Portsmouth host
Noelle Grattan
“How I use art and design to understand, explain and improve privacy in a digital world.”
About the speaker

We all understand privacy on a human level in our daily lives. We close doors, pull blinds, and share secrets with friends and lovers. We create safe spaces – preserves – where we can explore our creativity, our identity, and build trusting and intimate relationships. But the digital revolution has disrupted how we understand and create these preserves. We are increasingly unclear as to when and where our lives are actually private.
As a business leader and lawyer working in privacy, I struggled to convey the complexity of privacy on deeply human terms. And then I found the great power of art in this challenging field.
In this talk, we will explore how art helped me understand the social tensions at the bleeding edge of technological innovation. We will learn how art can allow complex issues to sit, awkwardly unresolved, and demand our best thinking. And we will see how I have used art to protect “preserves” for privacy – places where, in our analog or digital lives, we can find rest, repose and safety.
Favorite quotes from this talk See all
“Art engages thought. — Trevor Hughes

“When we talk about privacy in today's society, it's your eye that is looking. It's your eye that is doing the invasion of privacy. — Trevor Hughes

“Sometimes art is created to force us to sit with awkwardness. — Trevor Hughes

“You need privacy. You need space to create. You need space to innovate and think great thoughts. — Trevor Hughes

“We have a sense of helplessness around how we think about privacy in today's world. — Trevor Hughes

Fabulous talk...justa fabulous.,.