How a LinkedIn Conversation Eventually Took Me to Cambridge

To give the backstory, I had reached out to her during my NID days. After I received an offer from RCA while I was in the second semester of NID, I wrote to her about it. I shared a project idea with her around music and an immersive experience. She told me it could be my major research project in RCA! I was excited to meet her in London, but I never got the chance. It had slipped my mind, to be honest. With London offering you a thousand things to do, you sometimes forget to keep track of all the plans you make.

On the first day of the Data School, as we arrived in the Faculty of English, there was a cafe where we had our ID cards spread out. I picked up mine and took a few photos of the space. Out of nowhere, I overheard my name. I looked up. A lady with light-coloured hair, wearing a shirt and a pair of glasses, looked at me and smiled loudly. “Abodid!” she whispered softly and made her way towards me. It didn’t take me a second to recognise it was Prof. Eleanor Dare, the convenor of the Cultural Heritage Data School. I walked towards her, awkwardly making space between the tables, and hugged her. I was so happy at that moment.

Almost 4 years since our first conversation on LinkedIn, I was finally meeting her in person. It was only because of her recommendation that I was offered a full bursary for the course. Earlier, I received an invitation from the University of Cambridge that quoted the convenor of the Data School, specifically mentioning my work at the RCA. Of course, I understood it was Eleanor’s word, since she knew me personally. It was because of that letter that I was able to secure funding from multiple sources. I will cherish that letter from Cambridge all my life.

Sometimes you do not realise how far you have come unless someone reminds you. This was one such moment for me. I had to remind myself, pat myself on the back, hug myself, and remember how far I have come.

The data school began with a brief introduction from Eleanor. She gave an overview of the program, what would be taught to us, and the activities we would be doing. I remember a quote being shared in the class which made me reflect. It was “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” It basically means that if you are not involved in the decision-making process, you will be negatively affected by others’ decisions. She made us reflect on what constitutes the ‘universal’?

We’re introduced to works by Sasha Costanza-Chock, about whom I later researched and found an amazing book by them, which I would definitely read in due time and recommend to you. It’s called ‘Design Justice -Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need’.

Here is a link to the open source of the book: https://designjustice.mitpress.mit.edu/

A few minutes into the lecture, I overheard an amazing line: “Data is an extension of Earth’s finite resources.” It stayed with me. After that, Eleanor shared an Instagram account that offers interesting insights and critical commentary on paintings. You should check it out.

The first session began with Abdullah Safir, a recipient of the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship who is pursuing his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He talked about his ethnographic research work in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He mentioned that his research aims to empower marginalised populations in the Global South whose perspectives on how AI and digital systems are being developed, interpreted, and governed are otherwise ignored.

Before I begin writing about this experience in Cambridge, let me start with a basic introduction to what exactly cultural heritage data is. Cultural Heritage data include both tangible (such as monuments, pottery, paintings, books, archives) and intangible (such as customs, traditions, folklore) aspects of cultural heritage. These data can exist in analogue form, be digitised or be born digital. This is not an official definition, but something that resonated with me as I read it on one of the slides during the presentation.

After that, we had an activity in which we were asked to sit around a few tables, each with certain objects placed on it. Then we were asked to discuss the ethical implications we see in those objects. We got a set of very old postcards with handwritten text. Some were stamped, others were unstamped. Some had colour photographs, while others were in black and white.

From an ethical standpoint, some of us shared some interesting points. I remember asking how these cards were procured. Someone was curious about the privacy of these letters, considering some of them are very personal. Some were questioning the Intent behind the photographs in the back. Some of them questioned whether stamping those cards was really necessary.

We were introduced to the programming language ELIZA, considered the world’s first chatbot, developed by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT in the 1960s.

“All tech is world-building. It’s not about making technology define your work. That’s the last thing we believe in.”

“AI literally has zero use case, in my honest opinion,” Eleanor told us in the middle of the session while we were discussing the vibe-lifestyle we live with AI. That was perhaps one of the most powerful, impactful, and weirdly unsettling statements I had heard in the entire week in Cambridge.

Post that, there was another coffee break, and then we continued with the workshops. The second session was with Dr Eleanor Dare, where she taught us how to work creatively with cultural heritage data on paper and in Python. She taught us the basics of Python and fun ways to use specific built-in libraries. Remember, it’s not a code-heavy school at all! Everything taught was very basic and easy to understand, even for those without a technical background.

After Jack’s session, we formed the working groups. The Data School team had already built a bunch of groups, which they had thoughtfully mixed to create groups with diverse skill sets yet aligned with the kind of work they do. After the grouping was done, we were asked to go out and prototype a space and move through those stories. This was the foundation stone of the main project we were about to develop over the next few days. We created one small activity based on Dr Arenkala’s idea of preserving Nagaland’s cultural heritage.

The next session was about world-building, interactive games and photogrammetry. There wasn’t much theory. They just talked about the activity, and since our groups were already formed, we went to pick a space and started working. We used some objects and Polycam for photogrammetry. Funnily enough, I was reminded of my engineering days when I used photogrammetry to make 3D models of my college campus. It was fun to see the full circle moment in Cambridge! I used Agisoft Photoscan during those days. Now it was the Polycam app on my iPhone.

I went inside to continue Andy’s session. He gave us some sheets and an iPad and asked us to go to the specific locations allocated to each group. There were specific activities for each group. We photographed the entire journey and did a couple of those activities. It was an interesting activity. I had invited Yashaswinee to join me in this activity. She captured some beautiful photos while our group was working. She has gotten so good at it. She does all shutter changes, ISO settings and even focal length adjustments by herself as needed these days! Initially, the activity felt quite random. Later, the next day, when Andy shared the entire bunch of photos of all the groups, they made sense. We were literally using walking as a method to discover the city’s infrastructure.

Post that we had a public keynote event by Dylan Yamada Rice. It was a talk about “Research and Design for Cultural Heritage Data and Experience”. Oh gosh, the slides were so well curated! I still have them fresh in my mind. I remember seeing Super Mario somewhere in the slides and being like awwwww!!

Her style and eloquence were something so impeccably fine that anyone would love to come to the talk to learn some of that! I learned interesting ways to research, interpret, and present data in a fun, relevant, and engaging way. I would definitely revisit the slide deck!!

“Can we translate research into a video game?”

“Who benefits if you stop writing?”

We also discussed the idea of “Intangible Cultural Heritage” and how UNESCO “gatekeeps” access to certain cultural heritage spaces and artefacts.

Post that, we geared up for the last session of the day. It was a session with Dr Harshadha Balasubramanian, titled “Rethinking Data with Access”. Harshadha is an anthropologist researching the labour of making immersive media accessible. I had attended one of her lectures during my RCA days and found it super insightful about accessibility. Her session was focused on ideas to make audio-visual content accessible in the GLAMA sector. She also shared the importance of Alt Text and interesting ideas on creative captioning. I also learned the importance of including a deaf creative consultant from the beginning of a project and not as an afterthought. Students were fascinated by seeing her device, which she uses to assist her in reading. I learnt to read Braille for the first time during one of the activities. It was on my wishlist for a long time!!

We continued with our group project. The classes were reduced now, and more focus was given to the group project. We got everything ready in a few hours. We went extremely low-tech and focused on the high-performative storytelling part. We focused on building a participatory activity where imagination becomes a method of preservation.

With Arenkala, one of our team members, leading the concept, we built an activity in which she initially sings a song in her local dialect. Then people share what they feel by drawing it on a sheet of paper, using the keywords we give them as prompts. It was a very engaging activity. We invited a group to participate in this activity and documented it. Later, we designed a slide deck with the insights and photos to share with the class.

As we were wrapping up the activity, we had a session with Jonathan to dive deeper into the software’s technical details. His presentation was the most non-technical. It was all about best practices, presented with a lot of humour. I loved it!!

On reaching the campus, we had a session with Eleanor, focused on Critical Data Visualisation for Cultural Heritage Data. It’s one of my favourite and most useful sessions. I have always been keen on data visualisation. I loved the different ways of visualisation she shared with us. She also shared the ethics of scale in a graph. I realised how important it is to think ethically about the scale and units in a graph, depending on the context. The examples she showed towards the end were so cool. I will definitely check the side deck to check them out.

The presentations were amazing. I loved the mix of projects. Some were very digital, while some were absolutely analogue and non-tech, like ours. It was such an exhilarating experience to speak on the stage, facing an international crowd about the project. It was a beautiful experience to make them laugh in between by cracking a joke!!

A couple of projects were based on code-based interactive activities in the digital space using camera data or some other audio data. Some of them focused on building a gamified experience using local cultural data. A team focused on turning object interaction into digital experiences.

Another team created a “museum of nostalgia”, drawing on collective and individual memory and certain artefacts. I am a sucker for nostalgia. This entire article is a testament to the same. Some worked on building embodied experiences to reconnect communities. Overall, it was a very insightful session where we got to know everyone’s projects. I wish we had a few more days to dive deeper into everyone’s ideas and work together on them. As the session ended, Eleanor gave a vote of thanks and concluded the data school. She had distributed the certificates to the groups at the end of their session. People were taking photos with their ID cards and certificates, and finally saying goodbye to each other.

Continue reading this story: As the Cambridge Data School concluded, my time in the UK evolved beyond research rooms and academic halls. I wanted to represent where I come from, taking our homegrown Odia handlooms and crafts across Manchester and Cambridge. Discover how those partnerships came alive in How I Took Odia Culture Abroad Through Brand Collaborations.