This Side of Reality Brighton Digital Festival | TotallyRadio

Artist Wes Goatley, gallery director Persephone Pearl and producer Laurence Hill discuss Mephitic Air, an installation that took place in ONCA gallery in 2017 during Brighton Digital Festival. Mephitic Air was an installation that visualised and sonified air pollution outside the gallery through a live feed of data taken from a sensor that the artists had placed made. This conversation covers the uses and misuses of data, the installation and attendant programme and the UK's oldest protest song.

Image by Idil Bozkurt.

We think of data as science - indisputable collection of facts.

With machine learning taking over important aspects of our lives, we need to ask: can data ever be neutral? Are we running risks of automating existing biases and prejudice into our digital future?

From big data being used to determine employability, insurance, and criminal convictions, to personalised search results and newsfeeds stifling learning and democracy - we talk about the politics and ethics of data and machine learning.

In this episode, CJ Thorpe talks to:

CHRIS MIDDLETON, Journalist / Author / Robotics Expert / Musician

DR TANYA KANT, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex

DR ARISTEA FOTOPOULOU, Senior Lecturer Media & Communications, University of Brighton

1 in 4 of us experience some form of mental health difficulties every year.

In this episode, we explore how digital technology can be both detrimental to our mind wellbeing, but also a powerful force for good – from self-help and personalised intervention, to data-based medicine.

We talk about the harsh reality of online interaction, the opportunities and risks of self-help apps, the ins and outs of creating a local suicide prevention app, and the future of how we approach mental health as a whole.

Joining us are:

MARK BROWN, Development Director, Social Spider; Guardian writer on mental health issues, former editor of One in Four magazine.

TASHA MANSLEY, Role Models Project, University of Sussex SU, organiser of The Secret Lives of Teens

ALEX HARVEY, Development Officer, Grassroots Suicide Prevention, creators of the Stay Alive app.

Image: Anneka @totallyradio

Surprisingly, we are not all digital natives.

Devices are more affordable, yet there are millions of people in the UK either completely left out, or not making the most out of the digital economy. What are the social effects of digital exclusion? Who are the people and organisations addressing this lack of digital skills in our local community?

In this episode we chat to: Simon Riley (CEO, MakerClub),
Richard Denyer-Bewick (Operations Director, Citizens Online),
Laurence Hill (Festival Director, Brigton Digital Festival)
and Mandy Crandale (Community Employment Specialist, Possability People).

Image: Anneka @totallyradio