4.4 A Seat At The Table

For many older adults, the world of arts, culture and creative technology can seem out of reach, but also out of touch. Treating older adults as only consumers, not as potential creators, has reinforced ageist stereotypes and embeds an approach to ageing that is about easing problems of decline. The six CTC prototypes have helped challenge this by forging partnerships in the creative and cultural industries that demonstrate the enormous value of older adults as creative practitioners, project leaders, and provocateurs. Our co-researchers have collaborated with artists and technologists and found commonalities, explored ideas and worked as teams around the table. Placing co-researchers as equal partners in non-hierarchical design processes has been a new experience for everyone involved and has led to work that centres on their experiences and world view. These relationships began with three workshops in summer 2022, delivered by partner, Pervasive Media Studio, a tech innovation hub based in Watershed. On the right are images of co-researchers participating in these workshops. Several have now become residents at the Pervasive Media Studio, joining an exciting community of (mostly much younger) creative technologists and practitioners.  They are now in a position to respond to calls for creatives, join other project teams, and share and discuss their work in this environment, which had felt previously closed to them. Co-researchers have also taken up other opportunities to participate in creative tech initiatives: Fanny Eaton-Hall is working with an Austrian researcher, making a feature film about age and technology. Ruth Harrison has been to prototyping sessions for ‘Grounding Technologies’ at Watershed, and Erica Harrison has attended workshops around tech and nature. They have all been fulfilling their promise as participants who can inject a fresh approach to ageing, where it matters for the future of creative tech.