StreetHeart: Empowering Homeless Through Art and Technology

Homeless people lack stable housing conditions and often feel marginalised and excluded from broader society. Some charity organizations seek to improve the confidence and self worth of homeless individuals by providing artistic activities, in which impressive artworks are produced. However, much of the artwork remain unseen, due to lack of the resources and technology available to these charity organisations. This is why we designed StreetHeart, a multichannel service. StreetHeart gives the underprivileged the power to upload artworks independently, by using a portable camera device. Their artwork is shared through LED screens placed around the city, reaching larger audiences. By pressing a heart button embedded in the display, passersby can instantaneously send their appreciation and further contribute to the artists via an online store. Street- Heart has the potential to not only increase the self-worth of those affected by homelessness, but also bring them closer to the society

Artificially Intelligent Technology for the Margins: A Multidisciplinary Design Agenda

There has been increasing interest in socially just use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in the development of technology that may be extended to marginalized people. However, the exploration of such technologies entails the development of an understanding of how they may increase and/or counter marginalization. The use of AI/ML algorithms can lead to several challenges, such as privacy and security concerns, biases, unfairness, and lack of cultural awareness, which especially affect marginalized people. This workshop will provide a forum to share experiences and challenges of developing AI/ML health and social wellbeing technologies with/for marginalized people and will work towards developing design methods to engage in the re-envisioning of AI/ML technologies for and with marginalized people. In doing so we will create cross-research area dialogues and collaborations. These discussions build a basis to (1) explore potential tools to support designing AI/ML systems with marginalized people, and (2) develop a design agenda for future research and AI/ML technology for and with marginalized people