Welcome to the Lab.
An artificial space dedicated to the study of an increasingly artificial world.
More Real than Real
The lab's science fiction identity recalls a time when our visions of the future were aspirational, when computers, automation and new consumer technologies promised a cleaner, easier and more exciting world. This serves as a reminder that our futures are not determined and can be shaped around human ambitions.
The lab is, in itself, a media technology experiment encapsulating ambition and risk- key components of innovation. The lab is a place to question assumptions and consider what could or should be. A place to establish facts and develop new conclusions as we investigate, study and experiment with concepts and systems.
Science fiction can be a useful in providing go-to visions of the future but these visions, often used as encouragement to adopt the latest technology, are often unexamined, unrealistic and harmful to human wellbeing.
They often fail to adequately describe our current reality and fail to provide useful steps towards our futures. It is at this point where our technological hopes and dreams meets reality, that the lab is built.
Designing the Future
Combining research with industry experience, Institute Research Lab approaches complex topics from first principles, helping others to understand the systems that generate, shape and use information.
This understanding provides a foundation for developing the skills required to navigate complexity, make informed decisions and play an active role in shaping a human centred future.
We are exploring new ways to consider and deliver educational and advisory programmes as well as developing frameworks for business to perform it's own research as a matter of course.
Technology and Human Agency
We are living through the start of a profound new era of technological development where our decisions regarding technology have far reaching implications across our cultures. Will we actively build a fit-for-purpose society or will we sleepwalk into a chaotic dystopian future?
We are now deploying synthetic intelligence technologies only previously explored within the frameworks of science fiction. These technologies are barely understood by their creators and are emerging within a social ecosystem not only loaded with communication potential but also measurable harms.
The pace of change is sometimes shocking and the future can feel inevitable. But we can control our pace of change and inevitability is just a premonition within our minds.
The future belongs to us and we can shape it to our needs. If we put feelings of inevitability aside and define what we want to achieve, we can define and build it.
What are the skills required to succeed in this rapidly changing world? How do we use, deploy and capitalise on the benefits of artificial intelligence and other emergent technology without losing human agency?
This isn't business as usual. It can't be. Our relationship with technology is changing... forever.
"We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning"
Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. Translated by S. F. Glaser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Graffio Arts
Institute Research Lab is an initiative being developed by Graffio Arts to framework our commitment to future skill development for industry. The lab design philosophy echoes the experimental nature of the times we are living through and will take full advantage of emergent technology, including generative AI to deliver and promote educational material.
Institute Research Lab is a virtual space complementing Institute, our physical space located in Loughborough UK.
Go to Graffio Arts
Real Life Events at Institute
We host events at Institute on a regular basis. These include media exhibitions, workshops, networking and seminars.
Institute is located in the town centre and an ideal location for local business to connect. For these events we often open up the studios, provide excellent food and drink and provide an opportunity for broad ranging discussion on a host of topics.
We have been a regular venue for Loughborough Lates events where we have held exhibitions highlighting the projects of our interns as they are forced to justify their work to a broad audience.
We have held regular networking events for our AI+ Digital Innovation programme learners where they had the opportunity to mix across cohorts, discuss similar challenges and find collaboration partners for their projects.
We have recently launched OpenLabs where guest speakers discuss their personal take on aspects of new technology.
Institute is a resource for local business and through its network, a mechanism to find business partners.
Open Labs
Open Labs are community events focused on the developing relationship between technology, culture and industry. These events bring the agenda of the virtual Institute Research Lab into the physical world at Institute in Loughborough.
We have recently launched Open Labs where guest speakers discuss their personal take on aspects of new technology. These events are held at Institute in Loughborough town centre.
By bringing together a community with a variety of speakers we can all get access to different perspective on technology use. Different industries have different priorities and theses events highlight issues and solutions developed in one field that may help another.
Open Labs grew out of our networking events for our AI+ Digital Innovation for Business educational programme and are now open top anyone from any industry.
Big ideas, good conversations and good food and drink.
