Upcoming events

We are busy programming our next hands-on workshops based on the community feedback. If you would like to contribute to the programme and/or hear about the dates first, join our community.

Past events

Recap: our Community Call, 4 September 2026

We invited creative practitioners and research software engineers to put their heads together and kickstart the Creative Data Exchange programme. They presented projects they worked on and discussed what would help them take the next step in developing their own projects.

Our open notes are available on our Resources page.

We started with a film-provocation, Moments, Praxis, Paths (trailer), bringing to life foresight scenarios and the implications of technological innovation to the creative industries, based on the CoSTAR Foresight Lab research. More about the published research on which the film is based can be accessed here.

Chaired by André Piza, we heard presentations from:

  • Bea Taylor Searle, showcasing projects from the Peckham Digital festival.
  • Rosie Wood, introducing MapReader, a software library for analysing the visual and textual content of historical maps using computer vision techniques that she co-developed at the Alan Turing Institute.
  • Lydia France, presenting Marker, an AI-based app that supports the creative writer’s process rather than writing for them or getting in the way of their creativity. She also showed her research project capturing and analysing bird flight data as Schmidt AI in Science Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
  • Kaspar Beelen, analysing historical newspaper data, finding micro histories from industrial accidents to investigating AI’s “moral compass” with digital heritage collections.

About the speakers

Bea Taylor Searle is a cultural producer and co-founder of Peckham Digital CIC, a Community Interest Company dedicated to widening access to creative technology within the arts. Through its annual festival and year-round programming, it platforms emerging computational artists, champions open-source tools, and builds inclusive spaces for communities to engage with digital art. She is currently pursuing a PhD at London South Bank University, exploring how computational arts can expand digital literacy.

Read more about André, Rosie, Lydia and Kaspar on our About page.