Research project
INDIGENIA: Generative AI for Indigenous Futures and ‘Digital Good Living’
- Start date: 1 September 2023
- End date: 30 April 2024
- Funder: Digital Good Network (ESRC funding, University of Sheffield)
- Primary investigator: slltp@leeds.ac.uk
- External co-investigators: Dr Andreas Rauh, Dublin City University; Sebastián Gerlic, director, Thydêwá (Brazilian NGO); Dr Sheilla Souza and Tadeu dos Santos Kaingang, Universidade Estadual de Maringá and ASSINDI–Associação Indigenista de Maringá (Brazilian NGO)
Value
£50k
Partners and collaborators
Dublin City University, Thydêwá (Brazilian NGO, dir. Sebastián Gerlic), ASSINDI–Associação Indigenista de Maringá (Brazilian NGO), Universidade Estadual de Maringá
Description
The ‘INDIGENIA’ research project explored digital inclusion and the appropriation of digital resources by the Indigenous communities of Abya Yala (Latin America), focusing on the possibilities and positive aspects of the “digital good”.
The project placed emphasis on the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence applications such as ChatGPT and Midjourney.
Image created with Midjourney 5.1 from a prompt by the Mapuche artist Azul (Nicolás Jiménez Reyes).
In particular, the project aimed to answer the central questions:
- How can the Indigenous concept of ‘Buen Vivir’ (Good Living or Living Well) be transferred to the digital world?
- How, from this perspective of Indigenous ‘Buen Vivir’, might we provoke and inspire a global understanding of what the ‘Digital Good’ is and could be for humanity?
This project was carried out by means of a participatory and collaborative workshop with a group of artists, writers, educators and indigenous leaders from different ethnicities, cultures and knowledge systems of Abya Yala, carried out in the facilities of the Associação Indigenista de Maringá (ASSINDI) in January 2024. The project led to a manifesto for digital good living drafted by the participants, and culminated with the event ‘Conexões em rede’ and the exhibition ‘Indigenia do ser’ at the State University of Maringá.