ISSN: XXXX-XXXX SPECIAL ISSUE 2025

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Aidan McPhee

In An Experimental Trio, Aidan McPhee ques-

tions the growing dependence on AI in art. By using

AI to generate unfamiliar colour palees, even ones

he didn’t like, he challenged his usual artistic choices

and stayed in full control of the creative process.

His work explores an important question: “If the AI

is the one creating ‘your’ vision, is it really yours?”

McPhee’s project reﬂects Future Earth’s mission

to push boundaries, ask hard questions, and think

critically about how new technologies are shaping

our world.

Avery Stainton

In Bane of the Prodigious, paints a unicorn in

captivity as a metaphor for the ethical problems

of AI power. Her oil work, inspired by AI-generated

prompts, examines the tension between wonder

and restraint in our engagement with the extraordi-

nary. The work echoes Future Earth's emphasis on

ethical reﬂection and the societal impacts of inno-

vation. As she notes, “The act of collaborating with

AI can mirror the act of trapping a unicorn for its

power—an endeavor fraught with ethical dilemmas

and the potential for exploitation.”

When I ﬁrst entered the TRU Art Gallery to view

Explorations in Art and AI, I was captivated by the

novelty, originality, vision, and signiﬁcance of the

displays co-created by talented students with the

aid of general artiﬁcial intelligence tools. The stu-

dents approached generative artiﬁcial intelligence

with bold curiosity, challenging assumptions, push-

ing boundaries, and reﬂecting deeply on its ethical,

environmental, and cultural implications. Within

minutes, I knew this exhibition deserved to live

beyond its temporary home at the TRU Art Gallery.

It needed to be shared more widely and made per-

manently accessible to the world. That realization

inspired this special issue of Future Earth.

This issue features the work of ten students

enrolled in Twyla Exner’s Winter 2025 selected topics

course entitled Experiments in AI Art. Twyla's men-

torship enabled these artists to utilize AI not as a

shortcut to their creation, but to challenge them-

selves and to use AI tools to explore new frontiers.

Their work most likely demanded signiﬁcantly more

time and eort than conventional approaches. Their

creativity conveys a powerful message to Future

Earth's mission: to provide students with the abil-

ity to disrupt the status quo through new ways

of inquiry and inventiveness. Each artist brings a

unique perspective and vision to the special issue:

EXPLORATIONS IN ART AND AI: REIMAGINING

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH STUDENT VISION

Dr. Peter Tsigaris

Chief Editor

Her AI-assisted screen prints use a pink cow to

draw aention to perspectives we oen overlook,

especially in the face of environmental and social

disruptions. Her work speaks directly to Future

Earth’s goals of fostering dialogue on climate adap-

tation and social sustainability across communities.

As she puts it, “I want viewers to see the cow not only

as a rural emblem but as a symbol of perspectives

they might not fully understand.”

Janet McChesney

In You See, creates a so sculpture using

screen-printed fabric and embedded LEDs to

explore how the brain helps us see. She originally

planned to depict the hills around Kamloops, but

when AI tools couldn’t capture the landscape in a

meaningful way, she shied her focus to the brain,

another natural structure full of neural networks

and complexity. Using DALL-E to generate refer-

ence images, she printed cross-sections of the

brain’s visual pathways onto fabric and added lights

to highlight the parts that activate when we see. Her

impressive work blends art, science, and technology

in a way that reﬂects Future Earth’s commitment to

creative exploration. As McChesney writes, “seeing

is the start of making meaning.”

Kaitlyn Bartle

In A Crochet Kaleidoscope, merges crochet

and painting to explore her childhood memories

and the joy of handmade art. Using AI tools only

for inspiration, she translated abstract ideas into

tangible textures, creating so, colourful shapes

that reﬂect her love for play, paern, and cra. Her

bright artwork celebrates the value of traditional

techniques in a digital age, reminding us that sus-

tainability includes not just the environment, but

also the cultural practices we pass between gen-

erations. Her piece reﬂects Future Earth’s focus on

cultural sustainability and the thoughtful integration

of technology into human expression. As she writes,

“I want my artwork to give the viewer a playful and

child-like feeling.”

Bryanna Dyer (aka Gouda Mourn-

ing)

In AM, a 24-page comic adaptation of Harlan

Ellison’s I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Bry-

anna Dyer explores the AI not as a killer robot, but

as an internet-empowered force of psychological

control. In Ellison’s original story, AM, initially short

for Allied Mastercomputer, evolves into a self-aware

entity that deﬁnes itself by the phrase “I think, there-

fore I AM,” embodying both technological power and

total loneliness. Dyer’s version explores how gen-

erative AI can erode identity and perception under

late-stage capitalism. As Dyer writes, “My version of

AM doesn’t wield nuclear weapons but instead pos-

sesses full access to the internet, a tool that wields

its own kind of psychological destruction, eroding

individuality and controlling perception.” Their

work reﬂects Future Earth’s commitment to ethical

awareness, critical storytelling, and the human con-

sequences of AI power.

Dre Levant

In Egesta, Dre Levant mixes poetry, collage,

and AI-generated images to explore what it means

to create art in a world where machines can mimic

creativity. Using Microso Copilot, Levant asked the

AI to respond to their own poems and artwork, then

cut up and reassembled the results by hand to make

something completely new. The ﬁnished artwork is

strange, funny, a lile disturbing, and deeply per-

sonal. Levant’s work asks: can something made by

AI really be called art? And what happens when art-

ists take that material and reshape it with their own

creativity? In the spirit of Future Earth, Levant made

a donation to plant ﬁve trees in British Columbia

to help oset the environmental footprint of using

AI. Egesta reﬂects Future Earth’s mission of sustain-

ability, creative expression, and the ethical use of

technology in artistic practice.

Elizabeth Sigalet

In Pink Cows and AI, uses playful printmaking

to reﬂect on rural–urban divides, intergenerational

perspectives, and our cultural blind spots that aect

how we view climate, agriculture, and technology.

Earth and the vital importance of personal and col-

lective responsibility in caring for it.”

This special issue represents more than an art

showcase. It is a celebration of student imagination,

critical inquiry, and learning to incorporate new tech-

nological tools. It reﬂects what makes Future Earth

distinct: a commitment to amplifying student voices

in sustainability discourse, embracing diverse ave-

nues, and nurturing creative risk-taking. As we face

accelerating challenges, from intensifying climate

change to geopolitical instability to digital disrup-

tion, the student works remind us that sustainability

is not just a technical problem, but a cultural and

imaginative one. Art has the power to frame ques-

tions that science alone cannot answer. Through

this issue, we hope to spark dialogue, reﬂection, and

inspiration for readers at TRU and beyond.

Special thanks are due to Twyla Exner, whose

leadership, openness, and creative pedagogy made

this project possible, and to Nicole Favron, R. A.,

whose curatorial statement provides essential con-

text for the exhibition, as well as to the TRU Open

Press team for their exceptional work in producing

this special issue. I would also like to acknowledge

the use of ChatGPT-4o for assisting with the edit

ing, clariﬁcations, and reﬁnements of this editorial.

The ﬁnal interpretations and all editorial decisions

remain my own.

Raluchukwu Ojah

In Lanaya Meets AI, explores identity and

fashion through a portrait collage that combines

Nigerian Dutch wax fabrics, Canadian paerns,

magazine clippings, and AI-generated designs. As

a Nigerian artist living in Canada, he works with AI

to tell a story about blending cultures and show-

ing pride from where he comes from. His artwork

highlights how tradition and technology can come

together to shape how we see ourselves and

others. It reﬂects Future Earth’s commitment to

equity, diversity, inclusiveness and creative ways of

sharing culture in a changing world. As he writes,

“Ultimately, my journey with AI is both a personal

exploration and a way to show pride in the beauty

of my cultural heritage in a world of technological

possibilities.”

Sierra Klassen-Johnson

In Untitled, shares a design of a sustainable

mountaintop home, created using architectural

soware like Revit and Enscape (non-AI programs).

Inﬂuenced by Midjourney prompts, natural ele-

ments, and eco-conscious thinking, her design

brings together sunlight, stone, plants, and organic

shapes to create harmony between architecture

and nature. Her work reﬂects Future Earth’s vision of

environmentally responsible design, creative inno-

vation, and the power of architecture to inspire more

sustainable ways of living. As she writes, “I hope to

contribute to the evolution of architecture, promot-

ing a style that harmonizes with the environment.”

Susan Miller

In Fragile Connections, presents a hanging

globe made of hand-painted strips of paper. The

piece symbolizes the delicate threads that tie us

to place, to the planet, and to one another. While

AI tools helped with design planning and logistics,

Miller ultimately rearms the irreplaceable value of

human crasmanship. Her project reﬂects Future

Earth’s focus on ethical reﬂection, environmental

awareness, and the importance of artistic integrity

in a time of rapid technological change. As Miller

puts it, “My goal was to reﬂect on the fragility of the