Public Engagegment
Piloting Methods
Ritual, Dance, Ethics
Dancing with the Troubles
Malé Luján Escalante
Luke Robert Moffat
Lizzie Harrison, Art & Design, UWE
Viv Kuh, Responsible Innovation, University of Bristol
Dancing with the Trouble is a call to rehearse with our bodies rituals for anticipating, noticing, and addressing ethical tensions — to nurture a mindset of collaborative creativity and radical care. Beyond the duties of data management, privacy, justice, sustainability and diversity, we aim to support capacities to respond to uncertainty with music, movement and the creation of Radical Emancipatory Values.
The ritual started online, in the midst of the pandemic, framed by little Zoom boxes. Mildly exhausted from endless virtual conferences on ethics of AI, we decided to explore ways of embodying ethics, instead of just talking about it. In collaboration with street dancers, aikido masters, HIIT trainers and choreographers, we created a series of 12 values with accompanying movements that could be danced on screen.
Inspired by Indigenous AI Protocols, Donna Haraway and ritual design, together we celebrate rituals embracing the magical, illogical, delightful and laughable to inspire healthier AI.
Together we are building on this ritual to design a novel pedagogy for teaching responsible innovation and circumspect reflection in universities, industry and beyond.
We have celebrated the ritual online and in person in:
DRS Pivot Conference
Pluriversal Ways of Knowing
MozFest
Response-ability Summit
Care Pavilion, London Design Biennale
Arts, Activism and Social Justice Summer School, University of Bristol
Architecture School, Lancaster University
Digital Cultures BA, Lancaster University
Hear more about the ritual on the Human Show Podcast here
Read more about the ritual on our Pivot paper:
Luján Escalante, M. A., Moffat, L., Harrison, L., & Kuh, V. (2021). Dancing with the Troubles of AI. Design Research Society available here
See more about our celebration at the London Design Biennale below:
