From 18 to 20 February 2026, ERUA and New Bulgarian University (NBU) hosted the intensive course “Emotional Noise in Generative Art and AI”, led by Assist. Prof. Ivaylo Saraliyski. Bringing together students from ERUA alliance universities, the three-day workshop combined short lectures, group work, hands-on tool experimentation, and critical discussion focused on the emotional and subjective layers of human experience in the context of generative AI.
The central assignment invited participants to investigate “emotional noise” – subtle feelings, tensions, and atmospheres that are difficult to name. Students documented these invisible states through photography in real spaces, aiming not to illustrate emotions directly, but to capture nuanced moments charged with emotional presence. They then translated their observations into prompts and worked with generative AI models (such as DALL·E, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion) to produce new visual interpretations of the same affective themes.
A key part of the course was the presentation and comparison of results: students shared their photographed materials alongside AI-generated images and reflected together on the gaps – and unexpected overlaps – between human perception and algorithmic interpretation of emotional complexity.
The workshop concluded with a student exhibition currently on display at NBU, presenting final works that combine human observation and AI generation. The exhibition highlights how emotional atmospheres can shift when translated through prompts and algorithms, offering a compelling snapshot of cross-university collaboration and experimentation at the intersection of art, emotion, and emerging technologies.
Participants:
- Alexander Angelova, New Bulgarian University
- Łukasz Machnowski, SWPS University
- Szymon Kwiatkowski, SWPS University
- Martyna Borowska, SWPS University
- Komala, University of Macerata
- Aarón Rodríguez, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
