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Events are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
10/21
Learn what you look at first glance when viewing imagery. With eye-tracking technology, be among the first to see what our brains notice.
Join Cary Levine as he speaks about how contemporary works of art help us think through essential questions about technology and its relationships to how we imagine, create, and live.
Journalist Tommy Tomlinson leads an interactive workshop on how AI will encounter an even more powerful force: the limits of our own self-awareness.
What is the role of AI in creative work and (more specifically, advertising) beyond efficiency and speed? Can a technology that draws on what already exists help us find something more original in our own human ideas? In this workshop, we'll explore how AI can help us uncover our own ideas, question familiar thinking, make unexpected connections, and push further than we would alone. The goal is for each person to explore and decide how they want to collaborate with AI when it comes to their own creative work.
Come participate in a live human-machine poetry experiment, co-hosted by the UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature.
Join Dr. Keith Sawyer for a keynote presentation about the uniquely human process of creating and the five essences of creativity.
Join Tao Wang for a demonstration of his research that experiements with AI as a device for cueing live performances in a scene from Hamlet.
Enjoy two solo performances by UNC students, Grant Sizemore and Matthew Donahue, as they share AI-related and AI-infused works.
10/22
Learn what you look at first glance when viewing imagery. With eye-tracking technology, be among the first to see what our brains notice.
What happens when artificial intelligence takes the bench? Student advocates will argue a real case previously decided by the United States Supreme Court before three AI justices with different judicial approaches. We’ll see whether oral advocacy changes their reasoning or positions, watch the AI court deliberate and reach a decision, and then compare its reasoning and result with the real Supreme Court’s.
Join the Center for Faculty Excellence as they discuss how education is changing and learn how creativity can impact the education environment.
Can trained ears still tell the difference? In this live blind listening challenge, a panel of audio engineers and music educators will go head-to-head with the machines. They'll hear tracks mixed and produced by both human engineers and AI tools, and they'll have to decide which is which, in real time, with no hints.
After each round, the panel will discuss what gave it away, or what fooled them. Then the conversation opens up to the bigger questions: What can AI do well in the studio, and where does it fall short? Is it a shortcut, a threat, or just another tool? What does it mean for the next generation of engineers learning the craft?
Join this live survey experiment of creativity, judgment, and taste, hosted by Professor Josh Carlton of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
In this workshop, co-hosted by the Parr Center for Ethics, the audience will explore the ethical questions raised by the emergence of AI in creative fields. Questions may include:
• Who is morally responsible for an AI-generated artwork that causes harm, e.g., plagiarizes, defames, or offends?
• If a machine can be creative, does that imply some level of personhood? If so, does that change the ethical calculus on how we treat the machine?
• Is it ethical to train AI on a human artist's work without compensation? Is it a form of learning (like a human apprentice) or copyright infringement?
Converge-Con 2026 will conclude with an immersive, interactive concert featuring acclaimed rapper and poet, G Yamazawa, and special guests, the UNC Hip-Hop Ensemble. At the show, the performers’ movement and sound will trigger an AI-powered projected light show that fills the space and changes in real time. The cameras will also periodically capture audience members, so the audience itself changes the visual experience.
This event is first-come-first-serve. Space is limited, so plan to arrive early.
Pianist, Composer, Recording Artist, Producer, Entrepreneur
Philip Amalong is a critically acclaimed pianist, composer, recording artist, producer and entrepreneur. He has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, the Fort Wayne Symphony, and the Dayton Philharmonic, and composed numerous scores for television and film.
Assistant Professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Josh has more than two decades of experience in brand strategy, marketing communications and customer insights. He has advised more than 150 brands across most industries, including automotive, retail, CPG and technology. He specializes in uncovering human insights through data and translating those insights into actionable business and communications strategies. When he is not teaching or mentoring students, Josh is investigating the impact of technology, specifically artificial intelligence, on the following areas: creativity and the creative process, market research and customer insights, and brand strategy.
Musician, Composer, Songwriter
Lalitree Darnielle is a musician, composer, and songwriter. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand, grew up in rural Iowa, and now lives in Durham, North Carolina. Her songs explore themes of nature, desire, and self, using a unique combination of string instruments, guitars, drums, and electronics.
Actor
Matthew Donahue is an acclaimed actor and recent recipient of an MFA in Acting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His credits include 1776: The Musical (Temple Theatre); Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Blumenthal Performing Arts); Macbeth, You Can’t Take it With You, The Royale, Death of a Salesman, Every Brilliant Thing, Murder on the Orient Express, Much Ado About Nothing (PlayMakers Repertory Company); Little Shop of Horrors (Virginia Theatre Festival); Gypsy, Oklahoma! (The Prizery); Peter and the Starcatcher, and The Fox (Commonweal Theatre Company). He would like to thank his partner Katie and his family for their ever-loving support and encouragement. Follow him on instagram @mattddonahue
Audio Engineer, Producer, and Media Technician
Jay Harper is an audio engineer, producer, and media technician for the UNC Department of Music. In 2024, he mastered Fuzz Huzzi’s album, Waiting for the Sun, which won Best Rock Album at the 34th Annual San Diego Music Awards.
Professor of Contemporary Art History
Cary Levine received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and was a recipient of a year-long J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. His first book, Pay for Your Pleasures: Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Raymond Pettibon (University of Chicago Press, 2013) examines the work of these artists in terms of post-60s politics, popular culture, mass media, and strategies of the grotesque. His second book, The Future is Present: Art, Technology, and the Work of Mobile Image (with Philip Glahn), focuses on an important telecommunications art collective and the intersections of art, politics, and technology. This book received the 2025 Frank Jewitt Mather Award, one of the most prestigious distinctions in the field. He was also the 2020 recipient of the Art Journal Award and a 2014 recipient of the Hettleman Prize for Scholarly Achievement at UNC. He has lectured nationally and internationally, has written for various magazines and museum catalogues, and previously worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Assistant Professor of Music
Donovan Livingston is a poet, hip-hop artist, producer, and Assistant Professor at the UNC Department of Music. He is the current Poet Laureate for Chapel Hill, NC. In 2016, his Harvard Graduate School of Education convocation address “Lift Off” went viral, reaching over thirteen million views and prompting Hillary Clinton to praise, “It’s young graduates like [Livingston] who make it clear that America’s best days are still ahead.”
Former Chief Creative Officer of Dentsu Creative New York
Ryan Paulson is the former Chief Creative Officer of Dentsu Creative New York, with leadership roles at BBH and McCann, and previous experience at Droga5 and Mekanism. His portfolio includes work for Google, Samsung, Mastercard, Chase, Pepsi and Verizon. He has spoken on AI and creativity at the University of Wisconsin’s Master of Science in Design + Innovation program and the UNC School of Journalism and Media, and taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Denver Ad School, Parsons School of Design, Adhouse and Miami Ad School. Through Creative Friction, he trains creative teams and builds systems that use AI to challenge their thinking and help them develop sharper, more original ideas.
Professor of Educational Innovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. R. Keith Sawyer is one of the world’s leading scientific experts on creativity, collaboration, and learning, and the author of several books including Learning to See: Inside the World's Leading Art and Design Schools (2025), Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (2024) and Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity (2013). Sawyer combines his scientific expertise with a strong hands-on background in real-world creativity. After receiving his computer science degree from MIT in 1982, he began his career with a two-year stint designing videogames for Atari. He later worked as a management consultant on innovative technologies and earned a PhD in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Sawyer is now the Morgan Distinguished Professor of Educational Innovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he researches collaboration and group creativity. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist with several years of experience playing piano with Chicago improv theater groups. You can learn more about his work via his website, his Substack, and YouTube channel.
Actor & Projection Designer
Grant Sizemore is a projection designer and motion graphics artist who creates media content for live performance and themed entertainment. His professional credits include projection design at PlayMakers Repertory Company, Sigmon Theatrical and Davidson Community Players, and he served as lead projection designer for a production of Million Dollar Quartet. A junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sizemore is double-majoring in journalism and communication studies with a minor in dramatic arts, and he works as a research assistant studying artificial intelligence in theatrical cueing. He co-founded and co-leads TEA @ UNC, the university's first themed entertainment student organization, which connects students with the industry through guest speakers, workshops and panels.
See his work at grantsizemore.com
Sports Journalist & Author
Tommy Tomlinson is the author of The Elephant in the Room, a memoir about being overweight in America. He is also the host of the podcast SouthBound in partnership with WFAE and author of a newsletter, The Writing Shed. He has written for publications including Esquire, ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Garden & Gun, and many others. He spent twenty-three years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer, where he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. His stories have been chosen twice for the Best American Sports Writing series (2012 and 2015) and he also appears in the anthology America’s Best Newspaper Writing.
Assistant Professor at the UNC Department of Music
Pablo Vega is an audio engineer, composer, and Assistant Professor at the UNC Department of Music. He owns and runs the recording studio The Workshop, is a member of the Collective at Sonark Media, and has composed and scored music for over 20 video games, documentaries, films, and TV shows.
Assistant Professor of Lighting and Projection Design
Tao Wang is an Assistant Professor of Lighting and Projection Design and the David and Rebecca Pardue Fellow in the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also serves as Resident Lighting and Projection Designer at PlayMakers Repertory Company. His creative practice brings together lighting, projection, digital media, performance technology, and spatial storytelling to create visually expressive and responsive theatrical environments. Wang’s current research explores the intersection of live performance and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence, real-time media systems, voice and movement interaction, and integrated show control. He is the creator and principal investigator of Beyond the Cue, an AI-assisted performance system that connects live input with predesigned lighting, projection, sound, and media cues. Through this work, he investigates how technology can support, not replace, the intuition, authorship, and collaborative processes of theatre artists.
Wang has created lighting and projection designs for PlayMakers Repertory Company, Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, Hattiloo Theatre – Black Repertory Theatre, UrbanArias Keegan Theatre, Taft Theatre. His earlier large-scale projects include creative work for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, “Nanjing, Nanjing,” The Universal Beijing Resort, Turandot in Paris, Beijing TV Virtual Reality Interactive Showroom, and the USITT 2019 National Conference, as well as international productions in China, Europe, and the United States.
Owner of Nightsound Studios
Chris Wimberly is an audio engineer, producer, and owner of Nightsound Studios in Carrboro, NC. He has recorded numerous songwriters, touring bands, country stars, and jazz hall-of-famers. Since 2021, Wimberly has also served as the head engineer at Manifold Recording in Pittsboro, NC.
Japanese-American Writer, Performer, and Creator
G Yamazawa is a Japanese-American writer, performer, and creator born and raised in Durham, NC. He is a National Poetry Slam Champion (2014), most recognized for the underground statewide anthem "North Cack" (2017), and director of award-winning short documentary "Becoming Yamazushi" (2024).
