Spatial ideology and speculative spaces for critical education and performance
Abstract This talk will question uncritical ideologies relating to AI, immersion and corporate constructs such as the 'metaverse', instead, Eleanor will discuss Forensic AI, Brechtian Alienation and the spatial nature of Machine Learning as well as Deleuze's construct of the virtual as potential. Eleanor will evidence how arts-based approaches which pay great attention to the materiality of digital spaces and their entanglement with neo-liberalism (and other trajectories) can truly challenge orthodoxy without resorting to the cliched language and limited framings so often entangled with contemporary constructs of 'innovation' and 'disruption'.
Eleanor Dare
Dr Eleanor Dare is currently the interim Convenor for MPhil Arts, Creativity and Education at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education, they are also a Methods Fellow with Cambridge Digital Humanities and the Senior Teaching Associate: Educational Technologies, Arts and Creativity. Eleanor is also module lead for AI and Education, a Personal and Professional Development course at Cambridge. Eleanor is the co-founder with Dr Dylan Yamada-Rice of the Storytelling studio and consultancy, X||rdinary Stories, working with industry and academia to research and develop experiential projects involving emerging technologies. Eleanor is an active developer of Games, AI and VR content, a computer programmer with an MSc and PHD in Arts and Computational Technology.
Eleanor was formerly Reader in Digital Media and Head of Programme for MA Digital Direction at the RCA. Eleanor has extensive experience with by practice investigation of AI, interaction design and digital education. Eleanor has taken part in numerous exhibitions and has published dozens of papers addressing computation, AI, Education, Games and digital interaction. These include chapters in MIT’s Leonardo, ACM Interactions, Routledge, Sage and Intellect Books.
Specific research projects include: 2023-2024 UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, Digital Voices of the Future: Children's visions of future UK treescapes revealed through gaming. 2023-24 ESRC Digital Good Network. 2023 AHRC Future of Broadcast. 2022, Pathways Digital, Cambridge University. Art Fair Innovations, AHRC/EPRSC, Shanghai and London, 2019: AHRC/ESRC 2019 UK-Japan network focused on location-based VR for children.