Digital Maker Collective, University of the Arts London are a Founding Associate of Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London.

Tate Exchange, Level 5, Blavatnik Building, Tate Modern: A space for everyone to collaborate, test ideas and discover new perspectives on life, through art. The overarching theme for the Tate Exchange programme year 2017/18 is ‘Production’ which can be interpreted as we wish, and to help frame ideas we are looking through the lenses of Value, Material, Transformation and Knowledge. Read More.

Following the success of the Digital Maker Collective, Digital Making Art School events at Tate Modern, Tate Exchange in 2017, which included 150 staff & students and over 2,000 public visitors, we are really pleased to be invite you to join the Digital Maker Collective in planning the programme for Tate Exchange 2018:

On Friday 26 January 2018 the Digital Maker Collective were invited to activate the 4th Floor Boiler House, Tate Modern as part of Uniqlo Tate Late event, which this month was programmed in collaboration with the Tate Exchange Associates. See Images: Uniqlo Tate Lates Jan 2018

We are currently in the process of developing our Tate Exchange week long residency event 6-11 March: See Tate Exchange 6-11 March 2018 Programme

Arts Work of the Future

6 – 11 March 2018, Tate Exchange

Get hands on with exploring the role of technology in the arts and join us in questioning and re-thinking its impact in our lives

Help us reimagine the role of the arts in an age of rapid technological change and explore how, through the arts, we can move beyond everyday consumption and technology as a spectacle. Together let’s challenge the mainstream, say the unsaid and address inclusion, integration and the production of technology in our lives, society, work, education – and in the arts.

The Digital Maker Collective and invited guest contributors from across the globe will transform Tate Exchange into a large public tech innovation hub, a space to get hands-on with technology exploration and rapid prototyping, and discover new forms of collaborative digital making experimentation. The full week-long event programme will be posted and updated daily on digitalmakercollective.org website and on the #artsworkofthefuture hashtag.

The floor of Tate Exchange will include:

• Two large themed incubators on either side of the space. Each incubator includes an open studio, drop-in style working spaces, as well as a larger programmed space where tech workshops, test innovations and debates will be showcased and performed throughout the week:
  • Incubator One: Are Humans Sustainable? 
  • Incubator Two: What is the future of interaction?
• Practice as Research Wall: A place to map progress throughout the week
• Un-conference Space: Will technology enslave us or save us? (public led debates).
• Welcome Area: And help us build the Six Million Dollar Bionic Art Student of the future (We have the technology)

At each incubator, you will have the opportunity to engage in digital making, co-creation and open innovation. Throughout the week you are invited to contribute and question the positive and negative impacts of technology in our lives and help us accelerate or decelerate ideas which can make a difference to society. 

Incubator One: 

Are Humans Sustainable? 

This incubator explores the potential of the human species to survive and thrive within new technological environments

It compasses four Digital Maker Collective led Provocations:'

• Humans, Technology and Artificial Intelligence...' explores our changing relationship with technology
• 'Growing Space' is a space for growing and is sourced locally from waste.
• 'Is Technology Killing our creativity?' questions whether artificial creativity is a help or a hindrance to human imagination.
• 'Experiencing Sustainability issues' explores micro-plastic pollution through interactive technology

Industry/Sector/Edu Guest Contributors:

• GreenLab - We design sustainable food systems (London)
• SPACE10  - A future Living Lab (Denmark)
• EU Open Design Manufacturing Project (EU & China)
• MAID @ CSM Camden Open Manufacturing for overcrowded living project
• South Devon College (Devon)
• SenSat Commercial drones/driverless car computer systems

Incubator Two:

What is the future of interaction?

This incubator will rethink virtual and physical space with interactive audio and visual projects 

The five Digital Maker Collective led ​provocations include:

• I’m lonely, what can I do? Question the mix of gaming in simulated environments and real time by using virtual reality and constructing a puzzle.
• (human ± technology) let's update together code and activate light installations and experience unseen interactions between the physical and virtual. 
• Movement & Technology generate sounds through your body movements. Get ready to experience physicality of sound in a new way!
• Dance practice from physical to virtual space: movement, balance, scale, and gravity
• The Assembly Line Exploring international collaboration through Virtual Reality (Parque Explora, Colombia)

Industry/Sector/Edu Guest Contributors:

• Lodz University of Technology, Fablab Lodz - roboterapia.eu How people want a robot to represent them? (Poland)
• Cyland Media Art Lab - Community of artists, critics, curators, coders, engineers and media activists from (Saint Petersburg, RU)
• South London Raspberry Jam - Giving young people the opportunity to explore coding, physical computing and digital making in a fully inclusive environment
• Future Makers Collective - Institute of Technology, Tallaght Dublin (Ireland) Researching societal structures and technologies which control our world

Un-conference Space:

Will technology enslave us or save us?

In parallel, but away from the busy main floor, come and join the ‘will technology enslave us or save us?' un-conference. 

Throughout the week, we will host a space for open public debate & conversations? Open to anyone, just sign up, propose a technology related topic, ask questions on the day and then discuss with others in a relaxed and informal setting.

This is a space to stop, pause and reflect, so we can try and make sense of our digital utopian and dystopian futures.

Practice as Research Wall: 

Mapping Our Progress

Throughout the week we will be mapping our progress, a space for pulling together all the findings throughout the week and building collaborations (new collaborative projects, funding bids, exhibitions, exchanges, conferences, publications etc) we can take forward after the residency. 

Welcome Area: 

Six Million Dollar Bionic Art Student 

(We have the technology)

Welcome Area - Visitors are welcomed into the event by hologram talking student robot, providing an overview of what is happening on the floor.

And alongside the relaxed welcome area you are invited to get hands on by helping us imagine and build a Bionic Art Student, better, stronger, faster than before. 

The Bionic Art Student aims to provoke debate about the 'Arts Work of the Future' - what is the role of the creative in the work of the future? 

• How are technologies changing future creative attributes? 
• Can technology make art education more accessible? 
• Are creatives leading the digital revolution/industry or being led by digital revolution/industry?
• How is technology changing creativity and creative learning? 
• How far can creativity be automated? 

This event is programmed by Digital Maker Collective, a Tate Exchange Associate.

About the Digital Maker Collective

The Digital Maker Collective are a group of artists, designers, staff and students from the University of the Arts London (UAL) who explore emerging digital technologies in arts, education, society and the creative industries. They are supported by Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts (CCW), UAL.

Past Events: Digital Making Art School Feb - March 2017, Tate Exchange

In February & March 2017 the Digital Maker Collective delivered four hugely successful ‘Digital Making Art School’ events at Tate Modern, Tate Exchange.

The events took place on the 8th Feb - 22nd Feb - 8th March - 22nd March and included the participation of UAL staff, student’s alumni, industry, sector, local communities and the public.

Highlights from Tate Exchange 2017:

• Over 2,000 public visited our events over the four dates
• 150 staff, students & alumni from across ALL UAL collages/dept delivered events
• Many staff & students visited the events, led to increased curriculum engagement
• Sector/community guests delivered workshops & presented at the symposium
• Visited by Director of Tate Modern & Tate Council who talked with students
• Lots of positive interest & praise from Tate & Visitors
• Very positive staff & student feedback, was seen as an ‘intense learning experience’
• Curriculum integration via whole/part course/department participation include: WCA BA Print and Time Based Media, WCA BA Fine Art, Camberwell BA Photography & Graphic Design collaboration, Chelsea BA Spatial Design, Chelsea MA Spatial Design, LCC MA Interaction Design Communication, LCC MA Games Design, CSM 4D technical team/department, UAL learning & Teaching Exchange & Research.

Images & Programme from Tate Exchange 2017 events:

Members who delivered the final Tate Exchange Event 22nd March - See all Event Images and the Programme on 22nd March 2017

Members who delivered the Tate Exchange Event 8th March - See all Event Images and the Programme on 8th March 2017

Members who delivered the Tate Exchange Event 22nd Feb - See all Event Images and the Programme on 22 Feb 2017

Members who delivered the Tate Exchange Event 8th Feb - See all Event images and the Programme on 8th Feb 2017

Below: A short talking heads film about the Digital Making Art School event Feb & March 2017, part of a series of filmed interviews during the first year of Tate Exchange by Tate Research Centre. Tate Learning aims to develop rigorous reflective practice across the Tate Learning team. Through this Tate Learning aim to identify, support and make visible how gallery education practice can be understood and experienced as a research-led activity.