Between 2025-26, Coral Manton joined us for a six month Creative Technologist Fellowship at KWMC funded by MyWorld and Watershed. The fellowship set out to explore what comes next in technology for KWMC, for the communities it works with, and for community organisations more broadly.
Coral is a Creative Technologist and Senior Lecturer in Creative Computing at Bath Spa University. Access to education and opportunity for young people sits at the heart of everything she does. She has worked with Knowle West Media Centre before – running AI chatbot workshops and starting the Women Reclaiming AI project here.
During the fellowship, Coral explored the KWMC archive, ran workshops and technology projects, and gave talks.
As part of her fellowship, Coral created a zine about technology, power and possibility in Knowle West and beyond:
She also created a microsite, ‘Tech Futures: What’s Next’, resulting from that thinking. The site makes the case for a different kind of digital inclusion and continues the conversation about the role of creative technology in community life:
Read more about Coral’s work with us in the blog below, which she wrote half-way through her fellowship. This includes a collaborative game using coded LEDs, created with young people on Andover Road as part of the Retrofit Street project, led by WeCanMake in collaboration with KWMC.
Image Credits
Top row: Coral speaking and on the panel at ‘Learning For a Class(Less) Digital Future’, 2025. Photographed by Ibi Feher
Bottom row: Street Lighter being played at ‘Andover Road Christmas Lights’ event, 2025. Photographed by Ibi Feher.