Creative disruption and Artificial Intelligence
BACKGROUND/HISTORY AND CONTEXT OF THE WORKSHOP
Bristol’s Living Lab, Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC), is an arts & digital organisation who’ve been working with people for more than 20 years harnessing the power of arts and digital technologies to create positive social change; applying methods of innovative co-creation. KWMC has been exploring the hopes, fears, myths, and controversies of AI with communities, researchers and artists – particularly its propensity to amplify biases, perpetuate stereotypes and increase power imbalances. The prevalent narratives about AI either pit humans against machines – with AI threatening to take jobs, role and purpose from humans – or AI is found to be failing because it remains all too human, limited by fallible and bias programmers.
MAIN AIM / OBJECTIVE
This workshop will share KWMC’s practice around creative disruption and mixing people, art and tech in creative ways. It will take a hands-on,participative approach to exploring what it means to be human, what it means to be a machine, and the potential for creative interaction between the two.
Through the workshop, participants will:
- Understand more about KWMC’s work with artists and communities,
- Share examples of creative human/AI interaction from their living lab context,
- Undertake a rapid prototyping experiment to develop a chatbot for lab contexts that addresses a particular challenge;
- Collaborate across living labs on creative approaches to AI;
- Identify opportunities for future collaboration and scaling up.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Participants will have:
- Shared some of the ethical and social issues / concerns / fears around AI
- Learnt more about what creative disruption and AI could mean
- Discovered inspiring examples of innovative AI projects using creative disruption tactics
- Understood more about KWMCs creative approach to AI
- Found out how other living labs are approaching AI
- Developed ideas of how to use creative disruption to AI in their own living lab context
- Created a prototype chatbot
- Met future collaborators
- Built relationships and networks to support future collaborations and scaling up activity.
The session will be interactive, full of hands-on learning and fun – an ideal environment for developing and deepening relationships and fostering new networks.
BRIEF OUTLINE / METHODOLOGY
In this workshop KWMC will using a mix of arts-led co-creation processes and design-thinking tools. Participants need no prior knowledge of AI and we aim to create a safe space for shared exploration and learning. The methods will include:
- Ice-breaker activities to help people feel comfortable and connect
- Immersion into the world of human/AI interaction: through examples.
- Introduction to dialogflow – a tool for developing your own AI system
- A design-thinking exercise in small groups using rapid prototyping to identify an issue and develop a chatbot for different living lab contexts
- Presentation of prototypes and reflection on learning;
- Sharing existing resources across living labs and KWMCs future plans
The workshop as a whole will involve a mix of small group and whole group activities, including: discussion, interactive tasks with props, prototyping and collaboration. The time will be well structured to allow for: inspiration and networking, active collaboration, insights and reflection
LINKS
Workshop Facilitators
Jess Linington
Learning Manager
Jess Linington
Learning ManagerJess is Learning Manager at KWMC. She is delivering a new programme collaborating with communities and organisations across the city to share skills, tools and innovative ways of working together. Jess is focused on digital skills, citizen sensing, digital making and web projects. Her aim is to increase digital inclusion by improving access to, and engagement with, information, services and opportunities in the city
Martha King
Arts Programme Producer
Martha King
Arts Programme ProducerMartha King is Arts Programme Producer at KWMC. She has developed and delivered arts and research projects with citizens that explore; data ethics, commons based approaches, citizen-led co-design and participatory sensing. Supporting artists to create: performances, exhibitions, installations, talks, workshops and new commissions in a variety of contexts. She is co-author on HCI published paper 'A City in Common: A Framework to Foster Technology Innovation from the Bottom up' and has given public presentations around citizen innovation at a range of conferences across the UK and in Canada, including: The ENoLL OpenLivingLab Days conference in Montreal 2016 and at NESTA, London.
Penny Evans
Assistant Director
Penny Evans
Assistant DirectorAssistant Director, Knowle West Media Centre, Penny Evans works alongside the Director developing programmes that respond to future need, promoting participation, involvement and inclusion in the delivery of the project. One of her key areas of responsibility is strategic planning and development for: The Factory. She currently sits on the Engaged University Steering group at University of Bristol.