The force is strong here..making time to create a log is hard work as there is always so much progress being made.
But documenting what is happening is vital for those who come after us..
Every week has been significant in terms of progress and development but last week was especially pivotal.
But before I get ahead of myself let me start a bit further back, just after the beginning.
As an Artist in a land of Technology the ThoughtWorkers have made me very comfortable in this new world.
They are not only on board with the mission but are expanding upon it and taking it to new horizons, as only ThoughtWorkers know how.
Andrew McWilliams as you know is the Director of the A.I. Artist Residency came up with two brainwaves (well actually he came up with several hundred brainwaves) but two particularly interesting ones..GROUP HUDDLES & OPEN STUDIO SESSIONS .
On my other residency at TED I was fortunate enough to be invited to a special meet the Ted Head, Mr Chris Anderson, when I asked him what advice he had for us. He answered “Demons and Angels…the nature of man is either always elevating towards Angels or de-evolving towards Demons. Take time to Talk to one another as it is that spark of human connection where amazing things are born!”. I think Andrew must have been there in spirit as the GROUP HUDDLES and OPENS STUDIO SESSIONS have evolved to tap into this community of knowledge in a very unique way.
The GROUP HUDDLES is the way that the ThoughtWorkers from around the Globe who are interested in being apart of the RIOT project, connect and share ideas and develop concepts using their most valuable resources their collective minds..This process is as you would expect illuminating..We have had 3 Open Studios in the past 3 weeks, and the content has swiftly escalated from exploring various forms of new tech including Capillaries under the eyes reading your pulse and also voice recognition…all the while rebuilding the emotional engine which is the Machine Learning system.
The OPEN STUDIO is a rare occurrence in the ThoughtWorkers world where they open the doors of their coven to allow outsiders (that would be you, yes you, unless you are a baptised ThoughtWorker…
The first OPEN STUDIO last week was illuminating bringing together talented humans from the world of Art, TED, Journalism. Policy, Tech and Academia converge to explore the issues being explored through RIOT, such as bias, surveillance, ethics in A.I, behavioural psychology,etc..
The second Open Studio session was so successful in this convergence of art. Tech, and storytelling sectors. It brought Rania Amiri who creates think tanks in various conflict settings in Central and South Asia, West and the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Europe as for the United Nations. Exploring how Digital Media could potentially resolve conflict. A Government advisor from Afghanistan exploring potential Policies which may prevent these new technologies from being exploited by regimes and governments. the curators of the Future of Storytelling Festival, Edwina Throsby the Head of Ideas and Talks at the Sydney Opera House. exploring how digital media can be used as part of conflict resolution.
As well as international organisations joining us online from The iconic London The National theatre immersive storytelling Studio exploring new storytelling media formats. Kinicho 3D sound designers referencing Gibson and the role of sci-fi in what we are doing.
I normally talk with these people separately having them all speaking together on one room has created an unexpected alchemy and perspective shift, as each can see the others insight.
The Open Studio was so successful that we are now creating a breakout format to continue this important dialogue.
If that wasn’t enough further Breakthroughs this week is that we finally managed to connect with two powerful partners on this quest.
Dr Hongying Meng is a senior lecturer at Brunel University London in the department of Computer Science and Engineering and an eminent expert on facial recognition, Machine Learning and Deep learning. We finally managed to connect with him and he confirmed that the path that Tanya and Angelica were pursuing was the correct direction.
Alexis from the Perception institute also joined us for a very illuminating meeting where we explored racial bias, anxiety and stereotyping and how to break the pattern. Translating this into a user experience is going to be an exciting challenge. I asked Alexis why the Perception Institute is interested in the collaboration on the riot project, she communicated that “Now before A.I becomes an established part of the Arts and Cultural sector that she would like to be at the forefront of the research.!”. VR is already in the industry and behavioural study research was done after the horse bolted. Having the full picture is going to impact chattering our journey forward.
This adventure is taking us all to unknown lands…and brining more comrades..
