Sentient States: Bio-mind and Techno-nature.

Sentient States: Bio-mind and Techno-nature.

CITAR – Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts is pleased to announce the 21st International Consciousness Reframed Conference, to be held at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Porto, from June 6th-8th, 2019.

Titled “Sentient States: Bio-mind and Techno-nature”, Consciousness Reframed is a forum for trans-disciplinary inquiry into art, science, technology, and consciousness, drawing upon the expertise and insights of artists, designers, architects, performers, musicians, writers, scientists, and scholars, from many countries. Consciousness Reframed conferences have taken place in Australia, Austria, China, England, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Norway, Portugal, and Wales.

Call
21st International Conference
Consciousness Reframed 2019
“Sentient States: Bio-mind and Techno-nature”
6-8 June 2019 Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Porto, Portugal

Chris Booth

Chris Booth is the Award Leader for BA/BSc Internet Design in i-DAT. He brings a wealth of industrial web-dev, networking and programming knowledge to the team and is skills in all aspects of Front End Web Development, with experience in CMS Solutions and Node.JS environments. He is an experienced Guitarist with a demonstrable history of working in the information technology and services industry.

 

B Aga SWCTN Automation Fellow

B Aga SWCTN Automation Fellow

 

We are please to announce that i-DAT’s B Aga has been awarded a South West Creative Technology Automation Fellowship….

 

AUTOMATION 2019-20

Automation is changing the way we live. It is increasingly important within the creative industries as well as manufacturing, retail, financial services, and healthcare, to name just a few sectors. Automation could be seen as the ‘quiet’ revolution – working in the background to assist in creative processes, gradually transforming agriculture through robotics, or re-imagining how we search the internet.

We are looking for people to explore the frontiers of automation technology and its applications, to ask: What already exists? What’s new and what’s good in automation? Where are the gaps in the market? What are the challenges? What opportunities are out there? What are the possibilities?

 

Coral Manton Immersion Prototype

Coral Manton Immersion Prototype

i-DAT’s Coral Manton awarded a SWCTN Prototype Grant: Immersive Histories: Decoding Complexity

A prototype to explore complexity in cultural collections, aimed at enhancing curators, researchers, and audiences to investigate and interpret the complexity in historic objects, places and people.

We are looking to invest in prototypes that use creative technologies to deliver original immersive processes, experiences, products or services. The making phase will run through April, May, June with showcasing at the end of June 2019. We anticipate awarding grants of between £20k and £40k.

Call for Automation fellows

Call for Automation fellows

Post sourced from: https://swctn.org.uk/automation/automation-call-out-brief/

  • We are seeking to recruit 24 fellows
  • Fellowships run from April 2019 to January 2020
  • Candidates must have a meaningful relationship to South West England
  • Fellowships are part-time
  • Each fellow receives £15k

Photo by Paul Blakemore. Transference by Hellion Trace brought together dancers, robotics and fully reactive wearable LED bands

South West Creative Technology Network is recruiting for 24 Automation fellows. This is a flexible, part-time paid (15k) opportunity for people from industry, academia, as well as those in the early stages of their careers who are interested in the future of Automation.

We will support fellows during a 10-month programme to think deeply about the potentials, challenges and opportunities in this area. This is a unique and exciting chance to step back from commercial, academic or career pressures, and focus on new and innovative areas of research, exploration and collaboration.

Automation is changing the way we live. It is increasingly important within the creative industries as well as manufacturing, retail, financial services, and healthcare, to name just a few sectors. Automation could be seen as the ‘quiet’ revolution – working in the background to assist in creative processes, gradually transforming agriculture through robotics, or re-imagining how we search the internet.

We are looking for people to explore the frontiers of automation technology and its applications, to ask: What already exists? What’s new and what’s good in automation? Where are the gaps in the market? What are the challenges? What opportunities are out there? What are the possibilities? Come and join us as a paid fellow.

Fellowships run from April 2019 through to January 2020, with most time commitment required in the first three months (April to June 2019).

Each fellow will receive a £15k bursary to support time and research costs; they will get support and mentoring from producing teams and creative technologists from Watershed and Kaleider; and they will become part of a diverse cohort of Automation fellows who they can bounce ideas off.

How to apply

Please read the full Automation fellowship briefing before completing the online application form.

Please also read the FAQs. We will continue to update FAQs throughout the application period.

Full briefing for the Automation Call (link to pdf)

FAQs for industry and academic fellows (link to Google doc)

FAQs for new talent fellows (link to Google doc)

Online application form

Get in touch with Charlie Tapp, Producer at Kaleider (charlie@kaleider.com) if you have any questions or want to talk to us over the phone or on Skype.

We aim to be as inclusive as possible and work to accommodate all access requirements. We will openly discuss and tailor how we do things to support you as best we can.

We welcome applications from BAME, LGBTQI, Deaf and disabled practitioners.

Deadline for applications: 9am, 31 January 2019
Every applicant will hear from us by 22 February 2019
Interviews will be held on the 4 & 5 March

Featured image: Photo by David McGoran. How to Build a Robot by Rusty Squid

THE INFINITE GUIDE

THE INFINITE GUIDE
30 Aug – 01 Sept FACT Workshop /

30 Aug – 09 Sept WWW.THEINFINITE.GUIDE /

01-09 September KARST Exhibition /

A SPECULATIVE ART WORK AND RESEARCH PROJECT, POWERED BY A CONVERSATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

“Although today’s technologists, in their sober pursuit of utility, power, and profit, seem to set society’s standard for rationality, they are driven also by distant dreams, spiritual yearnings for supernatural redemption. However dazzling and daunting their display of worldly wisdom, their true inspiration lies elsewhere, in an enduring, other-worldly quest for transcendence and salvation.”

(Noble, 1993) 

The Infinite Guide is a speculative art work and research project, powered by a conversational Artificial Intelligence, (a natural language human-computer interface). It took place simultaneously online and at KARST in Plymouth, UK.

The work is grounded in the proposition that as the complexity and power of intelligent systems expand beyond human comprehension, faith is necessarily reintroduced. This positions the computational system as an ideological and mythic incarnation of an emergent artificial spiritual guide. A guide residing in cathedrals of computation (Bogost, 2015). A technological future forged in the naïve, biased and diversity challenged furnace of silicon valley, if left unchallenged.

The project was conceived and developed by the i-DAT Collective, with Crumb SolutionsIntercityStory Juice and a group of young people facilitated though FACTKARST and PSCA.

THE COSMOS IN A HEARTBEAT.

THE COSMOS IN A HEARTBEAT.

Presented by Dr. Shane Larson live network from the Adler Planetarium.

Date of Event10th November 2018Last Booking Date for this Event10th November 2018Description.

Kavli Fulldome Lecture Series: The Cosmos in a Heartbeat. Presented by Dr. Shane Larson.

Live-streamed from the Adler Planetarium, Chicago into the Immersive Vision Theatre, Plymouth.

November 10th 2018 @ 18:00 | Tickets £5 | Booking Essential, No Late Admission

A human lifetime is more than a hundred billion times shorter than the current age of the Universe. Whether you are a professional astronomer, or a casual backyard stargazer, you have only a few decades to drink it all in—to wonder how it works and how you got here.

The cosmos is full of strange happenings that we sometimes are lucky enough to witness because we happened to be paying attention to the stories the Universe is telling us. These tales are carried on bursts of light, showers of subatomic particles, and the faint whisperings of gravity, and every day that passes, we’re getting better at deciphering them.

In our lifetimes, we will only ever have a glimpse of the cosmos. But that glimpse is enough to transform our perceptions in dramatic ways and to answer the oldest questions we have about what the Universe is doing all around us.

University of Plymouth estore booking.

PEOPLE COUNT: INNOVATE UK-BEYOND THE BUSINESS AS USUAL

PEOPLE COUNT: INNOVATE UK-BEYOND THE BUSINESS AS USUAL

Beyond the Business As Usual
25th January 2018
Sandy Park Way, Exeter EX2 7NN

Innovate UK Beyond the Business As Usual Presentation.

People Count: playful technologies for measuring experience and behaviour, and other forms of Cultural Computation.

‘People Count’ explores the Quorum research initiative which builds on i-DAT’s open infrastructure for ‘harvesting’ and visualising data through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning [http://quorum.i-dat.org/]. The aim to augment, evaluate and increase engagement with social and cultural experiences. This research has produced high impact events at significant public venues, such as the opening of the Tate Modern Switch house where real-time social media analytics were incorporated into the 197,000-audience experience of the event. The research has informed innovative cultural value metrics such as the Artory audience evaluation app and civil open-data initiatives, such as Plymouth City Council DataPlay and Edinburgh City Scape projects. Research into conversational AI’s has also been woven into the learning environment at the Plymouth Creative School.

Mike Phillips

emoti-os.me

emoti-os.me

Emoti-OS from i-DAT on Vimeo.

Emoti-OS is a chatbot. It uses conversations with its users to understand the collective mood of pupils at Plymouth School of Creative Arts (UK). It is created for and with these pupils to give students a voice and a way to express how they collectively feel about important matters at the school.

 

 

Emoti-OS user interaction at PSCA and installation at Tate Exchange.

 

FAQ

  • How does Emoti-OS work?
    The Chatbot uses a piece of software developed by IBM called “Watson”. This is a tone analyser of sentiments in language, that is able to identify the following tones in conversation: joy, sadness, excitement, fear, confusion, anger and disgust. It then outputs this as an emoji-style image.
  • What is the purpose of Emoti-OS?
    Emoti-OS is a collaborative art project produced in partnership between i-DAT, Plymouth School of Creative Arts (PSCA), Intercity and Controlled Frenzy. The purpose is to determine the mood of the PSCA body of students by analysing the tone of their conversations with the chatbot. The project is co-design and managed with a group of PSCA pupils, and is intended to give the pupils a voice and a chance to express how they feel.
  • What are the different emotions and what do they mean?
    Excitement, Joy, Confusion, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, Anger
  • How are the different states calculated?
    We take in the number of relevant emotion buttons being selected in the atrium and online and that gives us an overriding emotion. We then analyse the emotional tone of the conversation being had with Emoti-OS through IBMs Watson and average this with the levels from the button interactions and get the overall mood of the school.
  • How can you get Emoti-OS to ask your question?
    You can pose a question to the PSCA pupils through the Emoti-OS Chatbot by submitting it here. Emotio-OS will then ask your question to the users it chats to.
    Please note that this function is intended for PSCA pupils and submissions will be selected by the Emoti-OS pupil team with the Emoti-OS administrator.
  • Who made Emoti-OS?
    Emoti-OS is a collaborative art project produced in partnership between a group of pupils from Plymouth School of Creative Arts (Charlie, Finley, Isaac and Zaskia with Angus Reith), i-DAT with Plymouth University, Intercity and Controlled Frenzy.
  • How does Emoti-OS use my data?
    Emoti-OS is designed to respond to users conversationally like a human. So, when you send Emoti-OS a text response, it processes this and generates a conversational response back to you. Emoti-OS’s response may be in the form of text or image. The information (chat) you provide is aggregate to identify the mood of the individuals interacting with the Chatbot. This is done by analysing the tone of the aggregated conversations being had with the chatbot.
    Emoti-OS does not collect any personally identifiable data from its users. Instead it stores the chats that users have with the Chatbot in order to analyse the tone of the language to generate an emoji-style icon/image. If a listed ‘harm word’ is used in conversation with the chatbot, it will prompt the user to enter their details so that they can be contacted by a member of the Plymouth School of Creative Arts (PSCA) safeguarding team.
  • Do I have to allow the creators of Emoti-OS to use my conversational data to improve Emoti-OS?
    By using this website, you agree with the use of your conversational data and accept the terms and conditions of this service in full (for details please see the Terms & Conditions). If you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use this website.
  • Who controls Emoti-OS?
    Emoti-OS user interaction is managed via a dashboard by the technical team at Plymouth School of Creative Arts (PSCA). The software has been developed by and is managed by iDAT with Plymouth University and Controlled Frenzy.
  • How can I get in touch with the creators of Emoti-OS?
    By contacting the Emoti-OS PSCA team: Charlie, Finley, Isaac, Zaskia or Angus Reith or email us on contact@emoti-os.me

Makers

Emoti-OS is a collaborative project realised by:

i-DAT with Plymouth University: B Aga, Dawn Melville & Mike Phillips

Plymouth School of Creative Arts: Charlie, Finley, Isaac, Zaskia & Angus Reith

Intercity: Nathan Gale, William Hibberd & Trystan Thompson

Controlled Frenzy: Chris Hunt

The project is funded through Plymouth City Council’s DATA Play initiative and i-DAT with Plymouth University.

Visual Design by: intercity – https://www.intercitystudio.com/news/emoti-os

 

Educ-AI-tion rebooted? Exploring the future of artificial intelligence in schools and colleges.

Emoti-OS is a case study in this nesta report on AI in Education.

{local pdf here}.

EMOTI-OS is discussed further in B Aga’s PhD thesis: PROTOTYPING RELATIONAL THINGS THAT TALK: A DISCURSIVE DESIGN STRATEGY FOR CONVERSATIONAL AI SYSTEMS

 

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Introduction

These terms and conditions govern your use of this website www.Emoti-OS.co.uk. By using this website, you accept these terms and conditions in full. If you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use this website.

Emoti-OS is a collaboration between i-DAT with Plymouth University, Plymouth School of Creative Arts, Intercity and Controlled Frenzy [Here referred to as the Emoti-OS Partners/ the Partners].

Disclaimer

The Emoti-OS Partners make every possible effort to ensure that the information published on this website is accurate and up to date, but does not accept any responsibility for errors or omissions and reserves the right to make amendments at any time and without prior notice. The Partners do not accept responsibility for the information provided on external sites reached via links from any of its web pages.

Participation

The Emoti-OS chatbot is intended to be a place for your entertainment. We are not responsible for any decisions you make based on your interactions with the Emoti-OS chat-bot.

We ask that you adhere to the following terms for your participation on Emoti-OS.me, intended to encourage personal responsibility for what you do with the Emoti-OS chatbot.

Freedom of Information

The Emoti-OS Partners have a commitment to openness and transparency, and have always ensured relevant information is made available wherever possible to individuals who may request it, subject to safeguarding the privacy of individuals and to legitimate considerations of national security, law enforcement and commercial interests where relevant.

Copyright

The Emoti-OS Partners own the intellectual property rights in the website and material on the website. Subject to the licence below, all these intellectual property rights are reserved.

You may view, download for caching purposes only, and print material from the website for your own personal use.

You must not republish, sell, rent, sub-license or show in public any material from this website (including republication on another website). You may not reproduce, duplicate, copy or otherwise exploit material on our website for a commercial purpose.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

This statement covers the services provided by the Emoti-OS website:

The Data Controller for this website is i-DAT, Plymouth University.
The purpose of this statement is to inform users of this web site, about the information that is collected from them when they visit this site, how this information is used, if it is disclosed and the ways in which we protect users’ privacy.

We will only use information you provide for the purpose we have described and we do not pass on your details to any third party unless you give us permission to do so. We use appropriate security technologies to safeguard your data and take appropriate steps to prevent unauthorised access to it.

Summary of the purpose of Emoti-OS Project:

Emoti-OS is a research project which contributes to artistic research on the cultural value of systems such as this chatbot in social situations.The intention of the project is to draw people into a brief conversation about how they feel about their current experience, simultaneously reflecting the collective mood of those it speaks to.

The information (chat) provided is aggregate to identify the mood of the individuals interacting with the Chatbot. This is done by analysing the tone of the aggregated conversations being had with the chatbot using the IBM Watson™ Tone Analyzer service.

What information do we collect?

We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:
  1. information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views);
  2. information that you provide through chatting to the Emoti-OS chat-bot
The purposes for which the data are intended to be processed are as follows:
  1. to administer the website;
  2. to aggregate collective sentiments from the individuals interacting with the Emoti-OS chat-bot;
  3. to inform artistic research on the cultural value of systems such as this chatbot in social situations;
  4. to deal with enquiries made by or about you relating to the website.
Unless otherwise required by statute, we do not identify publicly who sends questions or comments to our web site. This privacy statement relates only to the Emoti-OS.me site. The Emoti-OS.me site may contain links to other sites where information practices may be different to ours. You should consult the other sites’ privacy notices as we are not responsible for and have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, third party websites.

Except as provided in this privacy policy, we will not provide your information to third parties. We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is used properly and is kept securely

Amendment

These Terms and Conditions may be amended from time to time.

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding privacy while using the Application, or have questions about our practices, please contact us via email at contact@i-dat.org.


 

Black Art Matters

Black Art Matters

Brilliant documentary about Donald, mentioning Autoicon and Psalms.
“Sonia Boyce views current interest in black British art through the life of Donald Rodney, the work he left behind, his fellow artists, friends and family, and Auto Icon – a digital version of himself.
Donald Rodney often talked of a clock ticking. A sufferer of sickle cell disease, he had a life expectancy of only 36 years. He died in 1998 after packing a furious amount into a short life. Part of the BLK art group and a new wave of Black British Artists out of the art schools, his work was political, challenging, innovative and smart.

Sonia, who knew Rodney well, unearths the creative, the personal and the political in what is often an emotional journey into her friend and fellow artist’s life. Before he died, Donald started work on Auto Icon, an early digital life that enables a virtual conversation with Donald through diary notes, images and sound bites. Although the 1990’s technology can now be rather awkward, it offers snatched glimpses into the work, the artist and his collaborators.

Sonia visits Donald Rodney’s family, still in Smethwick where they experienced an openly racist election campaign in the 1960s, followed by a visit to this ‘racial hotbed’ from Malcolm X. She interviews Donald’s family, for the first time, about his art and meets those who are now reviving, collecting and exhibiting his work, and discovers why there’s renewed interest in him and his contemporaries in today’s political climate. Sonia asks what kind of work Donald might be making now, in the age of social media, post-truth, and division, and how the work he’s left behind speaks to us now.

Producer: Michael Clifford
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.”