The BrutAIsm Workshop: Sight Unseen
A workshop on competing edits, erasure and bias in generative images
Satellite Event of the Ai in Art Practices and Research Conference 2026
Date: 17 November 2026
Duration: 14.00-17.00 (3 hours)
Location: CINETIC UNATC (Str. Tudor Arghezi 3-B)
Facilitators: Grigore Burloiu, Andrei Ivanescu and Sebastian Comanescu
About the Workshop
Generative models are built to please. They return a finished, plausible image whatever they are asked. This workshop works against that smoothness. In a single session, participants push, stretch and deform a model until the polish gives way and the material underneath shows: its habits, its defaults, what it cannot leave out and what it cannot hold on to.
We treat the model as a medium with a grain of its own, not as a tool that should disappear into the result. Editing it, erasing from it and provoking it are ways of reading it. We are not after better images. We want a clearer picture of how these systems behave once the veneer is removed, in the spirit of BrutAIsm, which looks at what generative AI loses, distorts and cannot reach.
Participants
Who: Students and early researchers in art, new media, sound, film and design.
Skills: Basic familiarity with GenAI tools and terms (e.g. prompting, training). No coding needed.
Participants bring: A laptop with a browser and Wi-Fi. Ideally, you should have access to an LLM.
We provide: The server, API generation credits and keys.
Registration
To participate in the workshop, please complete the registration form:
Workshop Facilitators
Grigore Burloiu
Grigore Burloiu is a lecturer at the National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC) in Bucharest, where he co-founded and coordinates the Master’s programme in Interactive Technologies for Performing Arts and Media (ITPMA). He teaches Creative Coding and Interactive Music Systems, focusing on the development of expressive, interactive and generative systems for artistic practice. His research explores artificial intelligence, computational creativity, interactive music and the relationship between technology and performance. He holds a PhD from Politehnica University of Bucharest and has conducted research at IRCAM in Paris. His collaborative artistic work has been presented internationally at Ars Electronica, Vivid Festival, Fête des Lumières and the Prague Quadrennial.
Andrei Ivanescu
Multidisciplinary artist and designer with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of technology, art, and cultural heritage. Trained as an architect at the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning in Bucharest (Master’s degree, 2011), with international internships at Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vienna, ONL, Rotterdam, and the University of Palermo (Erasmus scholarship, 2006–2007). In recent years, his artistic and curatorial practice has focused on the critical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence in cultural production and applied artistic research.
Sebastian Comanescu
Sebastian Comănescu is a computational designer and new media artist whose practice explores natural phenomena, emerging technologies and the relationship between the natural and artificial worlds. He graduated from the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning in 2018 and completed a Master’s degree in Interactive Technologies for Performing Arts and Media at UNATC’s CINETic Research Center in 2021. In 2020, he founded his own studio, developing research-based projects across design, architecture and new media art. His work combines computational design, digital fabrication and interactive technologies, drawing inspiration from natural forms and processes. His projects have been presented at festivals and exhibitions including Ars Electronica, Romanian Design Week, NOVA Festival and Romanian Creative Week.