Event recap: Data CARE Workshop II: Diversifying Creative AI and Cultural Value

On June 11th 2025, the Inclusive AI Lab UU organised a second workshop on diversity in data, sponsored by IOS, UGlobe, HAI, and CHAIN, as part of the Data CARE Workshop Series, aimed at supporting interdisciplinary and cross-sector conversations around AI and equity.

Academics, researchers, artists and policy makers joined to share their insights on how to co-create and how to navigate the new world of AI together. The event showcased a variety of topics, exploring themes such as culture, heritage, creativity, diversity, reimagination, and the role of AI. During the event, participants were encouraged to participate in this dialogue between experts and users to address the potential barriers of AI usage and the ways we can co-create inclusive and global usage. At the event, AI was defined as a mission-oriented effort to build inclusive and sustainable data tools and platforms, with a strong emphasis on engagement with and relevance to the Global South.

6R Framework

One of the core questions raised was, “Who benefits from AI?”, to which a thought-provoking response emerged: “All of us, but we pay for it.” Another key question explored was, “What should co-creation look like?” While the answer was less straightforward, participants emphasised that a good starting point involves building communities and engaging individuals outside of our usual circles, those who speak differently, think differently, and challenge the norms. 

The next series of panels and keynotes followed the 6R Framework: 

1. Recognition → Acknowledging overlooked voices, histories, and contributions in creative and cultural spaces.
2. Resituate → Shifting dominant perspectives by centering alternative narratives and ways of knowing.
3. Remix → Reworking existing materials, ideas, or traditions in innovative ways that challenge conventional values.
4. Resistance → Critiquing and addressing harm within systems while creating space for healing and restoration.
5. Regenerate/Repair → Fostering growth and renewal through sustainable, community-rooted practices.
6. Re-imagine → Envisioning bold, inclusive futures that break away from limiting norms and assumptions.

Recognition: WHO is a creator

The first panel, “Recognition: WHO is a creator”, moderated by Prof. Dr. Payal Arora, challenged the concept of who gets to be recognised as the creator and be rewarded for it when AI is used as a mediator between the creator and the creation. A quote expressed by William of Ockham and Francis Bacon, cited in G. Lawson's Theō-Politica (I.viii.39), was depicted to make a metaphor on understanding AI and human creativity: “ In Creation we have God and his creativity and the thing created”. In this parallel, “God” represents the humans, the individuals who initiate and envision a creation, “his creativity” refers in this case AI and the creative process behind it, and finally “the thing created” is the end product of this equation – it can be art, music, content etc. Thus, this quote makes us understand that AI is not the creator but a tool that gives form to what the creator (humans) envision. 

Therefore, creativity can be understood as a mixture of a person, a process, a product and press, as Mel Rhodes introduced in 1961 as the “4P Model of Creativity”: 

The top red part: 🔴 

• Person: traits, skills, knowledge, motivations and personality of the creator
• Product: outcome of the creative process 

The bottom black part: ⚫ 

• Process: stages involved in the creation, brainstorming stage, such as problem-solving, in addition, it refers to who contributes to the process
• Press: refers to “pressures”, external environmental factors such as the social, cultural, and physical factors.

Distribution of Agency

An example highlighted by one of the speakers was the network between the actors and how they co-create, building a distribution of agency. The picture below shows only one market but four sellers. 

Seven steps are highlighted: 

1. Selection → Who from the community will help
2. Preparation → Who will facilitate the translation
3. Revelation → Understanding what has happened so far
4. Generation → Who will fill the gap, personal gaze
5. Curation → Selection of data to create a good sample of important elements
6. Aspiration → Going beyond what is possible
7. Exhibition → Disposal of final product

Data as performative artefact

At the end of the event, there was a performance that described “Data as performative artefact” by Dr. Marleen de Witte and Dr.Nii Ocquaye Hammond. The main message of their performance was that entities also have a life of their own. The act begins with an interrogation of a museum’s collection database and transitions into a different dimension where African entities become alive and start telling their own stories and truths. The performance offered to all of us a thought-provoking reflection on themes such as “provenance”, “ownership” and how this connects to a broader picture of data care in AI.

Metabolising Change

Finally, the concluding keynote by Charles Hayes focused on the idea of “metabolising change” through exploring the biometrics of organisational filters in the age of AI. The debate revolved around the balance and contrast between what is “natural” and what is “artificial”, and how we navigate a world where everything is mechanised. In addition, Charles addressed the labels people put into things, such as “progress” or “potential”, but how these can have different connotations in different settings and how people perceive them. 

His final remarks were on our own metabolism as human beings, claiming it's unbalanced as these three factors play a role: 

1. Economic innovation
2. Frictional energy
3. Imagination infrastructure

“We relate, therefore we become.”

It is worth noting that there were many interesting and compelling panels and keynotes throughout the day, which you can read about in the link below. One of my personal favourite quotes came from the “REPAIR and REIMAGINE” panel: the idea of transitioning from the Cartesian “I think, therefore I am” to “We relate, therefore we become.” It’s a powerful reminder of the importance of connection and collective growth in shaping our identities and futures.