A special lecture and discussion with composer, musician, technologist and producer Andrew Melchior.About this Event
Join us in welcoming composer, musician, technologist and producer Andrew Melchior to The University of Manchester and hear his compelling case for the fight for creative authorship.
During this public lecture , CTO of Massive Attack and founder of , invites you to examine how the rise of generative AI exposed a foundational crisis in how we attribute, protect, and reward human creativity. Trained on vast corpora of copyrighted work — often without consent, credit, or compensation — large-scale AI systems are now producing outputs that compete directly with the artists whose labour made them possible. The legal frameworks designed to protect creators are struggling to keep pace, and the political stakes could not be higher.
In his talk, Andrew Melchior draws on his experience advising UK government technical working groups on AI and copyright, and his work building Genotone; an open provenance protocol designed to establish verifiable authorship at the point of creation. He argues that the challenge is not simply legal but infrastructural: without a reliable way to distinguish human-made work from AI-generated content, and to trace the lineage of creative material through complex supply chains, no rights regime can be effectively enforced.
Weaving together perspectives from music, policy, and technology, the talk will sit at the intersection of AI, copyright, and artist provenance infrastructure and examine what meaningful protection for artists might look like in practice.
After the lecture Andrew will be in conversation with John McGrath, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of , followed by the opportunity for the audience to ask their questions.
Agenda
6pm: Welcome reception
6.30pm: Welcome from Creative Manchester
6.35pm: Lecture by Andrew Melchior: Proof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship
7.05pm: Discussion between Andrew Melchior & John McGrath
7.25pm: Audience Q&A
7.40pm: Closing words
About Andrew Melchior
is a British-German creative technologist with over 25 years at the intersection of music, technology, and art. As CTO of Massive Attack and founder of Genotone Ltd, he has spent his career building the infrastructure that connects creative practice to emerging technology, from pioneering work on one of the world's first artist websites with David Bowie in 1999 to encoding Massive Attack's Mezzanine into synthetic DNA with ETH Zürich.
Andrew advises the UK government's DCMS/DSIT Technical Working Groups on AI and copyright, representing coalitions of over 30,000 artists through the Music Managers Forum, Featured Artists Coalition, and AFEM. He is a leading voice on artist provenance, AI transparency, and the future of creative rights in the age of generative AI.
His creative practice spans sound art, film, and installation. Current projects include The Logos — a collaboration with MIT astrophysicist Kiyoshi Masui and philosopher Timothy Morton that sonifies Fast Radio Bursts, installed at Oulu Cathedral for European Capital of Culture 2026 and The Gate, a biographical screenplay about Orson Welles developed with director Kevin Godley using ethically trained and authorised AI.
About John McGrath
John McGrath is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International, the company which runs Manchester’s Aviva Studios, Manchester International Festival and Factory Academy. Over the past few years, John has commissioned some of the most ambitious new work seen in the UK, from Danny Boyle, Es Devlin and Boy Blues’ Free Your Mind to Marina Abramovic’s Balkan Erotic Epic. Before opening Aviva Studios, John curated four editions of Manchester International Festival, featuring new work by an international range of artists including Yoko Ono, Philip Glass, Skepta, Ibrahim Mahama and Tania Bruguera.
Prior to this role, John was the founding Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales, led Manchester’s Contact Theatre, and was Associate Director at Mabou Mines in New York. He has a PhD from New York University and an honorary doctorate from the Open University, and has published widely in the field of cultural theory.
Accessibility
We want to make the event a positive experience for all participants. If you have particular access needs or dietary requirements, please let us know in advance by providing details when registering for your ticket or by emailing us at [email protected].
About Creative Manchester
Creative Manchester is an interdisciplinary platform based at The University of Manchester. The platform champions research in creativity and creative practice, bringing together research communities with external stakeholders to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities. Please visit the website for more information: Creative Manchester.
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Event venue
Renold Building (SISTER), 81 Sackville Street, Manchester, United Kingdom
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