GRADE’s aim aligns with the European Digital Decade which runs from 2020-2030 to improve citizen involvement with digital technologies to increase the public good in the democratic sphere. It achieves this by looking to understand the role of ‘creative computing’ in the economy and society of Europe. Creative computing is the use of computers in ways for which they were not originally designed. This includes games as education, the demoscene, cracking and copying (e.g. software piracy) and the communities and cultures that arise alongside creative uses of computing.
In a time when AI and the use of personal data has become of real concern to the citizens of Europe and its subsequent challenge to the democratic and public sphere, GRADE looks to uncover and understand the histories that have lead to this point. It challenges pre-existing ‘heroic’ narratives, showing that the development of creative computing is an esoteric, uneven and yet shared endeavour which all people in Europe, to a greater or lesser degree, have experienced and contributed. This ranges from the quotidian, such as posting on social media, to the exceptional, such as prototypical local area Internet networks in 1980s Romania.
Project aims:
GRADE is split into three Working Groups (WG) which seek to:
- To conduct comparative transnational research on creative computing cultures in Europe (WG1)
- Focus on the interactions between creative computing cultures and official / unofficial institutions at the national and international level (WG2)
- Preservation of European creative computing heritage (WG3)
Project team
Dr Alex Wade GRADE Vice Chair Alex was part of the original bid team for GRADE which was successfully awarded in October 2022. He was Working Group 1 Lead until October 2024 before becoming Vice-Chair of GRADE. During his work on the project, Alex is responsible for the successful delivery of projects from across the project. This includes leading and co-ordinating research of 350 scholars, staff working in Galleries, Libraries, Arts and Museum institutions, heritage organisations and technology firms. Dr Alex Wade - Education and Social Work | Birmingham City University
The project is lead by Dr Maria Garda at University of Turku, Finland Maria Garda | University of Turku
Project impact
Central to GRADE is moving research in creative computing beyond the state of the art. To achieve this it challenges the casual use and disposal of digital technology by promoting the circular economy which seeks to refuse, reuse, recycle and repair digital technology through repair cafes held throughout Europe. GRADE uncovers the ‘hidden histories’ of narratives of women and global majorities in the development of computing in Europe. By doing so it promotes the inclusion of women in digital technology where their work is often significant but equally overlooked and especially those from countries where their narratives are not recorded such as in Eastern Europe and Turkiye. These outcomes will be recorded and presented as a series of white papers and open educational resources to inform and influence European policy on the use of digital technology throughout the Council of Europe countries.
Funding
Grassroots of Digital Europe is a project funded by the Council of Europe’s Co-operation on Science and Technology (COST), which includes 41 countries from around Europe and other partners including South Africa and ‘near-neighbouring countries’ in North Africa.
Contact
For more information on this research project, please contact Alex.Wade@bcu.ac.uk.
Find out more on the Grassroots of Digital Europe project website and COST Action webpage.