The Artistic Intelligence Visionary Initiative (A.I.V.I.) – curated by Harry Yeff and supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea – concludes its second season by spotlighting artists who are shaping the future of creativity through emerging technologies.
In this final episode of Season 2, we meet Bertie Sampson, multimedia artist and founder of Immersive-me. With a background in live visual performance and scenography, Sampson explores how technology can provoke emotion, reshape perception, and create immersive experiences that feel alive.
His recent work Altar, presented at Seoul Light Festival in South Korea, transforms AI into a ritualistic, sensory experience, inviting audiences to reflect on their complex, entangled relationship with intelligent machines.
Who are you and what is your art + tech practice?
I’m Bertie Sampson, a multimedia artist and the founder and creative director of Immersive-me. My practice focuses on creating immersive, interactive and live experiences that push the boundaries of creative technology.
My background is in live visual performance and scenography, and I have spent countless hours in dark environments, spaces entirely shaped by music and light. These experiences have shown me the transformative power of sensory outputs being able to evoke deep visceral reactions and reshape how you perceive your environment. This dynamic drives pretty much everything I do.
I explore how technologies can induce immersion, provoke emotions, and make people stop and truly feel.
Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with AI. It’s interesting how AI can shape emotional responses and create interactions that feel alive.
Watch the full episode here:
What is your selected work and its description?
The work Altar is a large-scale multimedia installation presented at Seoul Light Festival in South Korea. The concept’s origin was sparked by a phone call I had, where I started to question if I was speaking to a real person or not, and in the back of my mind, I was wondering if it was an AI. It kind of left me quite unsettled and left me with the realization of how entangled AI was becoming with our lives.
I wanted to create an experience that didn’t shy away from this unease, but embraced it; a way for people to reflect and accept this transformational technology. Altar reimagines AI as a symbolic object of worship, something that evokes awe, a touch of fear, and a sense of being part of something greater.
Using synchronized display technologies and a narrative entirely driven by sound and light, the installation creates a ritualistic space where the audience can reflect on their relationship with AI, where not just coexisting with the technology, but deeply entangled with it in a meaningful, collective way.
What technology was used to produce this work?
Altar was in many ways a self-fulfilling creation. The technology it represents became integral to the installation.
The conceptual structuring started with what I like to call a bit of sparring with deep learning models and large-scale latent diffusion networks. This really helped shape its visual representation and conceptual foundation. AI, in a way, was an active collaborator, really helped iterate, problem solve, and refine various parts of the work, almost as if it was orchestrating itself.
Even the gesso shaders, which I think gave Altar its visual depth, were developed with guidance from neural networks. This removed technical barriers and made the process of creating more fluid.
At the experience’s core was a digital heartbeat, rhythm that symbolized life and really helped drive the installation forward.
Despite being imagined and built digitally, I think the result felt deeply human, using technology to bridge the gap between the machine and human experience.
What aspect of this work brings insight to our possible future relationship with technology?
Altar explores a future where technology is something we use, but also is something we experience. The work iterates and evolves almost autonomously. It hints at a future where machines will collaborate, shape creative outcomes in ways that feel a bit more intuitive and even alive.
Altar highlights technology’s emotional potential. It’s not just about efficiency or automation. I think it’s about how AI can create experiences that shift perspectives and make us feel something a little bit deeper.
Immersive experiences will likely become more dynamic and responsive, evolving in real time based on human input. I think the installation asks us to consider: Are we shaping technology, or is it shaping us?
What is one 20-year prediction for human + machine collaboration?
I see AI becoming deeply personal, seamlessly integrating into our daily lives. I don’t think it would just assist. I think it will extend our thoughts and creativity, almost making the process of making, thinking and experiencing entirely fluid.
At the same time, I think people will crave physicality, something that feels real. I can imagine that technology will try to bridge that gap through hyperrealism and creating illusions – what’s making the digital world feel a bit more tangible.
Boundaries between human and machine will continue to blur, and instead of just coexisting, I think it will sort of live somewhere in the middle and it will become something a bit more intertwined, almost a symbiosis.
Bertie Sampson’s work reflects the evolving vision of A.I.V.I.: a space where creativity, technology, and human emotion merge to challenge how we experience the world and ourselves. With Altar, he invites us not only to confront our unease around AI, but to explore its potential to provoke awe, connection, and reflection.
From 8 to 11 July in Geneva, the AI for Good Global Summit will continue to spotlight visionary projects like this, at the intersection of art, immersive technology, and human-machine collaboration.
