At a moment when Artificial Intelligence saturates every part of life: work, creativity, story, and identity, Call of the Void offers a deep cultural reframing to reorient how we relate to it.
Call of the Void is for thinkers, artists, cultural workers, and professionals who want to explore technology not as a tool to continue driving endless exploitation, but as a cultural force we inhabit and interrogate.
Over the 4 sessions, we invite participants to:
Surface assumptions about technology, nature, and culture
Explore how culture and technology shape each other
Develop personal frameworks for ecological storytelling
Cultivate sincerity, relationality, and generosity over efficiency and extraction
Participants in Call of the Void will work towards:
A clearer sense of their personal and cultural relationship with Artificial Intelligence
Tools to articulate critical perspectives on technology’s ecological and social impact
A framework for meaningful, non-instrumental engagement with complex systems
A community of peers exploring similar questions
Saturday March 28, 2026 - 1pm-4pm
568 Richmond St. W, Toronto, Canada
A workshop on computer perception: attention, models, and how algorithms understand our world.
We spend a lot of time being seen by machines — cameras, phones, algorithms sorting through images of us without us knowing. Most of us are left with only a vague sense that something is happening, and no real way to look back.
Views from the Machine is for cultural practitioners, educators, facilitators, and curious thinkers who want to move beyond abstract conversations about AI and into direct, embodied experience with how these systems actually work.
Through hands-on exercises in drawing, collaging, and making — and watching what various vision models pay attention to in real time — participants develop an intuitive, grounded understanding of computer perception that no explainer article can provide.
Over the course of the workshop, we invite participants to:
Experience firsthand how machine attention differs from human perception
Develop playful, low-stakes methods for demystifying algorithmic systems
Build confidence in explaining abstract technical concepts through tangible, embodied practice
Engage critically with AI outside the familiar frames of productivity, efficiency, or fear
Participants in Views from the Machine will walk away with:
Tangible facilitation methods for introducing algorithmic literacy to non-technical audiences
A personal framework for engaging critically and creatively with digital technologies
Clarity in articulating their own values and perspectives on algorithmic systems
A shared experience with a small community of people asking the same kinds of questions
No technical background required. No computers to bring. Just your hands, your attention, and your willingness to be a little surprised by what the machine finds interesting.
At a moment when Artificial Intelligence saturates every part of life: work, creativity, story, and identity, Call of the Void offers a deep cultural reframing to reorient how we relate to it.
Call of the Void is for thinkers, artists, cultural workers, and professionals who want to explore technology not as a tool to continue driving endless exploitation, but as a cultural force we inhabit and interrogate.
Over the 4 sessions, we invite participants to:
Surface assumptions about technology, nature, and culture
Explore how culture and technology shape each other
Develop personal frameworks for ecological storytelling
Cultivate sincerity, relationality, and generosity over efficiency and extraction
Participants in Call of the Void will work towards:
A clearer sense of their personal and cultural relationship with Artificial Intelligence
Tools to articulate critical perspectives on technology’s ecological and social impact
A framework for meaningful, non-instrumental engagement with complex systems
A community of peers exploring similar questions
On March 28, we held our first in-person workshop, "Views from the Machine," with a group of people from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Some had their work and employment connected to AI, while others were curious about how AI impacts their lives. All wanted a greater sense of individual and collective agency in navigating the rapid changes caused by its proliferation.
There’s a beginning and an end, or something like that. We begin the final session today aware of the ghostly presences who’ve made themselves known, who we’ve collected like paperclips to a magnet. Some parts of the internet are already dead, long cauterized stretches of digital space inhabited by bots and other unruly beings. Shadows, echoes, and duplicates dialogue between each other and with us. Reverberations of a long-decimated civilization. I wonder, how much noise will be there after we’re gone? Will we leave this place with the television running? With an old voicemail playing over and over into the void? What will it say?
Normally, we would launch an open call, but with being understaffed and facing serious budget cuts, it will be a bit of a gamble this time. The idea is simple: join the list of artists willing to collaborate, share resources, and work together. This list will be visible to the public, so once it’s published, artists, creatives, and cultural workers in Halifax can see your entries and understand what you’re looking for in a collaboration. Be honest, be open to new ways of working, and be a generous goblin.
Goblin Market consists of a 6-week artist-economy prototyping lab, access to CFAT’s facility and membership from May to June, a 2-day micro-festival, and a week-long exhibition open to the public in late June. We will select six artists from the list to participate in this program by lottery. We want to be surprised, and we understand there are always risks involved.
The Cultural Technologies Lab is where we at UKAI test many ideas—some large, and some tiny. We run virtual and in-person meetups featuring people and ideas that centre cultural production as vital mechanisms for social change.
Saturday March 28, 2026 - 1pm-4pm
568 Richmond St. W, Toronto, Canada
A workshop on computer perception: attention, models, and how algorithms understand our world.
We spend a lot of time being seen by machines — cameras, phones, algorithms sorting through images of us without us knowing. Most of us are left with only a vague sense that something is happening, and no real way to look back.
Views from the Machine is for cultural practitioners, educators, facilitators, and curious thinkers who want to move beyond abstract conversations about AI and into direct, embodied experience with how these systems actually work.
Through hands-on exercises in drawing, collaging, and making — and watching what various vision models pay attention to in real time — participants develop an intuitive, grounded understanding of computer perception that no explainer article can provide.
Over the course of the workshop, we invite participants to:
Experience firsthand how machine attention differs from human perception
Develop playful, low-stakes methods for demystifying algorithmic systems
Build confidence in explaining abstract technical concepts through tangible, embodied practice
Engage critically with AI outside the familiar frames of productivity, efficiency, or fear
Participants in Views from the Machine will walk away with:
Tangible facilitation methods for introducing algorithmic literacy to non-technical audiences
A personal framework for engaging critically and creatively with digital technologies
Clarity in articulating their own values and perspectives on algorithmic systems
A shared experience with a small community of people asking the same kinds of questions
No technical background required. No computers to bring. Just your hands, your attention, and your willingness to be a little surprised by what the machine finds interesting.