AI Literacy Lab and Manchester Festival of Libraries – 11 June 2026
This project joins researchers, artists and organisations involved in promoting awareness around generative AI, and promoting AI literacy.
Digital Society Research Group (DISC) AI Literacies Lab out into the community as part of Manchester City of Literature Festival of Libraries!
Project History
Earlier in 2026 the Digital Society Research Group worked with communities and researchers to investigate a need for resources routed in research which communicate the key issues surrounding Generative AI. They sued these workshops to develop an exhibition and resources showing through images some specific areas where AI impacts us all in our day to day lives and producing useable checklists and links to allow people to make informed choices about their use of AI.
This project will continue a dialogue between researchers, artists and organisations involved in promoting awareness around generative AI, specifically among socially vulnerable or marginalised groups and promoting greater AI literacy. The activities are part of Digital Society Research Group and their key priority/ sub-group, “AI Literacy”.
Festival of Libraries – June 2026
We held an exhibition of our AI Literacies artworks created by Sonaksha in Chorlton Library, visited by over a 1000 library users. On the 11th June we hosted a panel event.
Thank you to everyone who came to the exhibition and discussion, it was great to speak to local communities about our ongoing Critical AI Literacies work and share the resources we have made with the help of AHEAD – Arts and Humanities Engagement and Dialogue.
The artworks were printed as postcards for people to take away with them, as well as our community advocacy leaflets made by Sam Martin. These are viewable and downloadable below.
Public engagement is at the heart of what we do in DISC and especially in our AI Literacies work. As the project continues, we look forward to engaging local communities in these discussions more and supporting grassroots organisations.
Quick AI Visual Guides – Click to view and download
- Visual AI literacy & Global Misinformation Politics
- If you can’t trust what you see, how do you know what to believe?
- The Cultural Impact of Visual AI on Youth Perceptions of Literacy
- Who owns an AI image? Can we still trust what we see online?
- The Political Economy of AI
- Who actually controls artificial intelligence?
- Environmental AI literacy : The missing piece we all need
- Every time we ask AI to write an email or generate an image, what is the cost to the planet?
- Educator AI literacy
- Should AI be allowed in the classroom?
- Digital Zemiology
- What happens to our minds when we let AI do all our thinking, reading, and writing?
- Critical data literacy & young people
- Tech giants track young people’s sleep, play, and learning, turning their personal lives into data for profit.
- AI & Sonic literacies
- Can a computer ever write a song that makes you cry?
- Visual AI politics
- Is visual generative AI is simply a new chapter in storytelling—a powerful tool for creative, synthetic realism or a machine for making fakes.
Download the Resources
1 → Don't Share That. Fact checking AI
2 → Is This Real? What is AI?
3 → Helpful But From Where? Ethical AI use
4 → The Hidden Cost. Carbon, climate and AI
5 → It Gets Under Your Skin. Emotional impact
6 → They Don't Need Facts. Reputation damage
7 → You Can Say No. How to refuse
8 → Free Tools That Actually Work. AI in the office
Special thanks to Esther Lisk-Carew, Florence Chee, Daniel Joseph, Adi Kuntsman and Adam Cooke. And even greater thanks to Sonaksha Iyengar for their amazing artistic talents in transforming our research into beautiful artworks. See Sonaksha’s work and portfolio here.
