Overview
Ars Automata is an immersive live event that merges human creativity with the power of artificial intelligence in real time. Presented as a dynamic "prompt battle" between two teams, the experience unfolds like a live game show. Each team uses a camera and text prompts to instantly transform a live video feed into a poetic, evolving stream of images, turning spectators into actors in an uninterrupted dialogue between human sensitivity and machine intelligence.
Technical details
A core principle of the project was digital sobriety. The entire system operates entirely locally, without any internet or cloud connection. This local-first approach guarantees high responsiveness while keeping a remarkably low energy footprint. The real-time video transformation is powered by TouchDesigner running the StreamDiffusion model. The choice of the open-source Stable Diffusion 1.5 Turbo model was crucial for efficiency on local hardware. By avoiding the heavy energy costs of cloud AI data centers, Ars Automata proves powerful real-time creative experiences can be delivered far more sustainably.