Hey there, welcome to my weekly studio notes, this week they are kinda life notes too. You can tell I don’t use generative AI to write them because the writing is a bit unpolished.
If I used Ai it would be lickety-split, sharp precise and blandiose. That’s my new word for all those grandiose, verbose social media posts, especially on Linkedin, full of LLM knowledge bloused up with over used digital energy.
you are welcome here
Reflection
Some of the sunrises have been spectacular others grey. Last Monday 4:40am was beautiful. It’s a ridiculously early habit that the eldest and I have fallen into, chasing colours, the dawn, enjoying an early coffee made by the pier.
The iridescent charming of the sea by the blush of the sun upon it so early in the day.
16 June 2025
Beauty off the chart. It’s a good way to start the day. Now that Solistice is over the sunrise slide later.
You can. catch up with him on TikTock he’s an excellent photographer, videographer and content creator but as his Mum I know I may be bias, he is though. G’wan you can decide that for yourself.
This week was a mixture of Co-Design, Innovation, catching up with good folk, connecting with some new contacts and keeping my ecology of practices flow going.
I’d an invitation to IRDG’s Amplify Conference, I was glad I could go, it was excellent. So well run Dermot, Mary, Bernadette, Josh and the whole team did a great job. Interesting speakers and workshops also.
Dermot Casey the CEO I’ve known and has been in my network for over a decade. It was great to catch up with him and some others I’d not seen for years. It was also great to meet some new folk and especially Clare Murphy aka Story Clare. We’d been looking forward to connecting for a while.
There were way too many references to Startrek for my liking showing a certain group has very particular imagineering from their childhood. Oh boy do we need some new stories to broaden that out.
Dermot’s opening speech had some really interesting images in them. His call to action “Lets RE-ENCHANTMENT the Future. Fascinating to see this narrative playing out in a business context. He anchored some of his narrative in the fact his Dad formed the first credit union in the town he grew up. Credit Unions are a phenomenal story of community organising, local pooling of resources and financial management.
His line “We can do anything but not everything” has a a distinct resonance. Dermot addressed innovation as a privilege ~ not sure I completely agree there. Innovation is oft borne from necessity that disjunction may be a nuance for unpacking some other time.
He offered 3 enchantments
- ASKING HARD QUESTIONS “that’s interesting” sincere awkward questions.
- BUILD WITH IMAGINATION, creativity & inclusion.
- DESIGN FOR TRUST build with ethics first.
He offered an idea that Ireland could be a showroom if we could go with not business as usual.
At the end of the conference I asked for this image to be t’d up as I wanted to capture this specific image.
Curiously Scot Berkun the keynote speaker spoke more about the artist, Alicia Eggart who made this image. I like that he referenced her and talked to her art specifically.
“Time itself cannot be made, but if time is a medium, what can be made present with it? Can it be stretched and compressed like clay? Can it be turned like wood, carved like stone, bent like glass, or woven like twine?
If we use time to make new forms, perhaps those forms can help us tell stories that have previously gone untold,” —Alicia Eggert
If you are familiar with my work you will know that the politics of references is important.
Future Ancestors, Roisin Markham
The “politics of reference” examines how citation and acknowledgment practices reflect and reinforce power structures, determining whose voices get amplified and whose knowledge is deemed legitimate in academic and public discourse. These seemingly neutral acts of referencing are actually political choices that can either challenge or perpetuate systemic inequalities based on gender, race, geography, and other hierarchies of privilege.
Obviously with oral traditions like I recently experienced in Dublin 8 tour, Walk in their shoes, research, stories and wisdom passed down generations. That is its own reference, just as in Sean Nos singing you’d always share where the song or tune developed from, it providence.
Today I came across this comment and it made me think about having hard line rules about references.
When I teach about UBUNTU, I often begin with a disclaimer: what I share is rooted in memory-oral teachings passed down from my grandmother, who learned from her grandmothers. This is intergenerational wisdom, not data for colonial digestion. It does not need to be peer-reviewed to be valid, nor made palatable for EuroWestern epistemic boxes masked as “evidence-based practice.
Shayla S. Dube, via Linkedin
Back to Amplify at the Lyrath Estate in Kilkenny it was a luxurious venue, I stayed in the 17th century part of the house which had a stunning stained glass window.
I enjoyed catching up and meeting new people online and in person this week. One of those conversations was with someone I meet at Hawkswood.
Insights
I continued working on the Co- Design Playbook. In hindsight wish I’d created a more dynamic resource like a Notion or Padlet. In future I’ll bill 2 – 3 weeks work for a toolkit. I did not specifically quote for it. Trying to manage expectations that I can share +20 years experience, developed and honed expertise in a deck.
The content for the Co-Design Playbook:
- Co-design fundamentals – establishing the basics level information
- Co-design readiness – an assessment, commitment, when required redirection
- Enabling conditions for co-design
- Co-Design Practice
- Co-design, co-production, innovating together – tangible and longer term actions
- Reflect and adapt
- Navigating the Realities: Commercial Viability and Time Investment
- The Unseen Dividend: “We are really innovating”
- What to expect ~ when Co-Design is working
It’s a good version, I hope there will be opportunities to evolve it.
At Amplify I choose not to go to Clare’s Storytelling workshop, something I might forever regret, it was meant to be fabulous and regenerative. She is incredibly spellbinding from the stage. Highly recommend going to her up and coming gigs this September.
Instead I opted to go to the Plenary: Artificial Intelligence Thematic Session. Three talks & Panel Discussion. What was I thinking culture over tech? I am a technologist. I don’t agree with all of LLM’s hype, or predictive analytics on steroids ~ which is what we are actually calling generative AI. I’ve serious reservations about its impact on material use, energy, water usage and land conversion and the accelerated impact of usage on climate and the environment. But as a data realist that stores information in the cloud I also wanted an opportunity to listen to experts. Paul McBride and I worked together in our early careers in Microsoft, he was brilliant then and is still brillant so I opted to hear him talk. We’d managed to catch up on life stuff at the BBQ the evening before and it was great to meet his business partner Meave Bleajene.
It was an excellent talk
Paul was compelling about the problem they are trying to solve, Ground Truth for Data. His call to action was Experiment to build confidence.
This is a really interesting concept that seems pretty new Systems Convening by Etienne Wenger-Trayner and Beverly Wenger-Trayner’s.
He highlighted
- inclusion in a world where physical computing might disappear within 3 years he recognised that deaf people will be left behind
- Data Vandalism – trust and data critical and becomes even more so
- the Design of the experiment and how to create a culture of reward for that ~ delta to data
- Harm: identity fraud, financial, reputational, physical, organisational, social harm including gender and race related harms.
- Magical innovation
- Every individual that speaks English expresses themselves distinctively in their form of the language
- AI killed the Math Brain
- Digital literacy as a core skill
Paul McBride believes we need to deepen our humanity, the arts are critical.
Conor Flynn from the life sciences consultancy Trinzo talked more about himself and the fun they were having! It was a rather odd style of delivery. He mentioned his team and gave them shoutouts from the stage but not in a way that gave me useful information about who they were and the value they were adding. It felt tokenistic, his talk seemed to be epitomised by his comment “here are some nice pictures for you”. He was speaking about using data to drive decisions forward, audits and how it’s made their consultants work so much better, sic “not that they were bad in the first place”. The workflow designs have help and enable giving superpowers to the consultants for forensic auditing. He used the expression “oh my God” peppered in his talk, a lot. He did say ~ experiments can actually support our core business. It felt a bit advertising as a talk.
Kate Devlin was the third panelist, her topic AI: Hope vs. Hype. Describing herself as a ‘cautious optimist’ concerned at the inequality and negative impacts of LLM and generative AI. The irresponsible behaviour of launching OpenAi to the public with no guardrails.
She expressed considerable concern at the economic diversification of shadow AI culture.
Some of the things Kate spoke about across the 4 nations UK that have relevance for Ireland
- Ai is being used by & ON people
- Social & Cultural impact
- De-valuing cultural capital
- who is responsible? Tech bros as colonisers
- Technological determinism
- Hallucinations getting worse
- Gender bias
- Everyone does not include everyone
- An AI chat bot is often hundred of engineers behind it, 700 Indian Engineers story
- A chat GPT search uses 500ml of water (see resources I’d already come across an article on measuring AI searches)
- Ethics
61% Managers use AI in a workplace where it is officially restricted.
Kate Devlin, Amplify 2025
Kate Devlins WISH LIST:
- More diverse representation in tech development
- Mitigation of bias
- Smaller LMs/curated datasets (abandon AGI!)
- Governance and regulation – transparency around AI models
- Knowledge of Al use within companies (responsible rollout vs. ‘shadow AI’)
- Widespread training and awareness of key issues
- An ability to reject AI when it’s not wanted
- A ‘human in the loop’
I’ve a list of things to follow up with Kate Devlin on!
Treacy Keogh did a rapid quick fire – statement, panelist’s yes or no that certainly got the measure of things. Also fabulous to see her and briefly catch up. We literally have not seen each other in about 3-4 years. Another amazing woman in my network that I don’t get to see much.
my notes:
In the age of AI we have to critically ask where do we need it, what’s its purpose and the process?
Who owns the underlying technology?
Follow up on Finlands open and accessible digital literacy course.
Strategic security at EU and national state level.
The risk of surveillance capital, collecting information to be used on citizens.
Bad actors and safety online, the cost to human flourishing.
There was a curious talk just before lunch on Resilience, Dr John Travers said his research shows there are 3 key attributes
- Strong sense of purpose with passion
- Self awareness strongly rooted in reality
- Strong sense of social connection
Clare Murphy generously invites you in to co-create together, this is how she believes the craft of storytelling works. Oh! what a mastery she has. Enchantment, magic and spellbinding is how I found myself as she shared stories and spoke with wit, humour, clarity.
Stories she said are the cinemas of the mind. Go towards stories that give you strength and courage.
She told a story of the time after Ghandi was gone, how bereft people were, it was a story of the bloodless revolution, a voluntary land reform initiated by Gandhian Vinoba Bhave. Also known as the Land Gift Movement. Such a powerful way to talk about inclusion, homelessness, food and the challenges of our time.
Storytellers can de-throne kings
Clare Murphy, Amplify 2025
Her advice “don’t tell things that you don’t believe in.
WE ARE THE STORY.
I so look forward to getting to know Clare better and finding ways to weave together.
Friday saw me back at my desk talking to some new to my network people and finishing the playbook over the weekend.
A few people showed up in my world not in great shape this week, understandable the world is difficult to be in. I listened, just listened to some and others I proactively asked ~ what would good look like?
My conversations were about radical mutual care, time traveling, creative enquiry, SEAI RDD call, being in closer orbit, courage to be the arrow, current system, language words given to expression and articulation of femnist climate futures, social leasing, practices of thinking like a 21st century economist. The why we need this now conversation and chapter in my new book – how to save €26BN.
“Be the Arrow“
Nat Hunter
There is now a line of sight to work on a €132BN problem that’s very compelling, let’s see where that goes.
I’ve started sharing my Saorlíníocht drawings again and speaking to that practice over on Instagram and on Bluesky if it’s of interest.
A question for you
Where do you find inspiration? Have you read, watched or listened to anything recently that met your curiosity or led you to more interesting questions? let me know.
Resources
Story Clare http://www.claremurphy.org/
Irish Research and Development Group
IRDG 2025 Amplify Event
AI Energy Footprint Math by MIT Review
Co-intelligence living and working with Ai by Ethan Mollick, featured in Paul Mcbrides talk.
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao featured in Kate Devin’s talk.
A view to the week ahead
I’ve a finalising prep work for the Future Visioning workshop on the 3rd of July.
Monday evening, Tuesday I am in Limerick at Listening for The Óran Mór.
Then taking a few days off in Kerry. There are some irons in the fire that may need to be tempered. I love Kerry I’m looking forward to being on the land and in the sea there.
Have a great week.
Roisin Markham 
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