‘Connecting Through Culture as We Age’: Digital Creative Citizenship

In this edition of the MUARG Conversation Series, Helen Manchester (University of Bristol) will draw from her recently completed UKRI Healthy Ageing-funded research project ‘Connecting through Culture as we Age’ to explore how all forms of arts and culture participation, particularly those accessed digitally, can influence wellbeing and social connection as we age. Twenty socioeconomically or racially minoritised or disabled co-researchers aged 60-75 were involved in a digital innovation process, with their voices, lived experiences, and expertise shaping the co-design of digital cultural experiences and products.

Drawing on this research, this presentation will challenge mainstream approaches to digital innovation which identify a ‘problem space’ from the start, especially in the context of the ‘crisis’ of demographic ageing, instead asking what can be done if we start by understanding the local, situated everyday lives of older adults for whom the designs are made. The presentation will introduce the participatory creative methods used to unfold the co-researchers’ day-to-day lives in place—and how these were taken into a digital co-design process resulting in six prototype projects—and discuss learnings drawn from the 3-year project about co-designing technologies, digital exclusion, and creative citizenship.

The room is located on the ground floor of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute Building.

Lunch, tea and Coffee will be provided.

Register now to join us for the MUARG Conversation Series!

Host or Publisher Manchester Urban Ageing Group