Martin Disley

Martin Disley is a design researcher and AHRC/Microsoft-funded PhD candidate at the Institute of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. His PhD research investigates homogeneity in transformer and diffusion models, particularly in relation to their application in creative practice. In this context, the work explores the representational geometry of these models. Rather than using data-centric augmentation such as fine-tuning, his thesis treats the pre-trained manifold as a design surface that can be geometrically intervened upon to augment latent representations in ways that support creative thought.

He is the co-founder, alongside Murad Khan, of Unit Test, a collaborative creative research studio that assembles researchers, engineers and artists to explore aesthetic approaches to investigative computation.

He has presented and exhibited work at arebyte Gallery (online/London, UK), Akademie der Künste (Berlin, DE), Fabrica (Treviso, IT), Edinburgh Art Festival (Edinburgh, UK), Unsound Festival (Krakow, PL), the V&A Museum (Dundee, UK), the Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow, UK), Architekturforum Oberösterreich (Linz, AT), and Kunstencentrum Vooruit (Ghent, BE).