[LASER HONG KONG EVENT] Ways of Seeing in the Age of AI: New Optical Epistemologies
How is artificial intelligence reshaping the way we see—and the way we understand seeing? This screening and discussion programme brings together two seminal works — AI Hyperrealism and LUMI — each questioning how machine vision transforms the production of images, the transmission of knowledge, and the very conditions of visual truth.
Date: 13 Mar 2026
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Venure: Multimedia Theatre (M1060), L1, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, City University of Hong Kong.
Free Admission. Online pre-registration is required.
As artificial intelligence reconfigures the nature of perception, this programme interrogates the shifting grounds of visual truth. Bringing together AI Hyperrealism (Chapter 1 of Anatomy of Non-Fact) by Martyna Marciniak and LUMI by Abelardo Gil-Fournier and Jussi Parikka, the event explores how machine vision transforms image production, information transmission, and our sense of reality.
Both works treat the image not as a static record, but as an evolving epistemic event. AI Hyperrealism illuminates the collapse of authenticity, exposing the mechanisms of a “post-truth” landscape. Conversely, LUMI reconstructs lost icy landscapes from archival light data, transforming the scientific metric of albedo into a poetic instrument for visualizing memory and climate.
Moving beyond the mere spectacle of AI art, this programme adopts a critical stance on the changing paradigm of visual knowledge. The screening is followed by a roundtable featuring the filmmakers alongside Prof. De Kai, whose expertise in machine learning and AI ethics bridges the gap between computational logic and aesthetic practice and it will deepen the inquiry into synthetic agency. Moderated by acclaimed media artist Prof. Samson Young and curator Emilie Choi Sin Yi, the discussion will bridge global theoretical frameworks with local artistic perspectives.
Together, we trace how the optical has become a site of negotiation between sensory experience and machine learning. Join us to examine how the “synthetic” is redefining the boundaries between fact, fiction, and simulation.
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AI Hyperrealism (Chapter 1 of Anatomy of Non-Fact) (2024) — Recipient of the 2025 Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in Artificial Life & Intelligence — by Martyna Marciniak illuminates the collapse of authenticity, authorship, and authority in today’s algorithmic image culture.
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LUMI (2024) by Abelardo Gil-Fournier and Jussi Parikka is a story of snow, light, and planetary reflection — transforming scientific data into a poetic meditation on climate, time, and synthetic landscapes. Parikka, a world-renowned media theorist, is celebrated for his work on Media Archaeology, the Geology of Media, and Operational Images.