Comuzi’s Year in Tweets & Pics
Sometime earlier this year, I bought a journal. I thought it would be a great idea to spend some time documenting my daily experiences, thoughts, activities & gratitude to self reflect & address areas of self improvement.
I’ve only really journalled about 8 times this year, and have resorted to using a 2018 diary which was underutilized to write those extra long philosophical paragraphs about life, my imperfections & my existence. I’ve got into the habit of thinking of my journal hehe, so hopefully I can make it a daily practise.
You might be wondering what the point of this introduction is. Wellllll, at Comuzi we worked on so many projects & engagements I’m proud of, so it made sense to create a personalised journal documenting our adventures this year. Sit tight, and thank you twitter (this’ll make sense in a bit).
January-February / Projects by If & Waltham Forest Council
January started with us working with Projects by If on an experimental research and prototyping project on how we could design for young people to understand automated decisions. In-house with Projects by If throughout, we collaboratively developed a fictional chatbot called Moodjar to assist our research & concept testing exploring the relationship young people want to have with AI in the future.
We also had an amazing conversation for BBC Sounds with India Rakussen, exploring our experience running Comuzi as millennials in the workplace.
Nearer towards the end of the month, we kicked off with Polar Insight and Waltham Forest Council, designing a service connecting the borough’s disadvantaged young people to valuable opportunities as part of Waltham Forest’s Life Chances Commission.
We used our Launchpad Programme, in this case encompassing 30 interviews/ethnographic studies with young people & commercial suppliers, concept design and high fidelity prototyping, engaging with numerous council departments throughout the process.
February-March / Secret Stuff, F’xa & DigitalBotBeta.
After the six week council project & another collaboration I’m not allowed to talk about (hush hush), we were given 10 days to help our amazing friends at the Feminist Internet rapidly prototype F’xa (try it out!), an educational chatbot on AI bias exhibited at EY’s Innovation Realised Conference at Boston. F’xa got widespread positive reception at the conference & had been featured in the Evening Standard, Dazed, Vox, The Next Web and It’s Nice That.
Chatbot galore, we then worked with artist collective Digital&Dead, designing an interactive experience called DeathBotBeta exploring digital culture, digital legacy and death (I know, crazy weird) for their residency at Space Studios.
April -May / Business Development, Talks & Flights
April was prime business development month; we sent out about 8945 client proposals while Alex was preparing for a global tour. I was crazy tired, but spent some time at Brum while Akil went to Spain at the end of the month to recover.
Alex spent the first weekend of the month in Greece giving a keynote talk on racial and gender bias in AI systems, and the second weekend at Afrotech Festival with Akil, who led a talk with Grace about the Projects by IF collaboration. Five days later, Alex was another plane to Vancouver where he got invited to attend TED 2019! Post-Vancouver, Alex flew to New York for an AI summit. At this point he was knackered & it was finally time to come homeeeeee.
May entailed more business development (coffees, coffees & coffees; one day I’ll write further about agency life and it’s business cycles), while Alex flew to Bulgaria (yes, again) to speak at Sofia’s Science Festival. Most importantly, the team got some well-needed rest after the previously packed out month..
On the side, Akil launched his highly anticipated Saturday School, a venture teaching Women of Colour and young people the basics of business & I decided to open up a bit more about mental health, after an intense mental debate.
Summer Vibes / Doteveryone, ‘Other Clients’ & Our Anniversary
In June, we kicked off a project with Doteveryone, researching & prototyping financial safety nets & access to skills training for gig economy workers in addition to a few workshops I’m not allowed to talk about! Honorable shout out to Doteveryone, this project taught me a whole lot.
The R&D team at the Beeb won an award for a project we briefly assisted on!
In July, Akil flew to Vienna to talk about AI in education, and on the 5th we celebrated 6 years running Comuzi! It’s been a whirlwind of a journey, & I’m grateful for what’s to come.
We got through August concept testing with Doteveryone, and taking a work break to finish off the month.
September-October / 0–100 Real Quick
September was a relatively calm month, with a series of interactive workshops done at Tate revolving around how AI & it’s effects on human relationships.
Towards the end of September, I flew out to Cincinnati for a wedding & Alex flew out to NY again to attend and to collaborate with artists, technologists and researchers of colour working with AI. He also made the first steps in a new research project exploring machine learning and black culture (soon to be announced).
As soon as I got back from the US , business was already heating up; we got commissioned by the Ada Lovelace Institute to create an interactive chatbot raising awareness of the organisation and it’s work between the 30th of September & 7th of October in time for Ada Lovelace Day on the 8th.
On a congratulatory note, Alex became an associate lecturer at UAL’s Creative Computing Institute, and taught his first class on the 2nd of Oct, while Akil got announced as a finalist at MRS Awards 2019!
On the 2nd week of October, Alex spoke at a Natwest Commercial Event about AI Bias, & we also led a series of circular design & sustainability workshops with young people for Samsung’s #NotASchool programme, in collaboration with B+A.
My favourite project of ours came in late October, when we were asked by the Mozilla Foundation & Irini Papadimitiriou of FutureEverything to create a provocation around machine learning for Mozfest 2019.
Exploring facial recognition, we created an ‘Invisible Mask’; a cap fitted with infrared led lights that were invisible to the human eye but would make your face unidentifiable to a facial recognition model, allowing you to evade being recognised.
We presented a work in progress/MVP version of the cap at MozFest 2019, creating an immersive experience where attendees could train a facial recognition model & see the Invisible Mask in action and we’re exploring how we can develop it further in 2020. A massive, massive shout out to Mat for helping us create the hat.
November-Now & Closing Remarks / Somerset House, Rest & Projects
The last few weeks have consisted of rest, getting used to winter & reviewing mad October. We also finished our project with Doteveryone, & pitched for some amazing work that we WILL win.
We also moved offices from Hotel Elephant to Somerset House Studios! It’s been overwhelming, and I’m sure any of us have fully comprehended the size of the building we’re in, but we’re in for a fab time!
Akil also flew out to Stockholm for a talk/client workshop, and Alex spoke at the Photographers Gallery.
Comuzi’s 2019 was definitive, character testing & eye opening but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year in advance!
