SXSW Sydney — AI Creative Lab
Status:
Completed
Year:
2024
Industry:
Music
Format:
Project
Client:
SXSW Innovation
Location:
Sydney, Australia
Tramp stamps, back pieces, and tasteful neck tattoos probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of AI — but they certainly made their mark at SXSW Sydney. In 2024, Jessie Hughes and Leonardo.AI set out to extend the possibilities of festival experiences with generative technology, creating something playful, human, and unexpected: the AI Tattoo Party — an activation where festival-goers designed their dream tattoo using AI, printed it on demand, and wore it on the spot.
In addition, the team unveiled SXSW Sydney’s first-ever real-time AI music visualiser — a world-first experiment that transformed sound and live camera input into evolving visuals during a live performance. Created in collaboration with pioneering artists Ben Gillies of Silverchair, Academy Award–winner Johannes Saam, and Matt Momtaz, stage visuals responded in AI-powered outputs, converting live video feeds into visual worlds that responded directly to the performance.
Together, the real-time visualiser and tattoo activation captured the spirit of SXSW Sydney, as a bold, experimental, creative collision, at the meeting point of music, technology, and human expression. Hughes’ creative approach explored new, experiential, and tangible ways for audiences to engage with emerging technologies — demonstrating how AI can live not just on screens, but within culture itself. Hughes also spoke on five different SXSW panels about AI and Creativity.
Tramp stamps, back pieces, and tasteful neck tattoos probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of AI — but they certainly made their mark at SXSW Sydney. In 2024, Jessie Hughes and Leonardo.AI set out to extend the possibilities of festival experiences with generative technology, creating something playful, human, and unexpected: the AI Tattoo Party — an activation where festival-goers designed their dream tattoo using AI, printed it on demand, and wore it on the spot.
In addition, the team unveiled SXSW Sydney’s first-ever real-time AI music visualiser — a world-first experiment that transformed sound and live camera input into evolving visuals during a live performance. Created in collaboration with pioneering artists Ben Gillies of Silverchair, Academy Award–winner Johannes Saam, and Matt Momtaz, stage visuals responded in AI-powered outputs, converting live video feeds into visual worlds that responded directly to the performance.
Together, the real-time visualiser and tattoo activation captured the spirit of SXSW Sydney, as a bold, experimental, creative collision, at the meeting point of music, technology, and human expression. Hughes’ creative approach explored new, experiential, and tangible ways for audiences to engage with emerging technologies — demonstrating how AI can live not just on screens, but within culture itself. Hughes also spoke on five different SXSW panels about AI and Creativity.
Project team:
SXSW Sydney, Leonardo.Ai
Collaborators:
Academy Award–winner Johannes Saam, Ben Gillies of Silverchair, Matt Momtaz
(Other works)
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