Uni of Liverpool student’s AI installation featured in the River of Light festival

The River of Light festival is an iconic staple of Liverpool culture, bringing thousands of visitors down to the city’s waterfront to be awed by the installations lighting up the river. Running from October 24th to November 2nd, this year’s theme is “Optics – Science and Light”. This creates an exciting contrast to last year’s theme “Light and play”. Each of 2025’s 10 installations are inspired by an area of nature, science or technology, and one has been created by a University of Liverpool student.

The University of Liverpool’s star student

Emma Brass is a University of Liverpool PhD chemistry student, with an expertise in robotics and coding. Alongside her degree, Emma also experiments with code-based art. She has created many smaller robots that paint, and been involved in numerous creative technology projects. 

FACE VALUE

Emma’s installation is called FACE VALUE, created alongside artist Venya Krutikov and produced by the Invisible Wind Factory. FACE VALUE is a “light art game” involving an AI-powered robot artist that uses CCTV-style cameras. These take images of the crowd to make portraits of randomly selected audience members on three large screens. These portraits, accompanied by AI-generated speech, visuals and soundtracks, are transformed and reimagined into abstract, kaleidoscope artworks. Every cycle of the installation is unique, enticing large crowds to watch their transformation on the big screen. 

FACE VALUE asks the question of “what happens to our digital selves once technology takes over”. This presents the digital world as both mesmerising and unnerving, provoking reflection in the audience in a “playful way”. The team were also concerned about the installation’s ecological footprint, and so have used LED technology so it can run off mains power and have the smallest impact possible. 

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Emma’s installation FACE VALUE can be found at Mann Island Atrium, L3 1BP, or using what3words: Skip.luck.cattle!

Combining science and art defines this year’s festival

Emma works in Professor Andy Cooper’s Autonomous Robots Laboratory, with her research surrounding developing autonomous robots for scale-up chemical processes in the pharmaceutical sector. This work moves chemical reactions and processes from small laboratories to industrial-scale production, meaning scientific discoveries can be commercially applied.

Emma has commented on the experience, saying: “I’m a chemist by academic background, but I’ve always been drawn to art making. During lockdown I taught myself coding, and I’ve since enjoyed developing projects that use technology in creative ways. Working with Venya and the Invisible Wind Factory has been an amazing opportunity to explore that side of my work — and it’s been an incredible experience to play a part in one of the city’s biggest cultural events.”

FACE VALUE is also partially funded by The University of Liverpool’s AI for Chemistry Hub. 

UoL isn’t done inspiring the festival yet…

Emma is not the only University of Liverpool member involved in the River of Light festival this year, however. Another installation, Blueprint, is inspired by the form of a double helix or DNA structure, creating a large-scale immersive artwork. 

Blueprint takes inspiration from University of Liverpool research, presenting it in an interactive and immersive format for wide audiences. The sonic component of the installation is informed by faculty member Professor Christian Hedrich’s work on childhood autoimmune diseases. 

Heading down to the waterfront this year? Here’s some more information!

The 2025 instalment of the River of Light festival is already set up to be a success with such thought-provoking, informative and visually memorising installations. 

Liverpool City Council’s Harry Doyle, has commented: “For us to handover the streets of Liverpool to artists – and this year scientists as well – is such a joyful experience. I can’t wait to see locals and visitors enjoying this extraordinary art show again.” While 2024 broke records on visitor numbers and brought in £18.9 million to the local economy, many residents felt that the increased crowd sizes and waiting times were a problem and became overwhelming. 

The council confirmed to the ECHO the 2025 edition would lack interactive elements in order to help with the flow of people. Additionally, there will be two “quiet” sessions this year on Sunday 26th and Wednesday 29th October from 4-5pm. This will allow those with additional sensory needs to enjoy the artworks in a calmer environment.