“Shifting Power” is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship project exploring the long-term impacts of AI, particularly those that do not centre (primarily) White, Western European notions of innovation, morality and justice.
To help us explore the future of this technology, and the consequences we expect it to have on people, society, the planet and beyond, the Shifting Power team is hosting a symposium on what happens “After AI”.
As part of our current explorations into the topic with researchers and enthusiasts from all over the world, we have learned that our understanding of AI and its impacts is often coupled with a sense of urgency, what’s right in front of our faces, the real and present impacts of AI now and in the near future. With this event, we want to look further.
We are therefore asking you to use whatever form of prediction you find relevant – science, intuition, divine inspiration, prophecy, astrology, folklore, etc. – and help us explore the question:
What do you see happening After AI?
We want to imagine a world in which all of our dreams and nightmares about AI have come to pass. How have they come to pass, and what can we recognise right now and from the past that makes this future happen? We have a long history, globally, of examining the present and the past through the future. We want this event to be an interdisciplinary and holistic exploration of the future After AI. We welcome anyone who has something to share, be they academics, technology enthusiasts or luddites, artists, activists, healers, etc.
Format Of The Event
The symposium will be held online, over Zoom, with BSL interpretation. It is entirely free to participate. We are planning to have 10-12 presentations during the day, with plenty of breaks and time for discussion. As it will be a long day and attention can be difficult for such a long period, we will encourage participants to move if they are able, to spend time outside, and to come and go as their schedules and energy allow. If you have another accessibility need, please write to a member of the program committee, and we will address accommodations to the best of our ability.
We aim to provide a forum for presentations and focused discussions from a diverse cohort of contributors with different epistemological, cultural and social backgrounds.
In particular, given the overall goals of our project, we want to highlight contributions from those who experience discrimination, marginalisation or peripheralization in society. Therefore, the program committee (see below) will curate submissions to facilitate stimulating discussion, surface novel contributions, and highlight hidden perspectives.
Submission Guidelines
The submission format will be a 10-15 sentence abstract that describes either an audio/visual presentation or a planned paper that you would like to contribute to the event. Your abstract should describe how you plan to explore what happens “After AI”. Only those abstracts selected by the program committee will be asked to submit a full-length paper of 5-8 pages or an outline for a 10-15 minute presentation.
Some submission proposals that are not selected for an individual presentation may be deemed appropriate for a panel discussion. If you are comfortable with being considered for the panel, please include this in your submission.
- The submission form is here.
- The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 March 2024
- Please direct any questions to farrell@open.ac.uk
- Applicants will be informed about acceptance in mid-April.
- Symposium event is May 17th, 2024
Symposium Organisers And Program Committee
Organisers:
Dr. R. Justin Hunt is an artist, lecturer, and producer. He is currently a Senior Relationship Manager at Arts Council England and an Academic Partnership Manager for Victoria College of Arts and Design, in London. He is a Cultural Advocacy Fellow at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and External Examiner at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow. Hunt was previously a Research Practitioner at the Open University in the Knowledge Media Institute and Adjunct Professor of Film, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Syracuse University, London. His current research is on the after effects of sex and performance, primarily focussed on after parties as sites of intimate knowledge exchange.
Dr.Tracie Farrell is a Research Fellow at the Open University and recipient of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (Round 6). Her transdisciplinary, mixed methods research explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society, including impacts on people, their communities, and the wider ecosystems in which they live. Before her academic career, Tracie worked for 18 years in the non-formal education sector on issues related to human rights, gender, leadership and citizenship.
Program Committee:
Riv Rosenfeld – is a Berlin based visual and performance artist who works in film/video, performance, and experimental writing practice. Their work addresses the sustainability of emotional and political ecologies, cruising methodologies, past and future histories in regard to the ways in which memory is queered.
Dr. Venetia Brown – is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in mixed methods at the Knowledge Media Institute in the Open University. Her current research focuses on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and justice intersections, using Grounded Theory to investigate the impacts of AI from the perspective of queer, marginalised and peripheralized communities. Her research interests include the pedagogies of ethical AI, evaluating educational technologies and Scholarship for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Retno Larasati – is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Knowledge Media Institute in the Open University. Her research interest is focused on trust, explainable AI, and AI ethics. Her current interest is around new methodologies and approaches that can be used to identify and measure key factors in an ecological understanding of AI and its impacts.
Serena Coppolino Perfumi – Is a Computational Social Scientist, who also specialises in Human-Computer-Interaction and user experience. Her previous research has explored the ways in which social media users understand and deal with disinformation.
Dr. Aisling Third – Dr. Third is a Research Fellow at the Open University specialising in the Decent Web. She is interested in the use of semantic technologies and natural language semantics and generation to improve both intelligent systems and services, and human interactions with them. Her background is in formal semantics and philosophy, and she explores the use of practical computing applications to feed back into theoretical advances, and vice versa.
Dr. Bukola Oyinloye – Dr. Oyinloye is a post-doctoral researcher at York University where she examines the doctoral recruitment and selection landscape for British applicants from minoritised ethnic groups. Her research spans equity and diversity in access to higher education; ethics and indigenous epistemologies.
