As generative AI increasingly infiltrates our creative ecosystems, questions arise: Where does imagination live when machines can produce images, stories, and sounds in seconds? What do we risk when we treat AI as the origin of the creative act rather than its interlocutor? And how might we develop a literacy of creativity that strengthens our agency, emotion, and vision in an algorithmic age?
In this interactive session, Dr. Angela Gunder—educator, artist, and co-creator of the globally-recognized taxonomy for the Dimensions of AI Literacies—invites participants to explore the emerging terrain of creative AI literacies. Framed through the metaphor of “The Dream That Writes With Me,” the session blends storytelling, reflection, and co-creation to unpack the role of AI in the artistic and educational imagination.
We begin by mapping the emotional topographies of AI through three story arcs: the tether (AI as companion and confidant), the struggle (AI’s aesthetic failures and algorithmic harms), and the spark (the birth of Confluence of Commands, a co-created artwork that reveals AI’s potential for collaboration and connection). Along the way, participants will engage in short reflection activities that prompt them to consider where and how AI intersects with their own creative practices.
Building on this shared exploration, we close with a Collective Manifesto for Creative AI Literacies, a live co-written artifact in which participants articulate their own values, hopes, and provocations for creativity in the age of machines. The session affirms that creativity is not just output—it is presence, relationality, and the act of becoming. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of AI literacies as both skillsets and mindsets, especially those that wed the critical with the creative, the personal with the political.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Describe key tensions between human creativity and machine-generated outputs, including both the promises and pitfalls of generative AI in artistic and educational practice.
2. Identify the characteristics of creative AI literacies, particularly those that emphasize critical reflection, aesthetic discernment, and imaginative agency.
3. Reflect on personal experiences of using (or resisting) AI in creative contexts, and consider how those experiences inform their evolving relationship with technology.
4. Articulate their own values and aspirations related to AI-supported creativity by contributing to a Collective Manifesto on Creative AI Literacies.
5. Envision intentional, human-centered approaches to integrating AI into creative processes—grounded in care, curiosity, and critical engagement.
Whether you’re an artist, educator, technologist, or dreamer, this session is a call to reclaim your imaginative power—and to remember that even in a world of machines, the dream still writes with you.
Session duration: 1 hour
Please click on the facilitator’s name in the session info to view their bio.
This session will be recorded and shared on the website and on our YouTube channel
