Dr Toby Heys is a Professor of Digital Media in the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Founding a range of collectives such as the KIT Collaboration, Battery Operated and AUDINT, his cross-disciplinary methodology is the driver of installations, mobile apps, books, immersive experiences, vinyl recordings, performances, and multi-sensory environments. Heys has produced over 100 solo and 100 group exhibitions for museums, galleries and festivals around the world. He has produced multi-sensory immersive installations for venues such as Tate Britain (London), The Academy of Art (Berlin), The Phi Centre (Montreal) Art in General (New York) and Zorlu Performing Arts Centre (Istanbul), Photographers Gallery (London) and Arte Alameda (Mexico City). Heys has also produced performative installations for many festivals including Transmediale (Berlin), Mutek (Montreal), Multimedia Art Asia Pacific (Brisbane) and Unsound (Krakow) Heys has written 5 books that range from expanded graphic novels to academic research texts. Recently he wrote AUDINT’s Ghostcode (Multimodal), which is accompanied by a double vinyl soundtrack and edited AUDINT’s Unsound/Undead (Urbanomic). He is currently working on a new book called Phantom Channels for MIT Press.
Marsha Courneya is an Associate Lecturer of Digital Dramaturgy at the International Film School in Cologne and a doctoral researcher in Digital Culture and Communication at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research centres on wealth redistribution in the creative industries using collective ownership models of intellectual property. She is originally from Toronto, Canada and now resides in London.
David Jackson is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research investigates creative AI and its influence on audiences through the lenses of speculative design and cultural criticism. He supervises PhDs in narrative media, games, and digital media culture. His previous research includes work on the interactive documentary An Audience with a Hero, featuring musician Nile Rodgers in association with the National Portrait Gallery, the Algowritten project on sexist bias in AI narratives – which won a Mozilla Foundation Technology Award – and the Taloid Historia project, which imagines AI-driven generative storytelling as a speculative histories machine. Jackson is the founder and co-lead of Storytellers and Machines, an annual event series at SODA and the Manchester School of Art that explores the influence of AI on contemporary creative practices. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘The End of AI’.
Paul Rekret is a Lecturer in Media Industries in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Westminster. He holds a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, an MA from the University of Amsterdam, and a BA from the University of Toronto. He is the author of three books: Take This Hammer: Work, Song, Crisis (Goldsmiths Press/MIT Press, 2024); Down With Childhood: Pop Music and the Crisis of Innocence (Repeater Books, 2017); and Derrida and Foucault: Philosophy, Politics, Polemics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). He has also edited two volumes: George Caffentzis: Clipped Coins, Abused Words & Civil Government (Pluto Press, 2021) and Robert Linhart and the Circuitous Paths of Inquiry (Viewpoint, 2022). His research has appeared in leading academic journals including Theory, Culture & Society, South Atlantic Quarterly, Critical Quarterly, Journal of Cultural Economy, and Constellations. His writing on art, media, and culture has featured in The Wire, Frieze, and Art Monthly, among others, and he is regularly invited to programme or speak at international cultural institutions including Tate (UK), BAK (Netherlands), CTM/Transmediale (Germany), and UnionDocs (USA).
