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Sarah Mackenzie
Filmmaker, Curator, Cultural Strategist

Projects

docs + unscripted content
A Lifetime in Photobooths
The Big Sex Talk
That’s The Thing
The Last Ascent
PFO Art Contemporain
Queued Up: Hubert Lenoir
Red Bull Music: Spaces
Into The Planet
Queued Up: Amaal
Queued Up: Ebhoni
Artist Profile: Shay Lia
Playing with TONTO
Playing with Arp 2600
Red Bull Music: Spaces
RBMA Lectures

curatorial + journalism
MUTEK: Utopia or Oblivion
Eno
MUTEK: Future Currents
Future Festivals
EVER NEW
CBC Music: AI and Music

brand + commercial work
Gentilhomme Studio
Seriously Red x SXSW 
Asahi Super Dry
Impostor Cities 
Red Bull
Musical Swings
In the Mouth
C2 Montreal
Kijiji

music videos
Tess Roby: Ideas of Space 
TiKA: Soothing Love
TiKA: Sideways
TiKA: I Would Die 4 U
Mind Bath: Flower Tattoo
Casey MQ: Hysteria

About
LinkedIn
Sarah Mackenzie
Director, Producer, Strategist


AI Ecologies Lab
artist residency

In a moment of climate urgency and digital transformation, AI Ecologies Lab asks: What might artificial intelligence look like if it were rooted in ecological thinking, not extractivism?





The AI Ecologies Lab is a research-creation initiative I lead at MUTEK that explores how artificial intelligence can be reimagined through ecological, ethical, and culturally situated lenses. Developed in collaboration with local and international partners, the Lab supports artists and technologists in prototyping new forms of AI that resist extractivism and embrace sustainability, care, and plural worldviews. From localized language models and low-energy networks to climate-aware animation and Indigenous-led frameworks, the Lab fosters experimental projects that challenge dominant AI narratives and propose regenerative alternatives grounded in both technological and relational innovation.

Mentors from Mila, Abundant Intelligences, Applied AI Institute, Climate Reality Project. 

Selected projects:

  • CITYLLM + CITYchat (Montréal)
    A locally-trained LLM and chatbot using city-specific data—leveraging hydro-powered servers to reduce energy and improve relevance 
  • You, Me, the Lichen & Spore (Alberta)
    Translates lichen growth, an air-quality bioindicator, into an immersive AI-driven "alphabet" of ecological transformation
  • TamagotchU (Montréal)
    A decentralized network using low-energy devices (inspired by lo-tech and pufferfish) to probe collaborative, non-extractive AI models 
  • Artist‑Led AI in Animation – Environment Art in The Garden (Montréal/Val-Morin) Uses open-source 3D AI tools to explore ethical creation, authorship, and the labor dynamics of automated content generation
  • Robust AI Training and Sustainability (Montréal Advances entropy in reinforcement learning to foster model adaptability while reducing energy needs—shifting from brittle to robust AI systems 
  • Wattsup (Vancouver Real-time energy monitoring embedded in AI tools—displaying power use and CO₂ impact to raise awareness and prompt accountability




    • Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Montreal for their support. This project is funded as part of the Cultural Development Agreement of Montreal established between the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec.

    Photos by Felix Bonnevie