 So I'm Irini and I'm based at the Victorian Albert Museum as Laura said and Watermass a gallery in West London and I set up the digital programs team at the P&A in 2008 and then started curating the exhibition program with new media art at Watermass in 2010 so Like since since I started Working like at both places like since the beginning I was I was I have been involved very much with the maker culture, but also with working with technologies and engineers artist designers, so I was very interested in kind of Try and experiment a little bit with a with a museum and like very traditional format and the gallery format to see how We can bring people together to collaborate, but also to Talk discuss critical like have critical discussions about technology and the impact of technology but also Have like give opportunities to Community engage with communities of makers, but also who do not identify as like Makers or designers, etc. and try to work together and bringing professionals together with like the general like public so So this is how Programs like the digital futures came up and I'm just going to talk through about this and a few examples about the work that we've been doing so So digital futures started as some sort of like a networking and exchange and collaboration Enabling platform and it was about and still is about bringing people together from different backgrounds like as I said before like from Humanities, but also engineering making design art, etc. All working with or interested in technology and impact of technology in like culture and society so So the idea behind the the the project was to not To have like to bring in professionals like on a stage as you know like the actors But to get everybody around and start collaborating and working together so some some of the the projects that I want to kind of focus on is these International but also like national exchange and collaborative work, which was very much looking at like Common problems like I don't know like in cities or environments or how we work, etc. or in our homes and try to Bring in like design, but also professional like professionals who work with engineering and making and just to to see how we could Make how could we could make things more relevant to to people to and to everyday life So so we had one of these when we started these projects like one of the first ones that we did was these The one that you see the slide up here and it was actually at an international level and it was an exchange between Mexico City and Dundee and then eventually London and we were very interested in We were very interested in to have discussions about like smart cities and innovation and to to understand a little bit about you know how You know people in communities they what's how they understand innovation or how they invent things in their communities in their homes, etc so So One thing that I should say that I should have said is that one one important like part of how the whole program works And this project in particular is about like slow Making and slow technology and slow processes rather than You know like looking at like fast and consuming Technologies and and objects and products So so it's very much about these collaborations that come together and then we develop work we exchange skills and knowledge and Socializing and then we develop work over time. So what we what we've done with this project was that? we had a group of people from the UK who traveled to Mexico City and They and then and at the same time there was like an open call for like communities in Dundee And the whole idea we first we wanted to gather data about like how what people do in their every Everyday life in the city and the space where they live. So they started collecting over like the period of a month with different With with different institutions in Dundee and Mexico City like different like yes data about what data like from their everyday journey to work to like rubbish collection to science in the city food everything and then we started sharing these This material between the two cities. So and Eventually what happened is that we had a long weekend, which is not really a very long time to for these two cities the communities in both cities to come together online and And start working together. So so first of all in we started with the bit a cora de hacedores in the binocular binocular of makers in in Mexico City, which is a network of of makers and engineers and hackers and it's they what they do is that the purpose is to help Citizens and users in Mexico City to to understand how to best use their resources and spaces to make things and change things so So one the picture on the that you see there of the group on the street was when we we had walking tours in both Spaces like in both cities in Mexico City and Dundee at the same time And another reason for that was that we wanted to first We wanted to find out more about like the make the makers who are not really identifying as makers but like the artisans people who invent things in the in the cities, but they are like slowly lost and Also to understand a little bit more about at an international level about Things that happen in Mexico City and things that happen in in Dundee, which are very very different like 150 Citizens in Dundee like with and 22 million in in Mexico City But we wanted to focus on similar ideas. So for example, I don't know if you can see that slide at the top here So some of the topics that we were interested in was from environmental issues waste food climate change sustainability, etc. And So they spent the whole weekend working together and have live Connections between the the two cities presenting work at its other and talking about the cities And there was a series of projects that came out of that Which then we presented at the V&A and this included like from guides to unknown places in cities which are going beyond like what we What's the the the standard things that we would find on a guide as somebody who is visiting a place or like going after like stereotypes or but also Creating devices for example like yes talking about transport issues at both places, but also Waste, etc. And then there were a few projects that happen in like to Try and connect the two cities like this one with a pink picture there, which is actually a group of like of People of the visitors from the UK with the Mexicans who took part in the events via the open call and They built this abstract device to to connect the two venues that we were using in Dundee and Mexico City And so they so the device was measuring light levels in Dundee and then It was outputting levels the levels in in that space. They are in Mexico City was which is the memorial room It's an it's a massive space in the center of Mexico City so like just Going like continuing on this idea of like trying to work with Bringing together professionals with With communities and Understanding, you know just having this exchange another Project that we did which is kind of continuing in a way from the previous one that I mentioned was the the Unboxed Caravan in In Ahmedabad in India and Unboxed Caravan was a project that was initiated by Unboxed Labs Who are community of designers makers engineers? in and technologies in in Delhi and They have been doing really amazing work with working with people across the country and Doing street events and engaging them in in making hacking technologies and also every like IOT but community led IOT projects. So so this was So Mozilla was also part of this event and British Council which meant that they brought together people from across India and also from the UK and the US and So there was so we worked with this was an even slower event which was great It was it took place over two weeks Which meant that we had plenty of time to go around to meet makers to meet to meet artisans in different areas of Ahmedabad like from textiles to pottery to Printmaking etc. And then we sort of did many collaborations with them We started visiting them every day then spending time with them and then started Building things with them and understanding their traditional ways of making but also how we could bring what they make and in contact with like young Generations and in particular with the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, which has an amazing Spay and an amazing department of interaction design, but also technology So we worked with the students there and the so the project this the pictures that you see there is from Work that we did with the students, but also with community groups. So for example the one at the far right there is It's it's a connected it it was called connected Paul and Paul Paul's in Ahmedabad are the kind of Their space areas in the city where people from this similar from the same families a religion or professions or Artisans live together. So they are clusters of and So so these was they were exploring the So one of the things that we were exploring at the connected Paul was What what makes a connected home or what we were talking about? Internet of things and how this is relevant to communities and people and How we can talk about connectivity in homes, but also with communities and What and of course the main thing that is was central in our work and it still is was this idea of like That's a connected home or a connected community or a space or a city, etc Is about like conversations about people interacting and And about emotions. So it was very like it was very important to keep that human Factor in the in the middle. So these was This was a way for women in the same polls to Send messages to each other like and and communicate the recipes, etc. So it was a very low-tech project and And then just going on after these there was another step to this the same idea of like Again with how Internet of things becomes relevant to two communities in Anstruther with Mozilla open IOT Open IOT studio and and Again, that was where we worked with like it I was not so much involved with that with that project there, but more as a kind of observer, but We are doing another phase at the V&A, which I'm gonna talk about it in a minute so so the idea with that was to work with the in answer there with the Fisher with the local fishermen with young people and farmers and Pro like understand like how they who how they use technology But also how they would like to use it as well in the future So for example a group of teenagers a hacked an old phone box and they because they wanted to create a network for For them in Anstruther where they could communicate and share ideas and share events, etc. And And then we put like a publication together. So Since the people from all these projects like some of them are coming over to the V&A in September on the 24th and 25th where We're doing an open Design sprint which is basically we want it's we want to talk about the future of engineering or like a shared vision about what we want the future of technology and engineering and digital future to be and it's going to be We're going to have like a very open prototyping event, but also discussions and hopefully come up with some sort of ideas at the end and manifesto so I Thought I should just say are also a few other examples of the same from the same series of the project on again on collaborative and international work and one big area of the of themes that I've been exploring at the with this with digital futures is electronic waste and Because electronic waste is like is one of the fastest growing waste streams, especially in the In the global north as we say including the UK so So we had so we have been doing like several gatherings talking about sustainability, but also waste and and and design and This was a project that we wanted to talk about like to talk about the exchange between countries who import and export electronic waste, but also to To talk to bring up the the perspective from like in terms of like workers rights at sea at dump sites for example in in different countries like in Asia or or South America or like or Africa, but also in in in terms of like in way wasting waste recycling sites as well in in in Europe and In in South America. So so what we've done is that we brought together a group of that was led by Daniel Pleuser and We brought together a group of scientists artists Technologies, but also environmentalists as well and we did a series of like workshops at e-waste recycling sites with people working there and So we we did some we spent some time with them working at this at the sites in Nigeria and Hong Kong as well and in in the UK in Kent at sweep and And then we had like Conversations and public discussions about all these exchanges and and and research and talking about like Production and consumption, but also as I said before like people at the sites where electronic recycling is taking place so so one of these outcomes was An event that happened with the restart project and I'm sure some of you will be familiar with the restart project and it's it's a great collective in in based in London and The at maker of versity and they have been running these repair sessions around the country but also they have links with people abroad as well and they also help people to Set up their own repair sessions so so we we kind of brought in them we brought them into the v&a and then we had like a half a day repair session, but also we wanted to Get to to and we wanted to to to have discussions with what happens like Outside like with in Africa for example in particular in in Kenya in Nairobi So we had this live where there are loads of groups. So instead of you know looking at the We just wanted to go over this vision of the of the Western world of Africa as just simply a place where you know People dump usually the electronic waste, but look at their inventiveness and all the these repair workshops that they have and the the sustainable way that they have to to recycle E-waste so so we were talking about this utopian vision of like zero zero waste If that can ever happen and understand a little bit how it works in in a place like Nairobi for example So we had these live discussions with the The repair shops over there and then we had the the actual repair workshop at the v&a and Just continuing of this Like theme of e-waste. It was that was a Project that I did at not at the v&a But in the in the other space where I'm working at Watermass and I was very interested in like using the idea of like the space the gallery as a space to to bring people in and Make it again like an active space and talk about important issues like in this case e-waste. So I Don't know if you are familiar with Paul Grandzon's work. He works a lot with robotics and recycled material and he has been this this a series of workshops that he's been running called rexops and What we've done was that we this is what we wanted to do with the gallery space to create like an ongoing rexop So rexops is are these series of events where you invite people to Use a combination of recycled technologies and open source electronics and create and build things but what we actually did was that we wanted to To use to find first of all to give people an idea of how much e-waste we have around us So we brought in the gallery and a mountain of e-waste that we found at Watermass But also in the local area and we invited people to bring their own e-waste and some of them did And also we invited to like locals because that was a series of a project that we did with local residents and So so they were quite if there were loads of people who have been working with like bike bikes Repairs or like building machines, etc. So it was great to have them in and then built and create things together So so it was like an e-waste upcycling unit in in the space for for a couple of months And these were the two the this is not the work that they created This was work that Paul Granzon brought in the space, which is very typical of what he does. So so there is Here first the first one is this is called biting machine and it's like a recycled VCR and Scooter electric scooter and what he does is that it has sensors and people it kind of fall tries to find people and like actually go after them and bite them and so so it's So he's very interested in these relations between like Human and machine, but also and tensions as well And the other one is works in a similar way the auto the autonomous robotic gun again it scans the space and then when it finds people then it shoots at them and We unfortunately we had to to take this down after a few days because it was somebody tried to To take it from the gallery and they probably thought it was a real gun I don't know so and these these are some of the a couple of examples of what people build during the these rex ops in the gallery and The it's a geranium life support system and so so so we use like a broken laptops and To create that like thing of the top of the geranium which is covered by daylight approximation LED lighting system and And then there is there was a sensor in the pot to to detect the dampness in the soil and And actually water as a plant and the plants had to the plants had to survive in the gallery without light and For almost six weeks and they did at the end and but so so what we had which you can't see in this picture was a pump To which was to activate it for the to water the plant and the pump was activated via a peddle Pedal system that was built in the gallery as well And it was it was like a handmade it was like a bike generator which was built with help from the guys at the guy who had these bike repairs place and So it was actually visitors in the space. They had to site to cycle to To water the the actual plant and it did it did work So something else I'm not keeping track of time. So maybe you can okay, so so something else that goes a bit in a in a more kind of Futuristic scenario of in terms of like not not exactly waste, but also environmental issues issues is this project that Has been developed is ongoing and has been developed in collaboration with different universities across the UK and it's called this project called cleaning land for wells and It's from the EPS RC It's yeah, it's like it's funded by the EPS RC and They have been working the scientists involved in the in the project They have put they have brought on board these artists designers who have who have been working a lot in the digital futures program at the V&A and They they wanted they were interested to find a way to come to help the public understand what they were doing so so these Cleaning land for wealth is basically a project where they have been Interested in doing research to understand how we can recover valuable nano metals from from the soil so so Michael Barton and it's equal need a who have been working they have been collaborating with them They came to the V&A and they built these instruments and to that kind of explain the process of the Of that the scientists are using to recover the the nano metals But also like by the biotechnology behind that so but also it's There is another phase to the project which is coming back to the V&A in September again And it's looking at a more kind of like speculative and Like future scenario of how if eventually, you know, we have to you know through the food to consume all these Substances like then how are you know if there is If we can look at the post like the extreme possibility of like redesigning like organs in the body, you know to help To help to help us digest for example of these these substances So it's a speculative project I'm not how much time I've got five minutes. Okay, so So maybe I'll go. Okay, so just a couple of sorry. Let me see. Good. Okay, so I've got three more slides anyway so so another another Area that we have been Interested in and looking at is data and but also Like currencies and how we understand Currencies and in the in a digital world. So we've done we had Heidi Heim there on for six months to work with with with the museum with different professionals around the museum, but also with the public and we just wanted to have discussions about About don't yet about the the value of public organizations and arts organizations and also You know how we can understand Like for example the value of like art and design and when people come through the doors in in a public space like the V&A so so we've been and so in order to get like to have this quite quite abstract discussions we designed a series of prototypes and wearables and that people could use to make Donation to the V&A. So that these was like a series of Gloves or like Bads and there was a top dancing machine as well And it was based on different gestures. So we were looking at interaction as a way of like transaction transacting money but also Looking at the ideas of like for example Yeah, like how how we can go beyond like the money as an object how we can look at societies For example who exchange money without like money by exchanging different You know products or like thinking of alternative ways of Exchanged basically and and value So so what what how these work that was like a basic like a basic like RFID The device with scanners so it was every time you did a handshake with someone or a high five So the idea was that we would use that at the shop or the cafe at the V&A And that was a way for people to actually give pay for their for the make a transaction and Or donate money to the museum so we had a series of Events bringing in economies at the at the museum as well and also outside But also people who work with Let's say yeah hacking Finance or money or interested in kind of you know looking at alternative ways of of Exchanged and and transactions So we did a series of prototyping events building or understanding You know how we could imagine different systems in in these kind of scenarios and This is an an ongoing project So we are hoping that The prototypes are still There and running, but we're hoping that we can eventually build an Alternative donation system for the museum that people can use I don't know if it's going to be based on these wearables or like prototypes might become something different But that was just like an initial way to give us an idea of what might come up What we might come up with and so Just to go back to the to and just to close also to these Using the the museum for example as a space to have these critical discussions about making but also outside the museum Not necessarily at the V&A always and as I said I was involved with a group of people in the mini maker fair in in London the elephant castle mini maker fair a few years ago and But after doing a couple of Events the fairs we thought that it was really important to do to start up like a space where we could have These very important discussions about maker culture and talk about for example Center, but also like Dave like diversity activism Etc. So so we set up maker assembly, which is a gathering that we have been doing now since October 2015 and The the next one the sorry the the last one that we did was a few just two days three days ago in Seffield and This is where this is coming from and I'm sorry. It's really bad this slide, but We've been talking about activism and Consequences and home. So for example, how I'm Looking at from historical maker movements to the present day how tech craft And making have come together or have been used as a as tools for change, but also Look exploring like what people do and what we can do in the future to make an impact and finally We were looking at the idea of like home as well But in terms of like, you know community but also like small groups and how people use Making a tech to take control over their lives their communities their space, etc Which is again is linked to the work that we've been doing with the open IOT as well So this is this slide is from a timeline that we started doing at the event in Seffield and Basically, we're trying to it's very long now It's four meters and it's going to grow even longer But we are trying to we were inviting people at the in Seffield at the maker assembly event to help us put like create this timeline of important of Like what happened like from when they remember or any information they they have to create like a crowdsourced crowdsourced history of maker Culture in the UK, but also have included important thing events from Everywhere around the world. So so this is just in is an on paper right now But we're hoping to put it on on github or just do like an online version where we could Gather more information and have this timeline available on the on the maker assembly website and and share it with everyone and The next event that we're doing will be in Manchester and it will be just before the crafts council makes shift Conference so it's and it's it will be an opportunity to bring a different crowd to the to the space over there and discuss like Have discussions of parallel to that to the conference And just to close here, we've been so we've been trying to have like different groups coming into the museum But going outside as well. So all these sessions they they're not running just at the V&A because I always thought that it's very important to It gates with the communities with people. So it's a traveling like event in a way So it's been going to places from Dundee to Like Seville, but also in East London South London, but also as part of festivals and University events etc and also abroad and And Yeah, and this is a way for like creating a bridge between the a very kind of traditional and formal institution with Communities of people who make things create things invent things and engineer things So so yeah, so if you if you happen to be in London on the 24th and 25th of September come to the open IOT event and Hope we we are hoping that people can help us Create this sort of like not manifesto, but maybe like this third Understanding of what we want, you know the future of like the digital future to be or how we want to use technology And that's it from me. Thank you