The Faculty of Arts at October University for Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA) is pleased to announce an upcoming performance-lecture by renowned multidisciplinary and new media artist Sameh Al Tawil, titled “In the Mirror of the Machine.”, offering students a unique 45–60 minute journey into the evolving relationship between art, the artist, and intelligent machines.
In this special session, Al Tawil will invite attendees to stand “in the mirror of the machine” and reflect on how the connection between human creativity and technology has transformed over the past decades — shifting from tool to partner, from medium to a parallel mind capable of co-creating, imagining, and shaping future narratives.
The lecture will highlight more than twenty-five years of Al Tawil’s artistic practice in multidisciplinary and post-digital art, featuring live demonstrations of his pioneering AI-driven projects: Chaos, Sleeping Sun, and Short Shadows. Through these works, students will explore how creativity can emerge in the liminal space between human intention and machine intelligence — where error becomes beauty, noise becomes music, data becomes memory, and the machine becomes a mirror reflecting both fragility and power.
Al Tawil will also share his philosophy on imagination, narrative, and the transformation of storytelling in the age of artificial intelligence. The session will delve into his techniques in visual narration, world-building, and developing creative thinking methodologies within postmodern and post-digital contexts. A central question will guide the discussion: How does the identity of an artwork shift when the machine participates not as a tool, but as a collaborator?
More than an academic lecture, this upcoming event promises to be an experiential encounter, demonstrating how art can redraw the boundaries of technology and how intelligent systems can become mediums for inquiry, meaning, and self-rediscovery.