AI Visuals for a Bowie Tribute at East Perth Power Station

As part of the Perth Symphony Orchestra’s orchestral tribute to David Bowie (Rebel Rebel) – spanning over 22 songs and performed alongside an exceptional lineup of Western Australian artists – we were engaged to light up the dramatic industrial backdrop of East Perth Power Station with a series of AI-generated visuals.

What would Bowie do?

When Perth Festival approached us to create visuals for such an important tribute, that question framed everything.

AI is moving quickly. Through music. Through identity. Through authorship. Through culture itself. The public conversation surrounding it tends to split into two camps – panic or blind optimism. Neither feels particularly useful right now.

We suspect Bowie would have done something else.

He questioned technology early. Prodded it. Used it before most people knew it existed. But he never let the tool become the point. The output was always the point.

In a 1999 interview, Bowie described art as existing in the “grey space” between creator and audience. He predicted the 21st century would live in that space.

He was speaking about the internet.

He could just as easily have been speaking about where we’ve landed today.

We developed a series of AI-generated visual sequences exploring Bowie’s identity through abstraction rather than realism.

Instead of faithfully recreating his likeness, we fractured it. Stretched it. Dissolved it. Reassembled it into generative forms and then shot them into outer-space. Five bespoke compositions were time-synced across the set to some of his most acclaimed songs.

Given the scale of the venue backdrop, the visuals acted as a break in the rhythm, adding atmosphere without competing with or overpowering the orchestra.

The project asked a simple but uncomfortable question. 

What happens to identity and legacy when likeness can be reimagined instantly?

Is reinterpretation a continuation, or does it shift into appropriation?

We weren’t there to answer that. Instead, we let the audience sit inside it in a live environment and draw their own conclusions — noting before the performance began that the visuals were entirely AI-generated, created in the name of Bowie’s relentless experimentation with technology.

Standing inside the Power Station and seeing our work move from computer screens to the walls of one of Perth’s most iconic arts venues was a first for our agency, and an experience we won’t soon forget.

Reviews described the night as immersive, electric and deeply respectful of Bowie’s restless creativity. The orchestral interpretations favoured reinvention over imitation. Our visuals followed that same philosophy in digital form.

This project reinforced a belief we hold closely. New tools are neither inherently progressive nor destructive. They are catalysts. Only culture – and the people using them – can decide what they become.

We don’t claim to have resolved the tension around AI and artistic legacy. But we do believe the question is worth asking publicly. It’s uncomfortable. It’s current. That’s the point.

If Bowie were here today, we doubt he’d be debating AI from the sidelines.

We suspect he’d already be three albums ahead of it.