Ghislaine Boddington is a leading expert in digital identity and virtual interaction. As a speaker, researcher, podcaster, consultant, and curator, Ghislaine explores the fusion of physical and digital identities, reshaping our understanding of interaction within a hybrid society. Ghislaine has been at the forefront of digital human interaction, highlighting key challenges the industry and public must navigate as technology evolves. Her thought-provoking inputs spark debates, combining historical analysis with contemporary implications to offer a nuanced perspective on the future.
She has delivered keynotes globally across 35 countries, influencing sectors from business to policy and education to creative industries. Her impact has been recognised through features in Forbes and The Guardian, and collaborations with clients like Hyundai and IKEA. She is a member of the UK Government’s College of Experts, advising on the future of creative industries.
Ghislaine supports gender equity in tech, founding Women Shift Digital in 2012 and serving as spokesperson for Deutsche Bank’s ‘Women Entrepreneurs in Social Tech’ programme. She mentors and is a Trustee for Stemettes Futures, a charity supporting young women in STEM careers, demonstrating her commitment to a diverse and inclusive future.
This presentation outlines Ghislaine Boddington’s exploration of the future potential of guiding our own digital human twins from birth and even beyond death, who learn and support us through all aspects of our lives. This involves research insights from data scientists, ethicists, and artists, and it is a debate for all of us – for society, as individuals, and for our descendants. The issues (both positive and negative) are at the base of the blending of our virtual and physical selves.
The then, now and future of connecting people across the globe – a fascinating historical and contemporary overview of our hybrid evolutions looking back at the differing modes of communication entering our homes through to the beginning of radio and television to the 60s and onwards. With some fascinating references to early video conference projects, Ghislaine Boddington takes us into the debate that has dominated since the pandemic – how can we move forward now with a hybrid way of living? Can we build trust and develop methods to enable good communications and professional practices to exist across time and space.
From her long-term practice, Ghislaine Boddington shows, using historical analysis to contemporary implications, how intimacy, trust, touch and sense enhancements are evolving within our connected futures. “I explore a space where our physical bodies and our data selves merge and converge seamlessly. I research virtual physical blended presence and the shift in our identities through our avatar and robotic interactions, the integration of our senses and gestures and our evolving behaviours in virtual space.” Ghislaine Boddington
Using her evolved practice, Ghislaine Boddington outlines methodologies for dealing with interdisciplinary creation processes and the complexity of the “I and the We” in collaborative teams and communities. “This ever-expanding digital eco-system is not yet fully understood by anyone, from big business to the most radical innovators – it is new collaborative learning for all – yet what is clear is that the body is the interface for the virtual physical future of our experiences and our senses.” Ghislaine Boddington
