Lighthouse, 28 Kensington Street
Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK

This public event on 28 September 2016 explored how society and digital technology can shape each other for the common good. The event, part of the Brighton Digital Festival, is part of of our Transformations series of events.

Materials produced from this event

Blog: What can we learn from digital transformations?
by Nathan Oxley and Adrian Smith, 7 October 2016

Storify: Tweets and images from the event (Storify.com)

Photos: Picture gallery (Flickr.com)

About the event

For many of us, digital technologies have been revolutionary. Yet at the same time, some feel disenchanted with the consequences.

The digital is cast increasingly as an instrument of surveillance, or a tool for disciplining ‘gig economies’, and a material burden upon our environment and climate.

In this event, we want to re-enchant the digital. We’ll reconnect with the utopian spirit of early pioneers, and discuss aspirations and activities today for a sustainable, democratic, weightless, and liberating digital society. A panel of writers and researchers will each give their view on how we can become re-enchanted with digital technologies.

You’ll have a chance to discuss the developers, users and movements from around the world that are making digital technologies more co-operative, easier to repair and repurpose, and working with people to develop digital technologies for sustainable developments.

We’ll also look back at lessons from the last 40 years, such as the free software movement, hacklabs, Web utopias, and Scandinavian models for worker-controlled systems design. Who, what, and where are the heirs to that pioneering spirit, and how is it manifesting today?

The event is part of the 2016 Brighton Digital Festival.

Chair

Andrew Sleigh, Producer, Lighthouse and Maker Assembly

Speakers

Ann Light, Professor of Design & Creative Technology (Engineering and Design), University of Sussex (@StrangertoHabit)

Tim Jordan, Professor of Digital Cultures, University of Sussex

Caroline Bassett, Director, Sussex Humanities Lab

Kat Braybrooke, Researcher, University of Sussex (@codekat)

Adrian Smith, Professor of Technology & Society, Science Policy Research Unit and STEPS Centre, University of Sussex (@smithadrianpaul)

Organiser info

For more details and other events in the Festival, visit the Brighton Digital Festival website.

This event is organised by the ESRC STEPS Centre, Sussex Humanities Lab and the Creative Technology Research Group and is part of a series on Transformations.

About the Transformations series

When in the past have societies made rapid transitions, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence?

The Transformations series, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition.

See the Transformations event series page for more details.

Image: Camden Restart Party in Dartmouth Park by Restart Project (Flickr cc by-nc 2.0)