From Code to Camera: The Making and Meaning of Prosomoíosi (Simulation), an AI Documentary Film
Shuai Liu, Mar Canet Sola (2025)
Abstract
This paper examines the audiovisual artwork Prosomoíosi (Simulation) to critique how successive simulation technologies overwrite cultural memory. Grounded in media-archaeological thinking, the study argues that concepts must be articulated through media whose operative logic remains visible, thereby transforming viewers from passive spectators into active witnesses of algorithmic decision-making. A transparent live diffusion pipeline serves as both method and message, enabling audiences to observe how text prompts, stochastic noise, and performer input co-evolve on screen. Bytracing precedents from early interactive installations to contemporary AI-driven works, the paper positions Prosomoíosi within a lineage that challenges tool-centric spectacle and renegotiates authorship at the human-machine frontier. Medium alignment thus emerges as a transferable design heuristic for artists seeking to move beyond technological virtuosity toward works that explicitly reveal, rather than conceal, their underlying political dimensions.
Venue: In Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI ’25).