Supported by

Collaborators
National Theatre of Scotland
The National Theatre of Scotland was established in 2006 and has created over 250 productions. Being a theatre without walls, the Company presents a wide variety of work that ranges from large-scale productions to projects tailored to the smallest performing spaces.
Galinskyworks
William Galinsky is an artist, curator and creative producer. He was artistic director for Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2010-2017 and of Cork Midsummer Festival 2007-2010. More recently, he’s been developing a series of projects focussing on art, technology and civil society with the aim of helping artists have a meaningful input into the technological revolution which is reshaping the world.
Challenge
Now is the time for art to influence and change the world.
National Theatre Scotland, Galinskyworks and ThinkNation collaborated on a two day arts-tech collider where over 40 Scottish and international theatre-artists and creative technologists worked together to explore how theatre and technology can address questions surrounding:
- Artificial Intelligence ethics
- Transhumanism
- Technology and the environment
- Political, moral and social impacts of disruptive tech
The collider’s aim was to explore the direction of technology in order to have a positive impact on society, bring people together, reinforce the notion of community, and reach new audiences.
Approach
Create. Critique. Iterate.
We used our own ThinkNation framework – which saw participants work in groups of between 6-8 people with mixed skillsets and backgrounds – to create, critique and iterate their questions and solutions over the the two-day collider. This framework (developed from the Design Stuido Technique) resulted in fast-paced, intensive but impactful workshops.
The eight groups created a question each on day 1, followed by a response to their question on day 2.
The groups then presented their responses to a live public and invited audience on the evening of day 2.
Questions generated & answered
Artificial Intelligence Ethics: “If AI was a Godhead how would its power manifest?”
Artificial Intelligence Ethics: “What if we could create a nation of artists through universal implementation of AI?”
Defend or destory: "What if we could reduce the distance between our use of technology and its impact on the environment?"
Defend or destory: "What if utopia is now, is known - but we don't know who by - and is possible?"
Data, politics & the moral discourse: "How do we find the human in Big Data?"
Data, politics & the moral discourse: "What if we lived with an autonomous data-driven decision making social governance system?"
Transhmanism: “What if death was a choice?”
Transhmanism: “What if humans had warranties that could be voided?”
Coverage
We had coverage of the event and the collider in a series of publications and by organisations including:
Collider participant Bill Thompson (Principle Software Engineer, Research and Development, BBC) also blogged about the panel discussion that followed a couple of days after the event. In the excellent blog, Bill reflects on the intersections of art and technology.
Like laws, code was created through human agency. It is just a story, like religion or a novel or the stories we tell ourselves in order to live, and like any other story it can be rewritten.
Participants
<Participant>
Bill Thompson
Principal Software Engineer, Research & Development BBC
<Participant>
Bex Anson
Visual Theatre Director & Scenographer
<Participant>
Anthony Onumonu
Principal Software Engineer, BBC
<Participant>
Dr Jocelyn Spence
Human-Computer Interaction and Performance Studies
<Participant>
Mal Abbas
Game Designer, Artist & Producer
<Participant>
Ruth Catlow
Artist
<Participant>
Tom deMajo
<Participant>
Damien Smith
Founding Partner of ISO Design
<Participant>
Cat Harrison
Artist & Producer.
<Participant>
Max Dovey
Artist, Researcher & Lecturer
<Participant>
Heather Doran
Public Engagement Manager, Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee
<Participant>
Albert Elwin
Artist & Programmer
<Participant>
Bronwin Patrickson
Creative Economy Engagement Fellow in Digital Design for SGSAH and the University of Dundee
<Participant>
Kai Fischer
Theatre Designer & Theatre Maker
<Participant>
Eve Nicol
Director & Playwright
<Participant>
Angus Farquhar
Freelance Artist
<Participant>
Lucy Gaizely
Multi-Disciplinary Theatre Maker
<Participant>
Roy Mudie
Leverhulme Application Specialist and PhD Student
<Panelist>
Lynn Love
Digital Artist, Play designer & Lecturer
<Participant>
Dan Barnard
Theatre Director, Workshop Facilitator, & Teacher
<Participant>
Jasmine Cox
Development Producer, BBC Research & Development's Future Experience Technologies
<Participant>
Iain Simons
Director of Culture, BGI & Co-Founder of the National Videogame Archive
<Participant>
Martina Seitl
Experienced Artist, Co-Director, Innovator, Choreographer, Researcher, Experience Designer and Lecturer
@LundahlSeitl<Participant>
Joe McAlister
Computational Artist & Privacy Advocate
<Participant>
Alan McKendrick
Writer, Director & Translator
<Participant>
Sean Yu
<Participant>
Rachel Alexander
Dramaturge, Lead Collaborator with Lundahl & Seitl
<Participant>
Lewis Hetherington
<Participant>
Rachel Briscoe
Artist, Director, Dramaturg, Producer and co-founder of fanSHEN
<Participant>
Robbie Thomson
Artist working with kinetic sculpture, robotics, sound art and theatre
@robbiefthomson<Participant>
<Participant>
Graham Eatough
Theatre Maker
<Participant>
Chris Cole
Scientist
<Participant>
Rhoda Ellis
Artist, Sculptor & Creative Producer
<Participant>
Joseph DeLappe
Professor of Games and Tactical Media, Abertay University, Dundee
<Participant>
Simon Meek
Writer, Designer & Director