Artist-researcher Michi Masumi — Founder of The Black Art Hub CIC and the Benjamin Zephaniah Library and Archive, and a doctoral candidate at Canterbury Christ Church University — is living inside these questions. Entirely self-taught in her use of AI tools, she works across AI-assisted sonic poetry, AI hybrid digital and mixed-media art, and living digital archives and uses AI to support community engagement and online learning to ensure that the voices, experiences, and creativity of Black British women are created, collected, and kept.
Michi’s work sits at the heart of an emerging field that bridges Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) with digital humanities and anthropology – demonstrating how born-digital cultural heritage, created through creative technology, can provide the accessibility and visibility that opens history up to global engagement. By positioning AI as both a creative partner and an archival methodology, her research shows how digital and sonic artworks can function as living cultural assets — ensuring that marginalised histories are not only preserved, but continually expanded through accessible, community-led digital practices.
Going Beyond the AI Prompt
Presentation
What happens when a Black woman goes beyond the prompt — teaching herself AI Assist and AI Hybrid creative practices and using them not just to generate but to author, archive, and reclaim? And can AI truly give voice to the marginalised and help dismantle intersectional barriers — even amid algorithmic bias and loosely governed UK AI policies? Artist-researcher Michi Masumi, founder of The Black Art Hub CIC and the Benjamin Zephaniah Library and Archive and a doctoral candidate at Canterbury Christ Church University, is living inside these questions.
