Dr Ian Dawson – Fat Fingers

Ian Dawson is an artist and educator. He has exhibited worldwide, lectures at Winchester School of Art and is the programme leader of The MASS sculpture mentoring programme.  His background in sculpture (Making Contemporary Sculpture, Crowood Press, 2012) has led to research focusing on the intersection between 3D additive processes and digital imaging technologies. He has recently contributed to a unique set of art/archaeology projects which explores the creative applications of cultural heritage imaging techniques (Diffracting Digital Images, Routledge 2021).

Dr Laura Cinti – AI in the Sky

Dr Laura Cinti is an artist at C-LAB and research fellow at University of Southampton. In 2011, she received her PhD in Fine Art from UCL with Slade School of Fine Art in an interdisciplinary capacity with UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging. Her recent project involves thee use of drones equipped with multispectral cameras and AI to search for one of the rarest plants in the world.

Dr Seth Giddings – The Machine Wants to Play

Seth Giddings is Associate Professor of Digital Culture & Design at Winchester School of Art. His research and teaching address playful technologies from videogames, toys and play equipment to interactive art and environments. His books include Toy Theory: technology and imagination in play (2024) and Gameworlds: virtual media and children’s everyday play (2014).  

Dave Gibbons – Park Life*

Dave Gibbons is the Specialist photography technician at Winchester School of Art and a visual artist who works predominately between photography and collage to seek narratives and explore ideas around emotional attachments to found ephemera and objects and their impact on and by the environment.

A recent area of investigatory research serves to pursue creative imaginings using AI text to image and prompt crafting techniques to explore the possibilities with this method of photographic image making.

Alice Janssens – Generating Fashion: Towards Digital Futures

Alice Janssens is a Lecturer in Fashion Marketing and Management at Winchester School of Art. She is completing a PhD in the Business History of the Fashion at Erasmus University Rotterdam and has worked as a strategic consultant for fashion and creative businesses in the UK and Europe. Her research examines the production, dissemination, consumption, and geographies of fashion. This demonstration forms part of her “Digital Fashion in Practice: Applications and Longevity” project undertaken in collaboration with University of the Arts London.

Dr Kevin Brazil – Storytime with AI

Kevin Brazil is an academic and writer who teaches English at the University of Southampton. His essays and short stories have appeared in Granta, Frieze, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, Art Review, Tolka, and The White Review, where he is a Contributing Editor.  

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His book, Whatever Happened to Queer Happiness? was published by Influx Press in 2022. 

Dr Luci Eldridge – Robot Visions and Virtual Interfacings: seeing, sensing, shaping

Luci Eldridge is an artist, writer and Lecturer in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, where she specialises in printmaking, critical image theory and cross-disciplinary practice. Her personal practice and research are concerned with the scientific visioning of landscape as seen from satellites or through the cameras on spacecraft and rovers on other worlds.

Her work combines traditional printmaking techniques, lens-based media and collage, with fictional visualisations constructed in 3D software, 3D printing, and projection. She is co-director of Robot Futures, a research group exploring the practices and implications of robotic seeing and sensing. Luci has a PhD in Critical and Historical Studies and an MA in Print- making, both from the Royal College of Art.  

Dr Benjamin Oliver – Love Letters [with AI]

Benjamin Oliver is a composer, conductor and jazz pianist. He is Associate Professor in Composition at the University of Southampton. More than sixty of his works have been performed by performers including Ensemble Paramirabo (Canada), London Sinfonietta, Yshani Perinpanayagam, Dorothy Chan (USA), Riot Ensemble, Elizabeth Kenny, Ivo Neame, Laefer Quartet and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Ben’s work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, recorded and released by labels including Linn, Prima Facie and Coviello Contemporary and twice selected by scorefollower. Loop Concerto was nominated in the Contemporary Jazz category of the British Composer Awards 2017 and Drip Feeder was shortlisted for the British section for the ISCM World New Music Days Festival 2024.

Dr Pablo Galaz – Human-like Inclinations: Composing a multimedia live installation with AI

Pablo has been a composer in residence at the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), the Liszt School of Music Weimar (Germany), and the Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris. His music has been performed at several festivals in Latin America, the United States, Australia and Europe by renowned ensembles and musicians, such as the Chilean Symphonic Orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Ensemble Itinéraire, the Ensemble Aleph, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Ensemble Proton Bern, the ensemble Vertixe Sonora, the ensemble Iberoamericano, the Ensemble Auditivvokal Dresden, the Ensemble Multilatérale, the Elision Ensemble, the Ensemble Adapter, and the Schallfeld ensemble, among others.

Dr Adam Procter – WetAI Lab: PaintR

Dr. Adam Procter is the Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Games Design & Art and Principal Teaching Fellow at Winchester School of Art (WSA). He also sometimes gets the chance to make Apps, Web stuff and works as UX and UI designer, developer and consultant. 

Dr. Adam Procter researches collaborative design practice and networked technology. In particular, he focuses on its use in teaching and learning and how ‘delightful’ (digital) design tools can enhance knowledge-building and collaborative practice. His PhD investigates how to create tools for design education that are born digital, augmenting the design studio culture.

Professor Les Carr – Comedy performances

Professor Les Carr is Professor of Web Science at University of Southampton and a deputy director of the Web Science Institute.

Anna George – Afternoon Comedy Performance

Anna George thought she was just a generic scientist, but turns out she’s so much less. She decided to write some jokes and become a comedian. By day she creates AI models as a researcher at Oxford, and by night she decodes the humour of science. Chortle Student Comedy Award Finalist 2024.

Alice Morrell – Afternoon Comedy Performance

Alice Morrell is a data scientist, an adventurer and a funny person on a mission to decode animal behaviour using tech.

Jacqui Ayling – Afternoon Comedy Performance

Jacqui Ayling is a Research Funding Manager at the University of Southampton’s Research and Innovation service.

Jo Grundy – Afternoon Comedy Performance

Jo Grundy is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Southampton who has learned to see the funny side of machine learning.

William Hunt – Afternoon Comedy Performance

William Hunt is a postgraduate student from the MINDS CDT at Southampton University who studies robot swarms and comedy audiences.

Bill Thompson, BBC Technology journalist (Chair)

As a journalist and broadcaster, Bill Thomson has been following the modern data revolution from its beginnings in the 1990s.

Professor Steve Benford, University of Nottingham

Steve Benford has been working at the interface of engineering, mixed reality and music since the 1990s.

Professor Dave De Roure, University of Oxford/Royal Northern College of Music

Dave De Roure, a distinguished computer scientist and avid jazz bassist, teaches at Oxford and the Royal Northern College of Music.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall FRS, University of Southampton

Regius Professor of Computer Science, world-leading computer scientist and expert on AI policy.

Professor Emily Howard, The Royal Northern College of Music

A leading UK composer, is founding director of PRiSM, the Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Steve Lehmann, Orchestre Nationale de Jazz

“One of the transforming figures of early 21st century jazz” – The Guardian.

Fred Maurin, Orchestre Nationale de Jazz

Composer, band leader and guitarist, is Artistic Director of the Orchestre Nationale de Jazz.