What is Beta Society?
Chris Follows
Artist, co-founder at artsXR and Emerging Technologies Lead at CCW, University of the Arts London (UAL)
Beta Society supports greater diversity and equality of opportunity in the development and access of technology, education and the arts.
Through collaboration, partnerships, debate and action, Beta Society aims to explore the pervasive impacts of technology on our everyday lives and address the ever-increasing disconnect & in-equalities we see in the development and access of technology, education and the arts, across society.
The below article highlights the Beta Society development and the amazing launch event at Tate Exchange, between 5-10 March 2019, where Beta Society event partners & guests welcomed and actively engaged 2437 members of public.
Development of Beta Society
Over the past six months, the Digital Maker Collective (DMC), an open group of University of the Arts London UAL staff, students, alumni, have been developing a project called ‘Beta Society’ in collaboration with 5 partner/associates, including: LionHeart In The Community (LITC), Black Thrive, Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Happy Finish and Open Design & Manufacturing (OD&M).
Between October 2018 and March 2019, the DMC met with the above event partner/associates (not all together, mostly in pairs) to explore collaboration possibilities.
Over this time, there was an ongoing period of getting to know each other and building of relationships, establish trust and to help us understand each other’s motivations for collaboration.
Image above: Natalie Bell Workshop, equal opportunity, social mobility, diversity, social engagement & youth work, for UAL Staff, Students & Alumni at Camberwell College of Arts.
Image above: Meeting at Happy Finish HQ in Hoxton, London
Tate Exchange
The Digital Maker Collective are Tate Exchange founding associates, and have already completed two DMC Tate Exchange events, talking over Level 5, Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern:
- 2017: DIGITAL MAKING ART SCHOOL See Tate website
- 2018: ARTS WORK OF THE FUTURE See Tate website
The past two DMC Tate Exchange events have been primarily focused on emerging technologies and the impacts of tech on arts education and work for creatives.
For Tate Exchange 2019 we wanted to flip our approach to the event and move away from being technology led or the arts & the DMC being the primary focus of the event and instead concentrate more on the social issues & challenges identified by our event community leaders, organisations and charity partner/associates. Although technology was not our starting point, the pervasive impacts of technology on our everyday lives continually influenced our debates & activities.
The general Tate Exchange event theme had been set in advance of meeting the Beta Society partner/associates and this helped us establish the focus of the Beta Society concept.
The overall partner/associates goal was the Beta Society launch event at Tate Exchange although our primary collective focus was focused on identifying and agreeing a specific set of community/charity led agendas & provocations that we could all work towards.
What happens when you bring together ....
.... an inspiring group of community leaders, organisations, charities, a ground-breaking creative tech studio, an international Open Design & Manufacturing knowledge alliance and a Collective of Creative Tech Digital Makers?
The Tate Exchange Beta Society event had 2 main spaces for: Action & Debate
Action Space: Co-production space, with workshops and activities led in collaboration with BETA Society event partners.
Debate Space: A space for presentations, discussions and debate. Invited guests will share their perspectives and experience, encouraging open conversations around social practice, inclusion and diversity.
Tuesday 5th March 2019: We are ...
This was the first time all six of the event partner/associates came together. The day was dedicated to meeting each other and included a mash up of the activities and themes we explored throughout the week with the public.
Image above: Trying out workshop ideas in the Action
Image below: OD&M students from CSM MA Industrial Design students reflecting on the Charlton Street Open Design and Manufacture project and its trajectory into self-directed research in social design practice.
Image above: OD&M students from CSM MA Industrial Design students worked with the public all week adapting their open design skills to the various challenges & agendas.
Image above: Debate space on the first day
Image above: partner/associates LITC, Black Thrive & CRIN presentations on the first day
Wednesday 6th March 2019: BETA Utopia
The theme BETA Utopia agenda was set by CRIN – Child Rights International Network, where we invited the public to re-imagine the world we are fighting for - rather than against. Exploring themes such as the environment, tech and surveillance, citizenship rights and a world without borders.
Was great to be visited by BBC Tech Tent Rory Cellan-Jones who interviewed Frederike Kaltheuner who was our very many inspiring guest #childrights #surveillance
Image below: In the Action space the DMC, LITC, OD&M all responded to the CRIN agenda, CRIN also invited event guest including a team from Little Inventors.
The Debate space included presentations from:
- Children's Rights and the Environment Nick Mole, Pesticide Action Network
- Who's Watching You? Children Under Constant Surveillance Frederike Kaltheuner, Privacy International and Jen Perrson, Director Defend Digital Me.
- Give Children the Right to Vote! Danielle Rowley, MP, and the British Youth Council
Thursday 7th March 2019: Common Language
The theme Common Language agenda was set by LionHeart ITC and Black Thrive where we explored forms and data Jargon, drawing out truths hidden within statistics and corporate language codes, variations of the English language, accents and dialects, chatbots, emoji communication, stories of people from local communities, reflect on perception and power of an image.
Image above: exploring virtual language with DMC
The Debate space included presentations from:
- Welfare and the Digital Lie: Problems of Digital Exclusion for the Poor and Vulnerable in the UK Paul Atherton FRS
- Exploring the Theme of Common Language Lionheart ITC and Victoria Cabral, Black Thrive
- Emerging Technologies and the Potential Impacts on Society Happy Finish, Daniel Cheetham
- Theatre is Ordinary: Performance, Participation and Social Engagement Professor Adrian Kear, Programme Development Director, Performance
Friday 8th March 2019
The theme Gender Diversity in Creative Tech agenda was set by the female members of Digital Maker Collective, University of the Arts London in association with International Women's Day. Agenda and Provocations being explored: Has access to tech learning changed for the better? What are our strategies of self-learning? How can the avatar be more representative of our society? Are there enough opportunities for minority artists in creative tech?
Image below: Members of the DMC promoted creative tech learning for the Alternative Career Fair at Tate Modern on International Women’s Day. Students spoke to Francis Morris, Director of Tate Modern about DMC opportunities for women in tech.
It was a great opportunity to promote diversity and knowledge exchange in emerging tech to young people considering their career. It was wonderful to provide an accessible learning resource to people who didn’t know where to start.
Feedback from Tate from the Alternative Career Fair: We had a great turnout (approx. 2000 visitors) over the course of the day – and have had really positive feedback from visitors. Many said they came away feeling inspired or had discovered something new, and a few specifically mentioned how useful face to face conversations at the stalls were.
The Debate space included presentations from:
- My period is my power - To re-image periods as a superpower and to reframe it in a positive way - Safiya Ahmed and Basma Osman
- Designing an Inclusive Education and Outreach Strategy - Ronald Macintyre
- Socialisation and Social Mobility - Social Performance Network
- Is British Theatre Truly Accessible to the Working-Class? What Potential does Digital Technology have to Change it? Common panel debate Chair: David Loumgair
- Perspectives of Women in Technology and Creative Industries - UAL students & Alumni from the Digital Maker Collective
Saturday 9th March 2019
The weekend was a mashup weekend, a chance to make sense of the BETA Society event themes explored throughout the week.
The Weekend was very busy with over 1000 public visitors.
- Presenting the Activities of KOBAKANT: 'Soft Electronics' Exploring Data Ownership and Future Technology Mika Satomi
- What if Education was Socially Just? Ronald Macintyre
- What if design education was open? OD&M open design, citizen centered innovation across Europe Adam Thorpe
- Reflecting and recognizing experience-based learning:
- Open Design and Manufacture workshop Matt Malpass, OD&M
Sunday 10th March 2019
- Warmup: Preparing for other realities with three simple exercises - Robyn Herfellow and Margaret
- Workshop: Starting a Social Enterprise - Natalie Bell workshop from Coin Street Community Builders (70 min)
Find out more about the Beta Society event partner/associates:
- Digital Maker Collective (DMC): an open group of University of the Arts London UAL staff, students, alumni, who share common goals of exploring digital and emerging technologies.
- LionHeart In The Community (LITC): Empowering Local Communities through Sport, Apprenticeships and International Youth Exchange.
- Black Thrive: People of African and Caribbean descent suffer disproportionately when it comes to mental health and wellbeing
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN): new and dynamic perspectives on human rights issues, with a focus on children’s rights.
- Happy Finish: ground-breaking creative studio, making new things in new ways. Retouch, CGI, XR, AI, Motion, VFX, Animation
- Open Design & Manufacturing (OD&M): A knowledge alliance co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
At the end of this week-long event, we hope to establish the foundations to build a new sustainable future for the Beta Society, where we can continue meaningful and long-term engagement beyond the event.
For the full week-long programme or how to keep connected with the Beta Society please visit the event website: https://betasociety.org and follow the event #betasociety hashtag.
Beta Society Event Supported By:
OD&M Open Design & Manufacturing: A knowledge alliance of students, professors, researchers, makers, entrepreneurs and creative practitioners distributed across Europe and China. This OD&M programme has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
Teaching and Learning Fund: The University of the Arts (UAL) fund supports education projects designed to make a difference to the quality of students’ learning and/or employability, and to increase attainment.
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