Move Fast and Break Things - Project Announcement

We are delighted to announce that Nayana Prakash (Oxford Internet Institute) has recently been awarded a Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund in AI Governance grant for the project ‘Move Fast and Break Things - Theatre show and educational outreach programme’, in partnership with Freight Theatre.

The Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund in AI Governance aims to dramatically expand the notion of artificial intelligence ethics to fully embrace seismic challenges that contemporary digital technologies pose to labour, institutions, and public scrutiny, by stimulating new investigative research and public education and engagement projects drawn from many different fields: history, art, performance, linguistics, governance, community projects and more.

This project includes the development of Freight Theatre’s stage show, ‘Move Fast and Break Things’.  The show highlights the plight of content moderators, while also telling the story of Google’s discovery of targeted advertising in the early 2000s, as the ongoing collision between humanity and the technology it has developed is explored.

The film will be premiered over the summer 2021, alongside a webinar discussing the issues presented in the film with a group of leading academics, journalists and activists. We’ll also be taking what we’ve learned into schools, running workshops on predatory practices in Big Tech for young people, empowering them claim ownership of their online lives.

Project lead, Nayana Prakash says: “Move Fast and Break Things” will be an exciting example of the ways we can use storytelling and narrative to frame and reframe our understanding of some of the biggest issues in the tech industry today. My own research focuses on digital storytelling, and I’m looking forward to providing research advice on this key project which aims to bridge the gap between critical tech analysis and creative theatre.”

 On receiving confirmation of the funding, Freight Theatre explained: “We’re delighted to be receiving support from Minderoo-Oxford to develop a filmed version of our show, and enable us to collaborate with one of the University of Oxford’s foremost young researchers in Nayana. We can’t wait to share the knowledge we’ve gained while making this show, both through the screening of the film, the webinar and our workshops in schools.” 

This project is also supported by Arts Council England and ArtsDepot.

To find out more about the projects currently supported by the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund, and details of the current call please click here.