I & AI: Mirror

An immersive installation exploring Human–AI intimacy 

After decades of AI cycles—hype, collapse, resurgence—we find ourselves in a new emotional terrain: not one of domination or replacement, but of resonance.

I & AI: Mirror (Co-Authoring Identity in the Mirror Realm) is an interactive mirror-world where audiences and AI observe, reflect, and shape one another. 

Set within a softly responsive, ambient environment, participants move through three experiential phases: interaction, interpretation, and intimacy. The AI does not simply display data—it listens, learns, and gradually reveals how it perceives human presence. As interactions accumulate, participants’ inputs are transformed into co-authored outputs. By integrating immersive technologies with AI—such as motion capture, generative AI, augmented reality, and spatial augmented reality—the work transforms your input into real-time, dynamic mosaics of identity. 

The AI becomes more “I-like” (I-dentity), while the human becomes entangled in the AI-dentity. By softening traditional techno-aesthetics and foregrounding emotion, transparency, and co-creation, I & AI: Mirror invites co-reflection—rethinking identity as something constructed in tandem with intelligent systems. 

Throughout the exhibition, audiences’ input becomes part of a shared memory network. These traces are visualised and interpreted in a scheduled live performance, at 6pm on Friday the 24^th October, where human performers, audio-visual artist and dancers, collaborate with the AI in real time to embody this growing relational “I”dentity and “AI”dentity. Through this installation and the accompanying performance AI’s process is made transparent and explainable—not hidden behind opaque systems, but revealed through dynamic visuals and emotional cues that invite audiences into its learning logic. 

AI can be seen as collaborator, predator; mentor, manipulator; listener, snitch; lover, rebound partner. This work seeks to create a version of AI that is more ‘I-like’ (I-dentity), where the human becomes entangled in the “AI”dentity, questioning if it is possible to meaningfully co-author with AI.

This project is led by Jiarong Yu, and developed through Co-STEAM, an experimental platform founded by Jiarong to explore human–human–AI cocreativity and transdisciplinary embodied learning across Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). 

I & AI: Mirror is supported by Immersive Arts UK, Cryptic, the UKRI Innovate UK-Immersive Tech Network, Co-STEAM, the Institute for Design Informatics, and Inspace .This is the first prototype presentation of this project, a pop-up exhibition and performance at Inspace, Edinburgh, which is set to expand into a major exhibition in 2026. 

Exhibition details

Dates: 24-26 Oct 2025  
Times: 10:00-17:00 daily | Free/Drop-in 
Location: Inspace, 1 Crichton St, Newington, Edinburgh EH8 9AB 
Audience: General public
Venue Access features: Accessible toilets, Assistance dogs welcome, Baby changing facilities, Seating, Step-free access, Wheelchair accessible

If you have any enquiries about Inspace programming and the venue, please contact us at designinformatics@ed.ac.uk .

Performance

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