Who’s involved

Dr. Pip Thornton

Project lead / PI

Pip is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, and a Research Fellow on the AHRC funded Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) program where she leads the Writing the Wrongs of AI project. With an academic background in English Literature, Geopolitics and Cybersecurity, her theory and practice explore the changing value of language in (post)digital spaces, critiquing and making visible structures of power within the digital economy with creative methods. Her artistic intervention ‘Newspeak’ which critiques the commodification of language by Google’s search and advertising platforms was shortlisted for the 2020 Lumen Prize for Art and Technology and was awarded an honourable mention in the Surveillance Studies Network Biennial Art Competition (2020). Pip’s work has featured on BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth with Michael Rosen, in WIRED UK, New Scientist, and at the Open Data Institute in London.

As well as the events at the Book Festival, Pip is also performing her show You Can’t Google Poetry at this year’s Festival Fringe. More details and tickets : https://www.thestand.co.uk/performance/17808/you-cant-google-poetry/20240808/stand%205

For more information on Pip’s previous work please visit www.pipthornton.com

Savannah Thomson

Research Assistant

Savannah Thomson is Research Assistant on the WWAI project. She is currently completing her MSc in Data and AI Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, after being awarded her BCom in Information Systems with distinction at the University of Cape Town. A motivated and creative thinker, with a passion for connecting (with) people, she is inspired by the intersection between technology, people, and responsible innovation.

Jenny Niven

Project partner

Jenny Niven is the Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. As a cultural producer and director, Jenny Niven has spearheaded various influential literary festivals, including the award-winning Push the Boat Out. She has directed literature programmes and festivals in Beijing, and Melbourne, and was formerly head of literature at Creative Scotland. She was named in The List’s ‘Hot 100’ people influencing Scotland’s arts and cultural landscape in 2022.

Dr. Andrew Dwyer

Data Security consultant

Andrew is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Royal Holloway, University of London and is the lead of the UK Offensive Cyber Working Group. His research sits at the intersection of socio-technical and geopolitical research in cybersecurity, ranging from practices of malware detection, machine learning in international security, to offensive cyber policy. Andrew is Co-I of the EPSRC-funded ‘Equitable Privacy’ project between the University of Bristol and Royal Holloway, exploring community engagements with underserved people and communities across the UK. For 2024 – 2025, he will also be an Associate Fellow at the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS), funded by the UK National Cyber Security Centre. 

Dr. Chris Elsden

Digital Economy consultant

Chris Elsden is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Service Design in Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He is a design researcher, with a background in sociology, and expertise in the human experience of data-driven services. Using and developing innovative design research methods, his work undertakes diverse, qualitative and often speculative engagements with participants to investigate emerging relationships with technology – particularly data-driven tools, FinTech and blockchain technologies. Working with charities, theatres and festival organisations, his most recent research explores ‘creative transactions’ – examining how new financial and data-driven technologies change the way creative work is valued and paid for. His research has been widely published in the field of HCI – see here for further details.

Dr. Frances Liddell

Researcher

Frances Liddell is an interdisciplinary researcher working as a post-doctoral research associate on DECaDE, a research centre based at Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh that focuses distributed ledger technologies, AI, and human data interactions through working with industry and end users to explore new tools and techniques. She holds a PhD in Museum Studies, and an MA in Arts Management, Principle and Practice. Her own research explores themes including participation, digital materiality, and ownership design.

Billy Dixon

Researcher

Billy Dixon is a product and interaction designer at the Institute for Design Informatics of the University of Edinburgh and Design Research Developer for the DECaDE project. He conceptualises artefacts and systems, both digital and physical, that embody critical issues of different projects. He also supports prototyping and development of these systems, facilitation of research using the systems (both ‘in the wild’ and in workshops) as well as the communication of projects to wider audiences.

Dr. Evan Morgan

Research software engineer

Evan is a research software engineer in the Institute for Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, where he supports researchers in designing and developing software tools and prototypes. He has over 15 years’ experience in multidisciplinary technical, research, and development work; spanning both industry and academia. Evan completed his PhD in Media and Arts Technology in 2016, where he investigated the use of sensor technologies for understanding and enhancing interactions between collaborating musicians. More recently, Evan has worked on projects involving the application of AI for health and wellbeing and the use of blockchain technologies for creative media tokenisation.

Hermione Hague

Copyright expert

Hermione is a technology, commercial and data protection lawyer with extensive experience advising businesses and financial institutions on data protection, intellectual property and commercial contracts. She has worked with ecommerce, media and technology companies in Edinburgh and London and more recently has worked with clients to help them take steps to get ready for GDPR. Previously, she worked at two major start-up businesses: boo.com (during the dot com boom and bust) and setting up the mobile phone company, 3. Hermione teaches law at Edinburgh University and is a mentor for RBS Entrepreneurial Spark. She is qualified in English law and is familiar with advising companies in Scotland and England. 

Professor Burkhard Schafer

Computational law expert

Burkhard Schafer is a Professor of Computational Legal Theory in the Edinburgh Law School. He studied Theory of Science, Logic, Theoretical Linguistics, Philosophy and Law at the Universities of Mainz, Munich, Florence and Lancaster. His main field of interest is the interaction between law, science and computer technology from doctrinal, comparative and legal-theoretical perspectives. This research encompasses both the problems that technology and technological change poses to the law – technology law – and the use of technology in the justice system and the legal services industry – legal informatics. Burkhard is a co-founder and currently Director of the SCRIPT Centre for IT and IP law, where their work covers all aspects of technology regulation, from IP law to data protection to e-commerce to e-forensics. He’s currently member of the expert group of AI4People, chairing their working group on an ethics framework for legal technology, and member of the data ethics group of the Turing Institute. 

Professor Tim Cresswell

Project mentor / participant

Ray Interactive

Creative Tech Studio

A dynamic studio specialising in interactive works of art & design that seek to inspire, inform and entertain.
Directed by Brendan McCarthy and Sam Healy, Ray Interactive seeks to work with passionate individuals and organisations on purposeful, ambitious and thought-provoking projects.

More details at https://www.rayinteractive.org/

Francis Bickmore

I joined Canongate in 2000. I have commissioned and edited books for the company since 2004 and am currently the Publisher at Large. I’m fascinated by the way that so many of the books that are remembered are those that defy genre categorisation, by writers who stray off the beaten track. As editor I have worked with writers including Yann Martel, Matt Haig, Lemn Sissay, Kevin Barry, Amy Liptrot, JJ Abrams, Alasdair Gray, James Meek, Nick Cave, Robert Webb, Ambrose Parry, Geoff Dyer, Terry Gilliam, David Byrne, Mary Costello, David Lynch, Joni Mitchell and, posthumously, Leonard Cohen. In 2018 I joined the Canongate Board. For more information please visit https://canongate.co.uk/

Sean Wai Keung

Sean Wai Keung is a writer and performance maker based in Glasgow. His pamphlet you are mistaken won the Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition 2016 and his debut full length poetry collection, sikfan glaschu, was published by Verve Poetry Press in April 2021. It went on to be shortlisted for the 2022 Kavya Prize. He has also worked with organisations including the National Theatre of Scotland and his solo performance A History of Fortune Cookies will be presented at Summerhall throughout August 2024 as part of the Autopsy Award, please visit https://festival24.summerhall.co.uk/events/a-history-of-fortune-cookies/. For more information and contact please visit seanwaikeung.carrd.co

Nasim Rebecca Asl

Nasim Rebecca Asl is a Glasgow-based poet and journalist. Originally from Washington, Tyne and Wear, her work has been published widely in magazines and anthologies including in New Writing Scotland, Poetry Wales and Modern Poetry in Translation. She received a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award for Poetry in 2021 and was shortlisted for the 2022 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Nasim teaches workshops and chairs events at book festivals. Her debut pamphlet Nemidoonam was released by Verve Poetry Press in February 2023, and in 2024 she was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem – performed). For more information and upcoming events please visit nasimrasl.com

Clare Duffy

Dr Clare Duffy is the artistic director of Civic Digits, a data driven creative learning theatre company. Clare directed Many Good Men in February 2024 at Hearts Football Club after co-writing it with two groups of young people. Many Good Men is a piece of digital forum theatre addressing the radicalisation of masculinity, incel culture and the manosphere. “Essential viewing for our time, not only for young people, but for everyone who cares about their future.” ★★★★  THE SCOTSMAN. Clare was an IASH and Traverse theatre playwright fellowship 2014-15, where she wrote Arctic Oil, which was produced at The Traverse Theatre in October 2018. (**** The Stage, The Herald) She wrote and directed Money the Game Show for The Arches, Glasgow in 2011, which was remounted at The Bush in London and published by Oberon Books: ‘ingenious’. New York Times ****The Guardian ****Financial Times  **** Scotsman. Clare also wrote the Cbeebies’ Christmas Show 2013 – 2019. 

@playdoctorduffy

@CivicDigits

www.civicdigits.com

Jo Gilbert

Jo Gilbert is a spoken word artist and writer from Aberdeen. Their work has featured on BBC Radio 4 show Tongue and Talk, in art exhibitions and films and spray-painted on a mural at Aberdeen Beach. Past projects and commissions include StAnza Poetry Festival, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, National Theatre of Scotland, and Aberdeen Performing Arts. Jo’s poem ‘Yon Hairy Stick’ was selected as one of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Best Scottish Poems in 2022. Their debut poetry collection ‘WTF is normal anyway?’ published in August 2022 with Seahorse Publications was nominated for a Scots Language award in 2023. Links to upcoming events: https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/AAGM/whats-aberdeen-art-galleries-and-museums/banter-and-beats-evening-doric ; https://allevents.in/edinburgh/poetry-circus-imaginarium/300038218383

Camilla Grudova

Camilla Grudova is the author of the critically acclaimed The Doll’s Alphabet, Children of Paradise which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, and The Coiled Serpent which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2023 she was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

She has a few events at the book festival: August 11th at 4pm and August 23rd at 8:15 

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/camilla-grudova-irenosen-okojie-dark-daring-fiction

Laura Jones-Rivera

Laura Jones-Rivera is the co-founder and co-publisher of the award-winning 404 Ink, most recently named Scotland’s Small Press of the Year by the British Book Awards in 2024. She has co-run 404 Ink since its inception in 2016 while also working for numerous other publishers as a freelance production specialist such as Charco Press, Bloomsbury, Cipher Press, and many more. She was previously Dead Ink’s Interim Publisher and named a Rising Star by the Bookseller in 2022.

Jane McKie

Jane McKie is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh. She studied at Edinburgh, Cambridge, Lampeter St David’s, and Warwick, and has a background in psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and literature. Her poetry collections include: Morocco Rococo (Cinnamon Press, 2007), When the Sun Turns Green (Polygon, 2009), Gardens of Bedsteads (Mariscat, 2011), Kitsune (Cinnamon Press, 2015), From the Wonder Book of Would You Believe It? (Mariscat, 2016), and Quiet Woman, Stay (Cinnamon Press, 2020). Jane’s research interests are interdisciplinary, and recently she has been working on interdisciplinary postgraduate courses as a Fellow of the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Peter McKay

‘S ann à Leòdhas a tha Pàdraig MacAoidh, agus chaidh dà leabhar bàrdachd leis fhoillseachadh le Acair – Gu Leòr (2015) agus Nàdur De (2020) – agus pamflaid le Clutag Press, From another island (2010). Tha e a’ fuireach ann an Dun Èideann agus ag obair mar òraidiche aig Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn. 
Peter Mackay is a poet, translator and lecturer. He has two collections with Acair, Galore (2015) and Some Kind of(2020), and a pamphlet, From another island (2010), with Clutag Press. Originally from the Isle of Lewis, he lives in Edinburgh and works in the School of English at the University of St Andrews.

Juana Adcock

Juana Adcock is a Mexican poet, translator and editor based in Scotland. She is the author of Manca (Tierra Adentro, 2014), Vestigial (Stewed Rhubarb, 2022), Split (Blue Diode, 2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Choice, and I Sugar The Bones (Out-Spoken Press, 2024). She is co-editor of the anthology of poetry by Latin American women Temporary Archives (Arc Publications, 2022), and her translation of the Mè’phàà poet Hubert Matiúwàa’s The Dogs Dreamt (Flipped Eye, forthcoming 2024) received a PEN Translates award. She regularly performs at poetry festivals in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Jan Rutherford

Jan has been working in the area of the arts and literature for more than 25 years, working with some of the largest publishing houses in the world (PRH, Hachette, Birlinn, BBC and more) and privileged to work with many of our leading writers and artists including the legendary Alexander McCall Smith. Jan is incredibly proud to be Publicity & Marketing Director at Birlinn Ltd (Scotland’s largest independent publisher) but maintains her full portfolio with her own business, Publicity and the Printed Word, working with the talented arts promoter, Anna Marshall. Jan and Anna managed the making and touring stages of The Great Tapestry of Scotland and Jan remains on the advisory board for the new permanent home in the Scottish Borders. Jan managed the publication Scottish Review of Books for 12 years.

Iain Morrison

Iain Morrison is a poet and arts programmer based in Edinburgh where he works at Fruitmarket. His collection I’m a Pretty Circler was shortlisted for the 2019 Saltire Poetry Prize. He was 2018 ArtfulScribe writer-in-residence at University of Southampton. Performances include an award-winning night of drag queen poetry at Scottish Poetry Library, and with Leiza McLeod, a sung stage show of women’s writing from the Beat Generation. Iain studied music at the University of Cambridge. His practice moves between artforms, often ending up in a gallery. 

This Autumn Iain will be a guest at Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania appearing in their ModPo programme: https://modpo.org/2024/02/18/schedule-of-live-webcasts-for-modpo-2024/

Graeme Swanson

I’m a freelance artist and illustrator based in east Scotland. I have a background in stand-up comedy, bookselling and creative writing. I started working under the name “Marswasrubbish” when I found out there was already an artist with same name as me. The name came from the caption of my first sold piece. I mostly paint digitally but I also use photography, pastels and a pencil. I make and sell my own prints and take commissions. Most of my work is surreal and cartoon-like and has been described as funny and bleak, unsettling and adorable. My website is www.marswasrubbish.com

Theodore Koterwas

Theodore Koterwas is an artist, designer and musician seeking to draw critical attention to aspects of daily experience that go unnoticed but profoundly impact on how we understand each other, technology and the environment. He received his MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. His multidisciplinary practice produces art installations, performances, museum exhibitions, and software applications for public engagement, creative collaboration, and teaching and learning. Having begun his career at the Exploratorium in San Francisco he has since worked with the University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Aberdeen Performing Arts, Edinburgh Science Festival and artist/musician David Byrne. His AI generated interactive video installation The Nth Wave was shortlisted for the 2021 Lumen Prize for Art and Technology.

Heather Parry

Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor, originally from South Yorkshire. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for thePolari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and her first nonfiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, is out in March as part of 404 Ink’s Inklings series.

Heather lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Ernesto and Fidel.

Michael McDonald

Michael is Digital Marketing Manager for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, as well as a freelance music writer. Between the UK and the US, he has worked with major labels, tech start-ups, retailers, indie artists, cultural orgs, and community projects in a range of roles from programming to brand building. A tech-tinkerer, Michael is currently busy feeding the machine and feeling uneasy about it.

Sam Riviere

Sam Riviere is the author of the poetry collections 81 Austerities (2012), winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, Kim Kardashian’s Marriage (2015), and Conflicted Copy (2024) as well as numerous limited-edition titles. His debut novel, Dead Souls, was published in 2021. He runs the micropublisher If a Leaf Falls Press.