Skip to main content

AI: Friend or Foe? Workshop w/ David LaRiviere

Image: David LaRiviere, The MKUltra-Foods Story, Chapter One: Tragic Fall of Smokey-Joe Derby (video still),  2024. Image courtesy of the artist.

February 17, 2024, 12–3 pm
PAVED Arts Production Centre, 424 20th St. W. Saskatoon

What does AI threaten and what does it empower? In this workshop resident PAVED Arts Artistic Director and artist David LaRiviere will share a layered AI workflow that he has developed for a video project that is currently in development. The workflow covers scripting with Chat GPT, voice generation with Eleven Labs, text to image generation with Midjourney, AI image manipulation with Adobe Photoshop, AI face-swapping with InsightFaceSwap, AI video generation with Pica labs and HeyGen, and more.

Using his current project as an example, LaRiviere will demonstrate how a person who has given consent to use their voice and image can be made into a full-blown actor without lifting a finger. The ethical implications of AI will be discussed alongside of how this technology can work as a tool in the service of developing artistic ideas and expression.

Tools and materials needed

Personal Laptops are welcome. Please also feel free to download and install any of the following tools in advance of the workshop. Note: many AI tools are subscription-based and costs can add up. PAVED Arts will measure the interest following this workshop and potentially make relevant AI tools available to members as part of our video and photo suite rentals (alongside the Adobe tools that are already on board).

Below are a few web links for a variety of AI tools that can be downloaded along with tutorial videos that may be helpful with regards to installation:

Register

This workshop is free for PAVED Arts members and $20 for non-members. Email program@pavedarts.ca to register.

Artist Bio

David LaRiviere received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alberta and holds an MA Fine Art degree from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Since January of 2008, he has been the Artistic Director of PAVED Arts. LaRiviere’s work has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Canada including Truck Gallery (Calgary),  Neutral Ground (Regina), and the Mendel Art Gallery. More recently, LaRiviere completed a three month residency, sound walk and exhibition entitled “#everysordiddetail” at Open Space Arts Society (Victoria, BC), and mounted “Treaty Six: The Smooth and the Striated” as part of “borderLINE: 2020 Biennial of Contemporary Art” at the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton). The Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert subsequently hosted a related but expanded solo exhibition, entitled “Anti-Tourism on Treaty Six Territory,” in the summer of 2022. LaRiviere’s current artistic practice involves audio art, video, photography, web art, performance, and public art interventions. His interest in a variety of media is influenced by a research path that includes an abiding interest in continental philosophy. Of particular interest are social, political and artistic concepts that reevaluate and critique classical, colonial, and/or majoritarian institutional frameworks. In this respect, LaRiviere politically aligns his practice with minoritarian approaches to artistic expression.