The Not Quite Yet

‘On the Margins of Technology’ Symposium

Friday 29th February 2008
A day of presentations and debate about realising the impacts of technology for expanding and diversifying participation in art and society. The day highlighted current thought around engagement and those on the margins of technology with an emphasis upon participation and older people.

Photos from the talks:

Photos from the discussions:

Programme from the Symposium:

10.30-11am
Breakfast

11am- 11.10am
Introduction
Gini Simpson, SPACE Media

11.15 -‘Desire, Technology and Failure’
Stacy Makishi and Lois Weaver

11.45 - 12 coffee

12 - 12.45
‘Democratising Technology’ Introduction to The Not Quite Yet
Ann Light, Senior Researcher, Queen Mary University
Vi Davies, Senior AGE, Sundial Centre and Not Quite Yet Community Mentor

12.45 1.30 lunch

1.30
Geezer Power
Loraine Leeson, The Geezers (A group of Older men from East London)

1.50
User Manuals and ‘explaining technology’
Mukul Patel, Fiona Fieber (SPACE Age Sirens- an older people’s choir
from East London)

2.10 tea

2.30
‘Beyond boundaries; social innovation from the edges’
Dan McQuillan (Formerly Amnesty International and co-founder of
‘Social Software’ a project which aims to bring the benefits of open
source software to the voluntary & community sector).

3.15-4pm
Choose between one of the following discussion sessions:

Session1:
Discussion on freedom and technology
Chaired by Bill Thompson

Session 2:
‘Do It Yourself’ or ‘Do it for me’
Long Table’ discussion introduced by Lois Weaver

Session 3:
Examples of practice - working title
Camilla Brueton (artists in residence at Hanover in Hackney older
people’s project) in conversation with Patrick Fox and Laura Yates
(Tenant Spin an over 50’s broadcast channel operating from a tower block
in Liverpool)

4pm
Closing Remarks

4.15pm-5pm
Glass of wine and exhibition viewing

The symposium day is aimed at artists, technologists, policy makers,
Primary care trusts and people interested in the social implications of
technology and working in the public domain.

To confirm your place, please email jim[at]spacestudios.org.uk with On the
Margins of Technology and how many places you would like.

More info
Digital technology is increasingly becoming integral to domestic, social and political activity. It is starting to connect together new aspects of life such as automated monitoring in care homes or voting by text message. The new generations of pervasive technologies and the emergence and proliferation of networks open up new sites and possibilities for art practice. The possibilities for engaging diverse participants and audiences with art activity through media art practice are developing almost as fast as the technology itself. On the Margins of Technology considers the technological, artistic, and social conditions necessary to allow for meaningful public participation.

On the Margins of Technology explores some of the key issues uncovered through The Not Quite Yet artists’ work and from the research project Democratising Technology (DemTech). On the Margins of Technology explores some of the key issues uncovered through The Not Quite Yet artists’ work and from the research project Democratising Technology (DemTech). Demtech is a collaboration based at Queen Mary University of London, involving performance artist Lois Weaver, of the School of English and Drama, Pat Healey of the Department of Computer Science, researcher Ann Light and SPACE Media Arts. In 2007, Lois Weaver led research sessions with groups of older people in East London. There were intended to help people engage with the social and political transformations made possible by the changing nature of technology and to examine the effectiveness of art tools to enable people outside the design world to envision alternative social arrangements enabled by technological developments.

Artists Loraine Leeson, Stacy Makishi Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel were commissioned to respond to the research material and worked with groups of older people in East London in creating work.

Speakers:

Lois Weaver
Along with Ann Light and Pat Healy, Lois Weaver conducted the primary research for the Democratising Technology project. Lois is a performance artist, director, writer, teacher and curator with thirty years professional experience. She was co-founder of Spiderwoman Theatre and the WOW Theatre in New York and Artistic Director of Gay Sweatshop Theatre in London. She has been a performer, director, and writer with the Split Britches Company since 1980. Her interests include performance and human rights and performance and technology. Lois was Director for PSi12 Performing Rights, an international conference on the themes of performance and human rights.
http://www.splitbritches.com/

Stacy Makishi
Hawaii-born Stacy Makishi works in a variety of media including live art, site-specific installations, film, new writing and physical theatre. Her works are known for their risky and amusing interrogations of contemporary culture, identity and politics. She has recently performed at the Tate Modern and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her most recent commissions were by the Walker Center in Minneapolis and Room 474 by Live Art UK.
http://www.stacymakishi.com/

Ann Light
Ann Light is a senior research fellow in the Drama department at Queen Mary University of London, and visiting research fellow in the Department of Computer Science. She is also part-time Reader in Interaction, Media and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University. She is primarily interested in the social impact of technology and the politics of participation in design, explored in a range of projects including DemTech, Fair Tracing (http://www.fairtracing.org), and Practical Design for Social Action (http://www.technologyandsocialaction.org). She also helps run a charity on using ICT for cultural exchange between Africa and Europe (http://www.fiankoma.org) and works one day a week on staff development with Flow Interactive (http://www.flow-interactive.com), a user-centred design consultancy. Her recent research has explored how people’s relationship to space has been altered by using phones on the move, taking a phenomenological perspective. This develops work on perceptions and use of new media, begun with websites and online discussion lists in 1995. She was part of the management team for the radically interdisciplinary Leonardo Network (EPSRC’s “Culture and Creativity” programme), has co-organised several workshops on this theme and is co-editor of a special issue of Human Technology on “Culture, Creativity and Technology” (http://www.humantechnology.jyu.fi/archives/february07.html).

Vi Davies
Vi is a core member of the Sundial Centre and the founder of SAGE (Senior Age) group providing a network for older people in East London. Vi is a community Mentor for ‘The Not Quite Yet Project’ and took part in the original research with Queen Mary University London.

Loraine Leeson
Loraine Leeson’s practice since the late 1970’s has centred on the exploration of art as a catalyst for social change. This has involved engagement with trades unions, tenants and action groups, local communities and young people around issues of regeneration and identity. Her projects intervene in the public domain using forms that over the years have ranged from posters to photo-murals, events, public art and interactive web sites.
http://www.cspace.org.uk/

The Geezers
The Geezers are a group of older men from East London who meet every Tuesday. They became involved in ‘The Not Quite Yet’ through the original research and have worked extensively along with Loraine on a project to explore tidal power on the Thames as shown in the exhibition at SPACE.

Mukul Patel
Manu Luksch + Mukul Patel’s collaborative work draws together genres, including video, sound, net- and software art, dance, documentary, and cuisine. Techniques and effects of live data broadcasting and transmission provide theme, medium, and performative space for many of the projects. Their most recent project is FACELESS, a 50-minute science-fiction film that uses only CCTV recordings from London obtained under the Data Protection Act, and features the voice of Tilda Swinton.
http://www.ambienttv.net

Fiona Fieber
Fiona Fieber is the Head of Collaborations at SPACE and is a core member of the SPACE Age Sirens. The SPACE Age Sirens are an older person’s choir who meet weekly in East London. They took part in the project and along with Laka D worked with Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel to make work for the exhibition at SPACE.

Dan McQuillan
After a Ph.D in Experimental Particle Physics, Dan worked with people with learning disabilities and as a mental health advocate. He took an early interest in the potential of the Internet for social change and created Multikulti, an award winning multilingual website for asylum seekers & refugees. After some personal experiences of human rights abuses, Dan joined Amnesty International as global web manager where he added some oomph to their ecampaigning by introducing virals, blogging and the use of social networks. He blogs about open source activism and social innovation at http://internetartizans.co.uk/

Dan is the co-founder of Social Innovation Camp, which “brings hackers and social innovators together to develop solutions to social challenges”. (more details at
http://www.sicamp.org/)

Bill Thompson
New media pioneer Bill Thompson is a journalist, commentator and technology critic based in Cambridge, England. He has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984. He currently has a weekly column which appears in the technology section of the BBC News website, and contributes to other publications both on and off-line, including The Guardian, The Register and The New Statesman. He writes a monthly column for new net users for BBC WebWise, and a technology column for Focus magazine

Bill appears weekly on ‘Digital Planet‘ (formerly called ‘Go Digital’) on the BBC World Service and occasionally on other BBC radio and television programmes. He is a visiting lecturer at City University where he teaches Online Journalism in the Journalism Department, and an external editor for openDemocracy.net. You can find him online, working in one of Cambridge’s many cafés, or at the bar of the ICA. His email address is bill at andfinally dot com

Patrick Fox and tenantspin
tenantspin is a Liverpool based Community TV Channel. It is managed by FACT, city-wide tenants and Arena Housing, a registered Social Landlord formed in 2001 and responsible for over 14,000 properties across the North West of England. This unique collaboration enables all parties to explore issues around contemporary ways of living and ways of seeing. tenantspin commenced in 1999 as a pilot project. Since then it has grown significantly and is well known for its groundbreaking approach to collaboration. It is a unique project, unique in terms of its funding, its ‘tenant’ collaborators and in terms of the diversity of artists and other organisations it works with.

Editorially, there are 2 strands - WAYS OF SEEING, co-ordinated by FACT and commissioning leading artists, writers and thinkers to develop webcast content collaboratively with the tenants. Arena Housing helps coordinate a WAYS OF LIVING series that explores social and social housing issues such as anti-social behaviour, care, money, smart homes, the paranormal, ethical banking, regeneration, the Welsh Streets, high-rise nightmares, CCTV and healthy eating.

During its life tenantspin has created over 600 hours of Community TV programming which has been seen across the world as well as by the local community in Liverpool.

Camilla Brueton
Camilla Brueton is an artist who has recently completed a project called ‘Lounge’ with Hanover in Hackney and SPACE. Camilla used photography, conversation and games to explore and capture change within the lounges and communal spaces of the different residential schemes. Hanover in Hackney is the leading provider of housing and support services for older people in Hackney. Camilla has previously worked with Proboscis contributing towards ‘Social Tapestries’ as well as ‘eNotebooks’ created for the Robotic Feral Public Authoring and St Marks Housing Coop projects.