Key details
Professor Ghislaine Boddington
Professor of Digital Creative Industries (Human Futures and Digital Identity)
Ghislaine Boddington is Professor of Digital Creative Industries (Human Futures and Digital Identity) at the University of Greenwich, and Co-founder and Creative Director of body>data>space, the body-led research and interaction design studio she has directed since the early 1990s, with a practice rooted in dance and performing arts from the 1980s. Her original thinking on digital human twins, telepresence, biometrics, body data and self-stewardship, developed across three decades of practice, anticipated concerns that have since become central to the global debate on digital identity, positioning her as a consistent voice in what is now a matter of mass public and policy relevance. She has been a Member of the UK Government DCMS College of Experts since 2021, inputting into policy initiatives around digital identity.
She researched and presented the BBC World Service commission 'The Documentary, Me and my digital twin', broadcast in November 2024, and was a bi-weekly expert commentator on BBC World Service Digital Planet from 2016 to 2023. She is an Associate Editor of AI&Society (Springer) and Lead Editor of its special collection 'Digital Human Twins, Our Future Data Selves', publishing 33 contributions to date and building on her own 2021 AI&Society paper, 'The Internet of Bodies, alive, connected and collective' (REF21 Impact Case Study).
Known for creating debate around what she calls 'hyper-enhancement of the senses' and 'hyper-embodiment' since the late 1980s, she has directed body>data>space, and its predecessor collective shinkansen, through over 600 projects across more than 30 countries, commissioning and directing more than 80 body-led interaction and immersion works internationally. Her co-creation methodology, The Weave, underpins this body of work. She curated dance-technology programmes for Dance Umbrella and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, in the 1990s, co-led eight EU Creative Media projects from 1998 to 2015, and co-directed the immersive networked installation 'Me and my Shadow' in 2012 for the National Theatre, London. She co-curated Nesta's flagship foresight event FutureFest from 2015 to 2018, leading on the Future Love and Alternative Me programmes.
She was an Artist Research Fellow at ResCen, Middlesex University, from 1999 to 2019, where she convened the Virtual Physical Bodies Symposium in 1999, and was Visiting Professor in Collective Embodiment at Kingston Business School from 2023 to 2025. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee of Stemette Futures, advocating for the inclusion of women in tech and AI. In 2017 she received the IX Immersion Experience International Visionary Pioneer Award, SAT Montreal, in recognition of her long term international leadership in digital embodiment.
Responsibilities within the university
- Professor in Digital Creative Industries (Human Futures and Digital Identity)
- Lead, Digital Human Twins, Our Future Data Selves (My AI Hybrid BioTwin) research programme
Awards
- Finalist, Inclusive Tech Alliance Awards, 2019
- IX Immersion Experience International Visionary Pioneer Award, SAT Montreal, 2017
- Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech, Longlist, every year since 2015
- TechCityInsider100, 2014
Recognition
- Member, College of Experts for UK Government Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, since 2021
- Trustee, Stemette Futures, since 2015
- Associate Editor and Editorial Board, AI&Society journal, Springer
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), since 1999
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Research / Scholarly interests
Ghislaine's research methodology uses a loop between her long term practice led and her public engagement work across the last three decades to enable an evolution of her topical expert interest. At University of Greenwich she has developed the ‘Internet of Bodies’, a framework she led from 2012 to 2021 (REF21 Impact case Study), exploring the living, breathing body as an interactive interface, and the evolution of biometric data, gesture and sense interfaces, and embedded digital connectivity. Since 2021 this has evolved into her future looking ‘Digital Human Twins’ research programme, examining the ethical, social and cultural implications of digital counterparts to the human body, and what happens to identity, presence, selfhood and agency as a digital self grows alongside the living one. Her research concept within this programme, ‘My AI Hybrid BioTwin’, is a foresight led methodology exploring a personalised digital twin, tethered from birth, that grows, learns and evolves alongside the individual it represents.
Her key research vocabulary includes human futures, body-led practice, digital embodiment, hybrid presence, telepresence, digital identity, Digital Human Twins, data selves, self-stewardship, collective embodiment, co-creation and the virtual-physical self. She takes each stage of this research into public and policy debate through Practice as Research methodology, most recently into global discussion on digital identity, data ownership, transparency, trust and consent.
Key funded projects
Collective Reality (2016 to date)
'Collective Reality' comes alive when you come together. As aware of us as we are of it, this digital environment invites us to move and perform as a group to create unique visuals and sounds. Using a convergence of generative technologies, it looks ten years ahead, beyond the current VR headset craze, to real-time collective reality. Premiered at FutureFest London 2016 Conceived and created by body>data>space - conceived and directed by Ghislaine Boddington with Joseph Hyde, Phil Tew and Nick Rothwell An original work exploring topical territory, evolving onwards my pioneer work in digital immersion for public participation. Commissioned by FutureFest 2016 and created by interactive design collective body>data>space in collaboration with the University of Greenwich (Creative Professions and Digital Arts), d3 technologies and Genelec. With support from Panasonic, The Games Europe Plays, EUNIC, British Council, Stage Sound Services, iSci and the Freestyle Footballers Federation. International premiere in the SAT Dome, Montreal 2017.
The Games Europe Play (2016)
"The Games Europe Plays" was conceived and developed by curator/researcher Ghislaine Boddington to give visibility to the booming and vivid European gaming scene and to envision future scenarios in which gaming experiences are at the centre of work and play. Ghislaine was invited to curate "The Games Europe Plays" as a series of three exhibitions, events and talks inviting developers, makers and academics from the UK and Europe. Exploring our body from its hidden micro bacteria to its digital incarnations "The Games Europe Plays" presented the second exhibition in the series of three – BODY<>TECH - at the University of Greenwich in July/August 2016 and took a playful look at how digital technologies are helping us to heal but can also disturb our wellbeing. Presenting the works of interactive artists and game makers from the UK and continental Europe, the show envisioned how we will inhabit and take care of our virtual and physical bodies in the future. A day-long Symposium was held at the university as part of the exhibition for students, staff and public.
"The Games Europe Plays" was initiated by EUNIC London, and co-produced by the Finnish Institute and body>data>space. Supported by the British Council and Arts Council England it presented as part of the London Games Festival Fringe official programme, at the University of Greenwich and at Nesta's FutureFest 2016.
FutureFest 2016
Nesta's flagship festival at London's Tobacco Docks. In 2016 Ghislaine curated the theme 'Future Love' - researching and examining digital intimacy in this time of connectivity, the innovations in digital engagement in love and sensualities, and the physical merge with the virtual. She curated 8 main stage speakers, 4 Debate Stage panels (32 speakers) and 4-8 installations. This included a Human Chip Implant event live on stage and debates on Hyper Enhanced Sensualities, Synthetic Emotions and Shifting Identities. Ghislaine worked for Nesta as a co-curator of FutureFest 2015-2018.
Media activity
- BBC World Service commission, The Documentary, Me and my digital twin - first broadcast November 2024, 50 minute podcast version available on BBC Sounds
- Bi-weekly expert commentator, BBC World Service Digital Planet, 2016 to 2023 including:- - Digital Planet Says Goodbye, with interview on her digital human twins research, 2023 - Digital Planet, Special edition, "Digital Identity, Where Are We Now?", 2023 - Digital Planet, Special edition, "What's the deal with the metaverse?" 2022 - Digital Planet, Special Edition, “How green is our data?” 2021 - Digital Planet, Special Edition, “Exploring digital death” 2020
- Regular input as expert across BBC radio/tv
- Fast Forward: Tech Past, Tech Future - Tomorrow Unlocked - 6 episodes written and presented on human futures and technologies - July 2023
- Regular contributor to The Global Tech Podcast - Somewhere on Earth Productions
- Media coverage of work in Financial Times, The Guardian, The independent, Forbes, Tech Trends, BBC Radio – World Service, 3 and 4, Sky News, UploadVR, Quartz etc