Policy on the Use of Generative AI

As Hamilton’s not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre, Factory Media Centre’s mission is to empower media artists, encourage appreciation for media art, ​​fuel curiosity about new artforms, remove systemic barriers to participation, amplify diverse voices, leverage independent vision, and incubate forward thinking ideas in the media arts. In reflecting on our principles of integrity, excellence and accessibility, FMC’s staff and Board of Directors believe in the importance of clarifying the organization’s stance on the adoption of generative AI 1 and its use in the media arts space.

As a media arts centre, digital technologies are core to our work and the practices of the artists we support. We acknowledge the infrastructures we rely on are built through extractivist logics and displacement practices that affect people, nature, and land across Turtle Island (North America), the Abya Yala (Central and South America), and many other parts of the world. The non-consensual widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies warrants deep reflection on the significant risks and threats these systems pose. Some of these include environmental degradation 2, warfare 3, policing and law enforcement 4, border control 5, worker disempowerment 6, and the non-consensual use of intellectual property by companies developing generative AI systems.7

FMC’s Policy on the Use of Generative AI

As an organization, our staff, board members, and jury members do not use generative AI to conduct their work. Collectively we abide by an informed consent approach.8 In instances where there is limited use of gen AI, such as providing workshops on production and post-production software embedded with specific and/or unavoidable AI tools and functionalities, we will publicly disclose it.

FMC prohibits generative AI content in application materials, including artist statements, bios, CVs and documentation of work. FMC is committed to equity in all aspects of its operations, especially its programming. We do not want the application process to be prohibitive based on access needs. Alternative application options include phone call, video call, in person meeting, offline application submission, pre-recorded video. If you require these or any other forms of support during your application process, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at info@factorymediacentre.ca.

Submitting Works Involving Use of Gen AI to FMC’s Programming

In the spirit of informed consent, we ask that all artists and collaborators state their use of generative AI. Artists are asked to describe in detail where and how generative AI was used and why the use of generative AI was integral to the creation, curation or dissemination of work.

FMC is a platform for critically engaged and experimental media arts, and we welcome on a case by case basis work that engages the critical and creative misuses of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.9 We support works and collaborations that challenge and critique the uncritical push to mainstream AI, highlight the particularities and logics of these systems, present alternate imaginings to empower the people and communities disproportionately marginalized and discriminated against by these technologies, and emphasize our collective agency in the design, deployment and governance of these systems. We believe artists play a crucial role in redirecting our shared future.

This document is dated April 13, 2026. FMC’s policy will continue to evolve as the conversations, conventions, and governance around generative AI develop.

Resources

  1. Generative Artificial Intelligence is a type of artificial intelligence that produces new content like text, images, video, sounds, speech, music, software code, and synthetic data in response to a user’s prompt. These systems use machine learning models that learn patterns from large datasets and apply that information to interpret ‘natural language’ requests and generate relevant outputs. Training data comes from different sources, including commercial partnerships and large-scale automated scraping of the searchable internet, which includes material authored by creators without their consent. ↩︎
  2. Monserrate, Steven Gonzalez. (2022). The cloud is material: On the environmental impacts of computation and data storage. MIT Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing, Winter 2022 ↩︎
  3. Chandron, Rina. (2026 March 5). Black-box AI and cheap drones are outpacing global rules of war. Rest of the World. ↩︎
  4. Landrum, Irna. (2026 January 26). How ICE uses AI to automate authoritarianism. Tech Policy Press. and Wilson, Jason. (2026 March 15). Hacked data shines light on homeland security’s AI surveillance ambitions. The Guardian. ↩︎
  5. CBC News. (2025 September 3), ‘Major risk’ of bias against some groups with Canadian AI border screening, expert warns. ↩︎
  6. Mateescu, Alexandra., Nguyen, Hiha., Pinto, Sanjay. (2026 April 1). Last place in the AI-First economy: How the AI industry relies on worker disempowerment. Data & Society. See also: https://data-workers.org/ ↩︎
  7. Lefer, Lauren., and Bushwick, Sophie. (2023 October 19). Your personal information is probably being used to train Generative AI models. Scientific America. and Bhuiyan, Johana and Kerr, Dara. (2025 July 29). The trillion-dollar AI arms race is here. The Guardian. ​​See also: CARFACT. (2026 January 25) CARFAC-RAAV’s recommendations regarding AI and visual artists. and the browser extension ↩︎
  8. See also: https://www.consentfultech.io/ ↩︎
  9. Salvaggio, Eryk. (2024 July 9). Creative Misuse of AI. See also: Salvaggio, Eryk., Sinders, Caroline., Swanson, Steph Maj. (2025 April 1). Cultural red teaming: ARRG! and creative misuse of AI systems. Critical AI 3(1) ↩︎
Click here to view the PDF version of our Policy on the Use of Generative AI

About Factory Media Centre

Factory Media Centre is Hamilton’s not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre for film, video, new media, installation, sound art, and other multimedia art forms. Our mission is to develop and support a vibrant, sustainable, creative, and diverse community of Members and non-Members within Hamilton and its surrounding region.