If this moment in the industry were a film or series, what would its logline be?
This is the question CLCF Co-Director Daphne Rena Idiz asked screenwriters at the end of interviews, as part of her research project Exploring Generative AI in the Screen Industries. Answers ranged from dystopic to hopeful, some had insatiable monsters and vampiric beasts, while others were set in even more frightening locales: modern-day corporations and broadcasting networks.
The Logline Project adapts the logline—a concise one to two sentence summary of a film or TV series—into an elicitation device that invites screenwriters to (re)imagine their industry’s current moment by invoking their storytelling craft. These micro-narratives creatively distil out the main character, central conflict, antagonist, goal, and stakes within an industry facing rapid technological transformation.
Supported by Creative Labour and Critical Futures, the School of Cities, and the Jackman Humanities Institute, an initial selection of eight loglines are currently being brought to life as original movie posters by local Toronto-based graphic designers and illustrators. These artists were sought out for their experience creating posters for iconic Toronto cinemas, including the Revue Cinema and Paradise Theatre. By transforming the screenwriters’ prose into public-facing artistic works, The Logline Project aims to spark community engagement and conversation around the impact of generative AI on creative workers and creativity in the film and television industries, as well as the culture sector more broadly.
A sneak peak of poster details, stay tuned for exhibit information for the full reveals! Art by (clockwork from the top left): Avery Droumetsekas, Jared Olsever, Nicole Partyka, Gerardo Ernesto Gutiérrez, Tony Smerek, Andrew Barr, Paul Twa, and Jade Wysotski.
This project draws from “production culture” research traditions by engaging with creative workers, their practices, beliefs, and meaning-making activities. Although the use of GenAI tools in the screen industries has been widely reported on, their adoption is highly context-specific and contested. A significant gap remains in understanding how creative workers, especially outside of Hollywood, are responding. By bringing screenwriters’ speculative “imaginaries” of GenAI to life, The Logline Project offers reflections on creativity, creative work, and technology through storytelling. Harnessing the logline as a form of metanarrative, we demonstrate how the current climate both echoes past pressures and generates premonitions about technological futures. Vitally, we showcase eight unique futures with clear stakes and goals, countering the inevitability narrative so pervasive in GenAI discourse.
Participatory practice-based and arts-based research methods, like the ones used in The Logline Project, make this collective speculation possible by championing the industry and creative knowledge of screenwriters and illustrators. Through artistic outputs, this knowing and imagining becomes felt and embodied, as well as aesthetic. This project was also inspired by creative methods and art-/craft-based research from ME Luka, Rafael Grohmann, Transgressive Methods, and Nina Vindum Rasmussen.
Where can I see the posters?
To support knowledge mobilization and creative dissemination, we have several exciting activities to come over the summer and fall of 2026:
- Wheatpasting! Activating longstanding traditions of urban activism and poster wheatpasting, copies of the posters will be displayed in public spaces around Toronto, where passers-by can engage with the material. Official map of poster locations to be released over the summer.
- Exhibition! A reception and cross-sector creative workshop to kick off the poster exhibition is currently being organized, location and dates to be announced.
- Online! Posters will be published online following the exhibition on the CLCF website and through our social channels. Be sure to check back for the image gallery.
Get involved!
We would love for artists, researchers, and artist-researchers to consider recreating and riffing on this method. We have plans to grow this project with posters designed outside of the Canadian context (starting with Brazil!) and are excited for the possibilities of comparative and collaborative work. If you’d like to discuss the project, please reach out: daphne.idiz@utoronto.ca.
This project is led by Daphne Rena Idiz, in collaboration with Aline Zara, ME Luka, Rafael Grohmann, and Lauren Knight.
Logo design by Lauren Knight.
CLCF Co-Director & Assistant Professor
Dr. Daphne Rena Idiz (she/her) is Assistant Professor in Film and Media Industries at York University. Her research investigates how media industries, cultural policy frameworks, and production cultures respond to and shape technological change, with a particular focus onstreaming and generative AI (GenAI).
Research Assistant
Aline Zara (they/she) is a Ph.D. candidate and artist at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. Their research focuses on voice, sound, embodiment, and AI at the intersection of critical AI studies, voice and sound studies, transfeminist science & technology studies, disability studies, and queer studies.
CLCF Co-Director & Associate Professor
Dr. MaryElizabeth (“M.E.”) Luka is PI and Co-Director of the Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF) cluster and Associate Professor, Arts & Media Management, at University of Toronto, where they examine modes and meanings of co-creative production and distribution in the digital age for arts, culture, and media.
CLCF Co-Director & Assistant Professor
Rafael Grohmann is a Co-lead and Co-Director of the Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF) cluster and an Assistant Professor of Media Studies (Critical Platform Studies) at the University of Toronto. Rafael is the leader of the DigiLabour initiative and founding editor of the Platforms & Society journal.
