Softer Digital Futures London recap: glitching, girling and empathic algorithms

UK – Taking over Shoreditch’s colourful co-working space Second Home in London on 16 March 2024, the Softer Digital Futures tech conference advocated for a more inclusive internet. Founded by digital designer Nicole Jonasson and 3D artist Ida Lissner in 2020, the Softer network previously hosted gatherings in Copenhagen before landing in London for a first edition filled with talks, food and music.

Founder of web design inspiration platform loadmo.re Kim Lê Boutin embodied the event ethos (making technology softer) by introducing the audience to the concept of ‘glitching’. The glitch is commonly seen as a mistake, just something that went wrong with technology. But according to a new cohort of cyberfeminists, including Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto author Legacy Russell, it’s more than that. Within the flaws of gender, technology and the body lies a chance for freedom. The glitch lets us explore and change who we are in countless ways. In tech, embracing the glitch means it is no longer an error, but a protest against the standardised, frictionless interfaces we use daily because of tech giants such as Apple.

Lê Boutin was later joined on stage by theorist and artist Alex Quicho, Space10’s former head of research Helen Job and Ministry of Sound’s creative technologist Olivia Ema. The panel unpacked the importance of ‘the girl’ in shaping digital futures. But they were not talking about TikTok’s countless trends such as girl dinner, girl math or strawberry girl. Not restricted to gender binaries, the girl is an intangible energy that one can embody. Technology will help shape the girl as much as the girl is helping shape technology. Consider digital avatars, for example, and how these have enabled unrestricted self-expression. According to the experts, the girl is paving the way for softer, more fluid and inclusive digital futures.

Design collective Feminist Internet closed the event with its latest research project Tenderithms, which explores the intimacy of our relationship with technology. Members explained that the radical potential of the internet is that it connects us and is not separate from our lives but interwoven into our beings. Algorithms and avatars, for example, offer us the opportunity to structure our identity beyond the physical binaries. ‘As our physical and digital selves merge deeper, how could we add more tenderness to technology and what would an algorithm that looks after you look like?’ they asked the crowd.