© Created with ComfyUI (Flux model) and Gemini AI
Workshop series: “Own the Process: Artistic AI Beyond the Prompt”
in cooperation with bildungswerk by bbk berlin as part of Berlin Science Week: November 9th to 10th, 2026 at Kunstquartier Bethanien.
Leave generic AI outputs behind: In this AI workshop series in Berlin, you will build custom workflows and models in your own visual language, and question how datasets and tools shape your work.
You will develop custom systems to generate media that aligns strictly with your personal artistic vision. Over two days, four practical sessions cover distinct methods for gaining agency over artificial intelligence tools.
The four Sessions of AI workshop series:
Dagmar Schürrer introduces node-based generation with ComfyUI. Instead of simple text prompts, you will work with structured visual workflows. Next, Maria Kyrou and Martin Sulzer guide you through curating your own image datasets and training custom model extensions to capture specific aesthetic styles. Above all, the aim is to understand and question the tool-building process itself as an artistic practice. Finally, Christoph Holtmann demonstrates how to install and run these systems locally on your own computer – for data privacy and full control.
This program is dedicated to Berlin-based artists and culture professionals seeking practical experience with emerging media. Workshops can be booked individually or as a series. You will leave with templates and how-to tutorials to apply these workflows further in your own work. Please bring your laptop and, ideally, images of your own artwork or any other inspiring references.
This project is a collaboration between bildungswerk des bbk berlin and the IUNO project at HTW Berlin funded by the ERDF within the INP-III program.
bildungswerk by bbk berlin:
The bildungswerk is a non-profit subsidiary of the berufsverband bildender künstler:innen berlin (Professional Association of Visual Artists Berlin). It provides an extensive qualification and counseling program that is unique in Berlin and beyond. Every year, up to 2,500 artists make use of the services offered by bildungswerk des bbk berlin.
IUNO – Innovationszentrum für intelligente und immersive Technologien in der Freien Kulturszene:
The EU-funded IUNO – Innovation Center for Intelligent and Immersive Technologies in the Independent Arts Community at HTW Berlin serves the independent arts community and creative industries of Berlin with tailor-made opportunities in extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI). With workshops, artistic fellowships and events, IUNO strengthens forward-looking competencies, supports exchange and networking and produces innovative artistic formats with XR as contribution to the societal AI discourse.
All formats are free of charge thanks to ERDF funding under the »Strengthening Innovation Potential in Culture III« (INP-III)* program, as well as funding from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)** and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
Programm
09.11.2026 | 9.30 am – 1.30 pm | Kunstquartier Bethanien (entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
With Dagmar Schürrer, programmer, digital artist, artistic project collaborator on the IUNO project, HTW Berlin
This hands-on workshop introduces ComfyUI, a free, node-based interface for AI image and video generation. You will learn how generative models work and how synthetic images differ from photographic ones. Together, we explore the interface, folder structure, models, and essential nodes. Step by step, you will build your own workflows: text-to-image, image-to-image, text-to-video, and image-to-video. Using ControlNet tools such as OpenPose or Depth Maps, you will also learn to guide your results with precision. In a phase of creation and experimentation, you will produce an image sequence or a short video linked to your own artistic practice or a shared theme. The workshop closes with presentations and a group discussion reflecting on process and control, AI aesthetics, authorship, trust – and what an image can mean today in contemporary visual culture and public life.
At: Kesselhaus, Medienwerkstatt des bbk berlin, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, Germany (Kunstquartier Bethanien, entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
The workshop will be held in English.
Registration opening soon
09.11.2026 | 2.30 – 6.30 pm | Kunstquartier Bethanien (entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
With Maria Kyrou and Martin Sulzer, bildungswerk by bbk berlin
This workshop thematises the importance of creative agency and critical reflection when working with AI as a creative medium. It provides a holistic introduction to the creation of LoRAs and offers a solid and accessible workflow for their implementation.
Pre-curated, open-source images serve as the main working material. At first, the focus lies on user-friendly dataset curation. In addition, the workshop examines the importance and impact of metadata in the created LoRA, as well as its creative potential. Afterwards, a hands-on demonstration shows the implementation of a LoRA and explores first nuances of this process. Simple conceptual and narrative strategies then activate it creatively. Finally, a short reflection round and discussion closes off the workshop, inviting the participants’ feedback. This discussion also facilitates the transition to the following IUNO workshop and offers a glimpse of the fourth workshop of the series.
At: Kesselhaus, Medienwerkstatt des bbk berlin, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, Germany (Kunstquartier Bethanien, entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
The workshop will be held in English.
Registration opening soon
10.11.2026 | 9.30 am – 1.30 pm | Kunstquartier Bethanien (entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
With Christoph Holtmann, programmer and research assistant on the IUNO project at HTW Berlin
The previous workshops worked with models someone else was hosting; this one starts a step earlier and asks how a model gets onto your own hardware at all. Participants install local language models by several routes (a desktop app, the command-line engine most other tools build on, a browser front-end, or simply joining the strongest computer in the room). From there the session covers how a generic model becomes a specific one, through behaviour and through knowledge, and what is worth backing up afterwards. In the second part, the model is put to artistic use. Participants write a character sheet for their companion before writing a single prompt, then use it as a brainstorming partner and as an instrument of critique turned on their own work. That the taste doing the judging was authored by the person being judged is not a flaw in the exercise but its subject. What leaves the room is a working setup and a body of generated text, both of which the following workshop takes up directly.
At: Kesselhaus, Medienwerkstatt des bbk berlin, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, Germany (Kunstquartier Bethanien, entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
The workshop will be held in English.
Registration opening soon
10.11.2026 |2.30 – 6.30 pm | Kunstquartier Bethanien (entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
Mit Maria Kyrou und Martin Sulzer, bildungswerk des bbk berlin
AI is commonly seen as a powerful yet generic and opaque tool. In contrast, this workshop explores the development of a LoRA as itself a field of structured creative inquiry and open-ended experimentation. Central here is a particular state of mind: the AI tool, the creative process, and its output become so closely interwoven that they are indiscernible.
The first part focuses on iterative activations of the previously developed LoRA. It demonstrates how subtle adjustments may fine-tune the results – or radically alter them. The second part then turns to transcriptions and transformations across different media types and AI applications. Instead of predefined results, the aim is to trace the medium’s limits. In other words, the workshop embraces the creative potential of the poetic, the awkward, and the unexpected. The final discussion weaves together the impressions of this workflow and connects them with the talks of the invited guests. Moreover, it explores potential synergies and collaborations between participants – along with tangible feedback on how to take these workflows further.
At: Kesselhaus, Medienwerkstatt des bbk berlin, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, Germany (Kunstquartier Bethanien, entrance via Marielle-Franco-Platz)
The workshop will be held in English.
Registration opening soon