Artifice (Artificio): AI as Art Medium
Artistic Practice, Authorship, and Imagination


Produced by Punto de Contacto / Point of Contact (POC), this project creates space for thoughtful, cross-generational, and cross-cultural dialogue about artificial intelligence — grounded not in technical demos or theoretical debate, but in artistic practice itself. Rather than asking whether AI is "good" or "bad," the project explores how artists are engaging, resisting, and redefining these tools within their own creative work.

Inspired by POC's 2003 initiative 10 to 10 to 10:10, which used television as a lens for public reflection on media, this project reactivates that model for the AI era — one that demands active participation rather than passive viewing, as creators train, prompt, and collaborate with systems whose outputs are partly unpredictable.

Upcoming in Fall 2026

A series of workshops, workgroups, class projects and pop-up shows will engage university and community members — artists, writers, printmakers, and other creators — culminating in a curated exhibition planned for fall 2027 at the Point of Contact Gallery space in the Warehouse Building.

The project will also include a live in-gallery panel where artists will discuss authorship and how AI reshapes their creative process.

Project Goals

  • Center artistic voices in conversations about AI and technology

  • Explore authorship, agency, and creativity in technologically mediated contexts

  • Foster cross-cultural and cross-generational dialogue

  • Pair technological engagement with lived experience

  • Encourage critical reflection without prescribing conclusions

Syracuse University Collaborators

  • Richard L. Breyer — Professor of Television, Radio and Film, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications;
    Senior Research Associate, South Asia Center.

  • Cristina E. Pardo Porto — Assistant Professor of Latinx Literature and Culture; Visual Culture. Her research explores visuality, coloniality, and diasporic networks across the Americas; Contemporary art curator.

  • Shokoofeh Jabbari — Experimental filmmaker, animator, poet, writer, and collage artist. Graduate student and Instructor in the Department of Film and Media Arts (VPA) teaching Making Media: Fundamentals.

  • Nancy Keefe Rhodes — Writer, editor, and curator covering film, photography, and visual arts with over 400 published reviews, interviews, and catalog essays; Part-time faculty member, Department of Film and Media Arts.

  • Magdelin Montenegro — Part-time faculty member in the Spanish program, Department of Language, Literature, and Linguistics. Her research interests focus on the history of migrations, economic incorporation, political participation, legal rights for minorities and multiculturalism.