M.A.R.S. Creature Collective Forum 2019–2020 at Bright City Paris
The M.A.R.S. Creature Collective Forum is an international gathering and platform hosted at Bright City Paris. Musicians, curators, scientists, scholars, computer engineers, visual design technicians, and cultural entrepreneurs from many disciplines are all invited to take part. Every edition centres on a chosen theme, and a shared laboratory of brainstorming and creative work is open to everyone who wants to contribute. These public events run across the year as showcases of the M.A.R.S. Creative Collective (CC) Forum 2019–2020, with a final M.A.R.S. Collective Project planned for 2020 in Paris and Shanghai — exact dates to be announced later.
About the Forum
The M.A.R.S. Creature Collective Forum is an international platform based at Bright City Paris. It gathers musicians, curators, scientists, scholars, computer engineers, visual design technicians, and cultural entrepreneurs for public events held throughout the year. Each Forum picks a specific topic and opens a laboratory of brainstorming and creative work that anyone can join.
Forum 1 — 28–29 June 2026 @ Bright City Paris
Topic: Machine Learning and AI in Music and Art
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have grown into today's most talked-about technology trends over the past decade. Inventors, engineers, and other innovators have worked to build machines that think and behave like humans. Self-driving vehicles, digital assistants, robotic factory workers, and smart cities have already shown that intelligent machines are not merely possible but a positive reality in daily life — and today's Google AI Quantum is pushing AI technology to even higher levels. Over the coming decade we can expect a pronounced shift from partial mistrust of these innovations toward full acceptance and even dependence on AI and other advanced technologies. AI will become increasingly pervasive, reshaping sectors such as manufacturing, finance, healthcare, transportation, and media, and it will keep influencing other areas, including music and artistic creation.
Our first M.A.R.S. CC Forum aims to present artistic compositions, performances, and media that explore machine learning and AI in relation to music and art. Current AI music tools such as IBM Watson Beat, Google Magenta's NSynth Super, AIVA, and Amper Music are changing how music is conceived and created. Recently an AI-produced artwork sold for over $430,000 — which raises an interesting question: as AI shifts centuries of music and art history, are there certain components of how we define particular feelings or personal sensations that cannot be programmed into AI? Artists and musicians create original compositions and make creative and artistic decisions through subjective emotions, not exclusively through the logic or calculated algorithms that machine learning uses. So what does it mean when a "futuristic Bach or Da Vinci" is a creative robot? How do we come to terms with creative processes and outcomes vis-à-vis AI?
Forum 2 — 4–5 October 2026 @ Bright City Paris
Topic: Room Design: Quantum Mechanics in Music and Arts
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