CHEAD Annual Conference 2025. The Shift: Harmonising the Arts, AI and technology for sustainable futures

O'Boyle, L. (Organiser & Speaker)

Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organising a conference, workshop, ...

Description

Workshop Lead for “AI, Sustainability & CreaTech-Enabled Art School” at the CHEAD Annual Conference 2025. The Shift: Harmonising the Arts, AI and Technology for Sustainable Futures (Manchester School of Art, MMU, 26–27 March 2025).
I designed and facilitated a hands-on session exploring how AI and CreaTech can support sustainable curricula, research and technical practice; we mapped opportunities and risks, shared case studies, and distilled practical actions around ethical governance, low-carbon digital workflows and cross-sector collaboration.

Period	26 Mar 2025
Event type	Conference
Location	Manchester, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National

Keywords

Higher Education Leadership
Higher Education Practice
AI
CreaTech
Sustainability

Documents & Links

The rate at which technology is advancing presents both opportunities and challenges for the fields of art and design, as well as society. The intersection of art, design and technology is leading to new forms of artistic expression, storytelling, design, and even ways of solving complex problems. However, traditional jobs roles in the creative sector will shift, with the need for new skills and competencies in our future graduates. This brings challenges for HE to address, not least the emergence of generative AI, the digital divide and equity of access to technology and issues of ethics and intellectual property. This in turn will hamper the sectors’ potential to address pressing issues such as the climate emergency and social equity. Manchester, the home of the Industrial revolution and the birthplace of the computer, provides a unique opportunity for CHEAD to identify and debate how we balance innovation and social responsibility, and prepare Art and Design education and research, staff and students, for the challenges and opportunities of harmonising Art, Design and Technology towards sustainable futures.