab in partnership with the Mozilla Foundation – supporting ethical AI, immersive media, and African artists at the forefront of new technologies.
