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Anthropology, Art & AI
(Human-led | AI-assisted & AI-hybrid | Ethical British Research)
Born-Digital Archivist • Anthropologist • Archival Portrait Photographer
•ND Oral Historian • Creative Technologist • Artist-Researcher
Founder of The Black Art Hub CIC & The Benjamin Zephaniah Community Library & Archives.
Twenty – Medway’s Black Heritage
A new community-led archive honouring the voices, stories, and cultural legacy of Medway’s Black community.
Twenty is a creative oral history and portraiture project that invites 20 Black-identifying residents of Medway to share their lived experiences, memories, culture, and identity. Through gentle audio storytelling, guided conversation, and professional portrait photography, we are building a digital archive shaped with the community and for the community.
Your story becomes part of Medway’s heritage. Your voice becomes part of the record. Your presence becomes part of the Benjamin Zephaniah Archive & Library (Online), where it will be preserved for future generations.
This project forms part of the Medway Heritage Place programme — a ten-year partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund that supports Medway in unearthing new stories, strengthening local heritage, and celebrating the people who shape this place.
Twenty – Medway’s Black Heritage is made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to document and preserve the lived experiences of Medway’s Black community through oral histories, portrait photography, and digital storytelling.
🎙️ What Taking Part Involves
Each participant is invited to a relaxed, creative session that includes:
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Audio recording of your personal story, reflections or memories
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A guided question-and-answer conversation to help you share comfortably
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A professional portrait photograph taken in a calm, friendly mini-shoot
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Archiving of your story and portrait in the Benjamin Zephaniah Archive & Library (Online)
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Inclusion in educational presentations delivered with Medway Archives and Medway Libraries
This is a safe, supported, culturally affirming space.
No experience needed — just your voice, your story, your presence.
🔗 Ready to take part?
We’re inviting 20 participants for this year’s archive.
Click the link to complete the short registration form —
It takes just a few minutes.
👤ABOUT
MICHI MASUMI
Member of: Oral History Society (OHS), ARA, CAHG,
Friends of The National Archives
I am a UK award-winning photographer, transdisciplinary creative practitioner, and researcher whose work combines anthropology, archives, photography, AI-assisted creativity, oral history, sonic storytelling, and cultural heritage.
Her practice focuses on preserving lived experience, amplifying underrepresented voices, and developing human-led creative systems that connect art, technology, identity, and community through both artistic and research-led practice.
🧠RESEARCH
Michi Masumi’s research explores Black absence in UK creative tech (STEMS), Black British cultural heritage, born-digital archives, visual anthropology, AI-assisted creativity, oral history, memory, and contemporary digital culture through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methodologies.
The research combines creative practice, lived experience, community engagement, and archive development to investigate how culture, identity, and heritage are documented, preserved, and reimagined within contemporary society.
📖 REPOSITORY BLOG
The Blog & Journal documents reflections, research, visual essays, archive notes, photography projects, sonic work, cultural commentary, and interdisciplinary creative practice.
It acts as a living repository exploring cultural heritage, identity, archives, Black British culture, women’s experiences, AI ethics, wellbeing, creativity and community-led storytelling.
🧩PROJECTS
The projects section showcases Michi Masumi’s interdisciplinary projects in cultural heritage, archives, digital storytelling, photography, AI - hybrid creativity, community engagement, education, and wellbeing.
Projects include: A360 Micro Digital, Medway & Kent Lens, Riverleaf UK (MCRE), Studio 6B, Blueprint Lab, The Black Art Hub CIC, and The Benjamin Zephaniah Digital Library & Archives.
A360 Micro Digital:
Hyper-local digital storytelling, creative visibility systems, and community-centred media exploring culture, representation, and contemporary digital identity through interdisciplinary creative practice.
🗃️ARCHIVE & ORAL HISTORY SERVICES
Archiving and oral history services supporting individuals, communities, organisations and creative projects in preserving lived experience, memory, and born-digital cultural heritage.
Using interdisciplinary and community-led approaches, services include oral history recording, archival photography, metadata support, preservation guidance, digital archive development, interview facilitation, and culturally aware documentation practices designed to safeguard stories, identities, and community histories for future generations.
📷PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES
The photography practice combines archival photography, conceptual portraiture, documentary imagery, visual storytelling, and emotionally textured fine art photography.
Influenced by memory, symbolism, lived experience, and visual anthropology, the work explores identity, atmosphere, cultural narratives, and human emotion through both documentary and experimental photographic processes.
🎨DIGITAL ART
Digital art practice combines photography, texture, symbolism, layered editing, and experimental visual processes to create emotionally textured works exploring identity, memory, atmosphere, and cultural narratives.
Influenced by fine art photography, expressionism, visual anthropology, and contemporary digital aesthetics, the work moves between abstraction and storytelling through human-led digital manipulation, mixed media processes, and conceptual visual experimentation.
NO AI IS USED WITHIN MY DIGITAL PIECES.
🧠✨AI Assist & Hybrid
CREATIVE PRACTICE
This section explores human-led AI-assisted and AI-hybrid creative practice across visual storytelling, experimental digital artwork, sonic composition, archive aesthetics, and interdisciplinary media production.
AI is used as a collaborative creative instrument within an ethical, culturally aware, and research-informed artistic process guided by human direction, emotion, and narrative.
![Jay 02[Abstract Series] - Michi Masumi 2024.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7970e1_0ab642fa7a054b6fb2f99434e30c576e~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_245,h_310,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/7970e1_0ab642fa7a054b6fb2f99434e30c576e~mv2.jpg)
![Lumka Art Exhibition Brochure - BHM 2K25 - KPMG & TBAH CIC [MM] (11)_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7970e1_670f5051967c4499a6a850d35e346c09~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_245,h_368,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/7970e1_670f5051967c4499a6a850d35e346c09~mv2.jpg)
🧵FASHION + DESIGN
MASUMI is a wearable archive fashion and textile practice transforming photography, texture, memory, and visual abstraction into contemporary wearable art.
The collections include scarves, dresses, jackets, bags, footwear, and fabric prints inspired by emotional landscapes, archival textures, symbolic imagery, and interdisciplinary creative practice.
![Lumka Art Exhibition Brochure - BHM 2K25 - KPMG & TBAH CIC [MM] (10).jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7970e1_124be997f1aa4a58a07fe18aefbff90c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_245,h_348,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/7970e1_124be997f1aa4a58a07fe18aefbff90c~mv2.jpg)
🎬MEDIA & DESIGN
Media & Design brings together podcasting, sonic storytelling, graphic design, digital campaigns, visual communication, accessible media, and creative website design through an interdisciplinary and culturally informed practice.
Services include flyers, posters, educational materials, social media campaigns, Wix website design, visual branding, podcast production, BSL-aware content, and short-form digital storytelling designed to support artists, organisations, community projects, and culturally engaged creative work.