Sound in Motion: Music Meets Machine at AIIFF
On December 14th at the Los Feliz Theatre, after the film presentations concluded, Bert Holland expanded the scope of the AI International Film Festival by introducing a curated music video lineup that featured artists working at the intersection of sound, image, and emerging technology. The opening scene of the space opera Send Me a Letter—an AyseDeniz × Machine Cinema LA collaboration directed by multidisciplinary artist Brogan Wassell—appeared on screen. Set within an otherworldly, cosmic environment, the scene featured a bionic woman singing and playing a crystalline, luminous piano, immediately drawing the audience in. As I watched in fascination, I could hear the audience gasp as each visual unfolded, with the imagery carrying and amplifying the emotion in AyseDeniz Gokcin’s voice. The attention to detail was evident throughout, from the composition of each frame to the precision of the transitions, creating an immersive experience that set a compelling tone for the work that followed.
The collaboration behind Send Me a Letter emerged through years of shared presence within the creative-technology circuit. Members of Machine Cinema LA, including Minh Do, had repeatedly crossed paths with Gokcin at experimental labs and music-AI showcases, long admiring her ability to bridge classical composition and emerging technology. The opportunity to collaborate arrived during an L.A. Tech Week event produced by Dustin Hollywood in partnership with MiniMax / Hailuo. Gokcin proposed revisiting Send Me a Letter, a piece originally composed during the pandemic in isolation at the piano, later reimagined with AI-generated Latin vocals that expanded its emotional texture without altering its core. Developed entirely remotely, with ideas exchanged across digital platforms, the project mirrors the spirit of the work itself: connection across distance. Under Wassell’s direction, the song evolved into a space-operatic creation, an expression of Machine Cinema’s ethos of cross-disciplinary collaboration and a reminder that even in technologically driven work, emotion remains the guiding force. Walsall later told me that his creative logic during early brainstorming drew from the relationship between protons and neutrons, elemental forces shaping creation through tension and balance.
Multi–award-winning AI artist Erik Gen introduced his latest work, Home Sweet Home, at its world premiere at the AI International Film Festival—a darkly comic psychological spiral centered on one of adulthood’s quiet horrors: moving back into your parents’ house. A situation that instantly triggers dread, regression, and a deep sense of personal failure, Gen doesn’t soften the discomfort, Home Sweet Home weaponizes it. He transforms familiar anxiety into a surreal meltdown, rendering the artist’s internal collapse through trippy, unpredictable visuals—eyes bulging, faces distorting, and reality itself slipping out of coherence. The film plays like a panic attack with a sense of humor: exaggerated, uncomfortable, and painfully self-aware. What begins as situational embarrassment quickly mutates into full psychological freefall. Home Sweet Home held the room in a chokehold of silence and suspense, proving that psychological horror doesn’t always require monsters—sometimes all it takes is a childhood bedroom and the crushing realization that you’re back where you started. This visual, in my opinion, was disturbingly epic.
Multi-disciplinary artist Jagger Waters presented the world premiere of Heartbreaker, inside a dive bar, chaos thrives raw, unfiltered energy soaked in leather, grit, and pure rock-and-roll defiance. A hybrid collaboration blending AI-driven visuals with live rock performance, the project pairs Waters with Hyland Church, an L.A.–based, high-energy rock band known for their guitar-fueled, soul-rooted sound and explosive live shows. Shot in black and white, the video unfolds with unfiltered intensity, capturing the raw pulse of Sunset Boulevard and its rock-and-roll culture. As I watched, the work felt like an ode to L.A.’s rock scene gritty, visceral, and unapologetically alive. Waters’ imagery channels the emotional volatility of the music, blending AI-generated elements with performance-driven energy to create something that feels both cinematic and grounded. Her philosophy that AI “does not threaten artists, it frees us” runs throughout the work. Her practice has been featured by the Television Academy, Forbes, and the Producers Guild of America, with guest lectures at UCLA, USC, and LMU, and a keynote presentation at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025.
The music video Bikini begins with a simple, surreal image: bikinis washing up on the shore of a deserted island. Curious monkeys discover the garments and are quickly influenced, adapting their behavior as they embrace the new find, ready for the next trend and eager to capitalize. What follows is a playful evolution from innocence to spectacle, as the bikini becomes less an object and more a symbol.
As the animals adopt it as fashion, Bikini gently satirizes the mechanics of influence, desire, and imitation. The film felt instantly familiar to me, echoing the behavior often seen among fashion connoisseurs, how trends are discovered, absorbed, replicated, and transformed into identity. Mixing humor with elegance, the video turns a single garment into a mirror of human culture, reflecting our instinct to adorn, belong, and perform taste.
Directed by Itai Palti, Bikini carries a conceptual depth beneath its whimsy. Palti is an architect, researcher, and director working at the intersection of design, science, and human experience. He is the founder of the Conscious Cities movement, which explores how environments shape emotion and behavior. Whether through built spaces or audiovisual storytelling, Palti’s work consistently examines how place, objects, and aesthetics influence collective states of mind—making Bikini both lighthearted and sharply observant.
Credits | The Awards for AI International Music Festival
A Space Opera: Send Me A Letter – AyseDeniz × Machine Cinema — Best Art Direction
Heartbreaker — Best Cinematography
Bikini – Two Floors Apart — Best Storytelling Music Video
Home Sweet Home — Best Music Video; Best AI Visuals
To stay tuned for announcements and future updates, visit the official site of the
AI International Film Festival at aifilmfest.org.