Featuring talks from Christie Morgan on Softer Digital Futures, Nadia Piet on alternative AI practices and Calum Bowden on collaborative system change. Followed by Workshops that invite collective exploration, concluding with a final reflection.

The process culminated in a collective work, Remarkable Dreamers, a deep-sea universe that exists in the borderland between fact and fiction, between the recognisable and the foreign.

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Explore the infinite darkness and meet mysterious and mythical creatures — beings that are normally inaccessible to us humans. We know that we are incompatible by nature; we cannot survive in their world and they cannot survive in ours, and therefore we must attempt to approach each other in this digital no man's land.

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In a world with increasingly black-boxed technologies and rapidly growing AI models, cyberdecks feel like a safe haven, a breath of fresh air, devices that give us hope for brighter tech futures built on playfulness, participation and decentralisation.

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For more details and to apply, please read more on our blog.

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Artwork by Sian Fan

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We'll start with a conversation. What is a body state? What are you already transmitting without knowing it?

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From there, we move into TouchDesigner and MediaPipe, using real-time body tracking to turn movement into data, signal, and image. Then we open Ableton and give that signal a voice. We’ll play together, experiment, and explore how movement can shape sound.

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All you need is an open mind, a laptop, and headphones. Both tools are free to download, and you'll leave with a ready-to-use template to keep exploring.

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This is a door cracked open. A first step into a new language, one your body already speaks.

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In collaboration with Ableton.

1. Another Internet Manifesto
Through playful exercises, we map the digital territories we inhabit: the software, the hardware, the invisible infrastructures that shape how we speak, see, and are seen.

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2. Weaving Webs of Wonder: An HTML Workshop
This workshop will show how to self-learn HTML, provide resources, and subtle guidance creating a simple webpage using HTML and CSS. Using the principles and ideas drafted in the manifesto as our raw material, we will build web pages, side by side.
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SOFTER was born from a longing for a community and learning space where we could see ourselves and our values reflected. Our community hosted events encourage volunteer peer-to-peer learning and the soft exchange of knowledge, ideas and skills. 

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The tutorial introduces the core components of a computer and walks through the process of selecting compatible parts and assembling the machine step by step.

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The build is designed with creatives in mind and supports workflows such as 3D rendering, motion design and video editing.

The full tutorial is available on Softer’s YouTube channel from March 23.

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In this workshop, we’ll explore our current relationship with technology, imagine what a desirable digital identity could look like, and create a symbolic avatar to guide that becoming: a seed, a talisman, a small signal from a future you.

Through reflection, guided meditation, and creative making, we’ll rethink how we want to show up online, with more softness, honesty, and care.