Art in the age of AI: Interdisciplinary Arts division explores emerging technology in a one-of-a-kind multidisciplinary project
Inspired by the concept of figure drawing, the project culminated in a performance that featured both student-created work and AI-generated elements.
In winter 2025, Interlochen Arts Academy’s Interdisciplinary Arts division explored the creative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) through a one-of-a-kind multidisciplinary project.
Titled Figure Drawing, the project enabled students to learn and practice figure drawing—a foundational visual arts skill that often serves as the first step on an artist’s journey—develop original music and choreography, and to experiment with a variety of AI programs. The project culminated in a live performance that featured both student-performed music and dance and a multimedia presentation composed of AI-generated responses to the students’ creative work.
“There’s a lot of concern in the world about AI taking the work of so many people and artists,” said Director of Interdisciplinary Arts Clyde Sheets. “We wanted to assure young people that AI is simply another tool in their toolbox.”
The original concept for the project was developed by Sheets in collaboration with dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and Site-Specific Dances Artistic Director Michael Spencer Phillips (AS 95, IAC 96).
“[Phillips] has made some really great work with our students in the past three years,” Sheets said. “He’s really great to work with, and he’s excellent with students. He brings real-world experience to us.”
In addition to figure drawing, Sheets and Phillips drew inspiration from the project from 20th century dance diagrams and contemporary dance works such as Merce Cunningham’s Bi-Ped. Their initial idea expanded to include AI after the institution received a gift from donors Oguzhan and Zeynep Oguz.
“We had the opportunity—through that generous donation—to engage with AI and to explore the possibilities of what creativity can become in the age of artificial intelligence,” Sheets said.
The project officially launched in fall 2024, when Interdisciplinary Arts student Paige Miller worked with Phillips to develop a series of 14 different poses. Those poses became the basis for two days of figure drawing sessions led by the Visual Arts Division’s drawing faculty. Dancers served as models for the session, while the remaining members of the Interdisciplinary Arts Division created charcoal or pencil sketches.
“Every interdisciplinary arts student participated in those sessions,” Sheets said. “The dancers held the poses, and everyone circled around them and drew them.”
Interdisciplinary Arts students then collaborated with students from the Dance Division to develop choreography based on the figure drawings. Bianca Chen, a junior Interdisciplinary Arts major from China, composed an original piano work to accompany the choreography.
Dance and Interdisciplinary Arts students connect the drawn figures together to form phrases of choreography.
With the student-created elements in place, students began experimenting with AI. The performance’s multimedia elements were created by uploading student work into several different AI software—including RunwayML, AIVA, Viggle AI, Adobe, Magic Media, DALL-E, and Imagen—and asking the programs to generate their own interpretations.
“The presentation was a mix of creative output from the students—on the dance side, on the visual side, and on the music side—performed alongside AI’s interpretation of the same things,” Sheets said. “We demonstrated AI’s interpretation through video projection.”
Students perform Figure Drawing alongside the AI-generated multimedia presentation.
Ultimately, the project was a chance to create original work while examining the opportunities and ethics of emerging technology.
“I think—given the debate around AI, creativity, and originality—that it’s worth our students experiencing a project where their own work has been put into artificial intelligence and interpreted,” Sheets said. “Our biggest discovery was that AI is in the ‘stone age’ right now in terms of its ability to create original work.”
“We learned how to use the tools available to us to better understand the world around us and to react to it."
Want to be part of cutting-edge projects like this one? Learn more about Interlochen Arts Academy’s Interdisciplinary Arts division and start your application today.
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