Civic Digits join Edinburgh Science Festival with The Big Data Show

This follows a delay in the production due to Covid-19, and a pilot tour of the experience around Scottish schools in Autumn 2020.

In a blend of storytelling, gaming and digital trickery, the production tackles the issues we face when living in the digital age. The online performance is interactive, and is available to anyone ages 10+. 

The Big Data Show follows two young hackers, Cy and Bug, as they get tangled up in a digital mess. The story is based on the experience of Civic Digits’ chief technical officer Rupert Goodwins, who hacked into Prince Phillip’s email account when he was 18 and sent out messages as His Royal Highness. Goodwins’ fellow hackers, who were initially found guilty of forgery and later found to be innocent, led to the first cybercrime legislation. 

The production cleverly uses digital tricks to ask the audience how safe they are online, and what they are agreeing to when downloading an app. The overriding question the performance poses is ‘how do you stay safe and sane in this digital age?’.

Clare Duffy, one of the writers, said: ‘We are incredibly excited to be bringing The Big Data Show to Edinburgh Science Festival. We hope audiences at the festival will be excited, surprised, shocked and delighted by the experience. The Science Festival has such a great reputation for creatively teaching about science, that it feels like the perfect fit for us.’

Image: Beth Chalmers

Co-writers Clare Duffy and Rupert Goodwins

Scottish government finance secretary Kate Forbes said: ‘For the past few months, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, people across the world have been learning, teaching, working and socialising online. Digital technology has never played a bigger role in our lives, and never has it been more important to be aware of the risks from cyber space.

 ‘I’m delighted that The Big Data Show has responded so creatively to the pandemic. The information that young people will gain from this new version of the show will help to keep them safe and secure online and to become more cyber resilient. Perhaps it might even inspire some of them to consider careers in cyber security in a few years’ time.’

The Big Data Show is co-written by Clare Duffy and Rupert Goodwins, and is produced by Suzy Glass and Robyn Jancovich-Brown for Civic Digits, with co-producers Perth Theatre at Horsecross Arts and Unlimited Theatre.

The Big Data Show team also collaborated with the Institute for Design Informatics at The University of Edinburgh on the Introduction to cyber resilience and digital citizenship workshops (accredited by SQA) where pupils create motorised emojis using facial recognition and open source data sets. For this, Design Informatics are re-purposing the Dynamic Wall Visualisations. Pupils who complete the workshops as well as the digital show will get the SQA qualification. 

Read our feature on the production from issue 90 of Drama & Theatre magazine. 

You can book The Big Data Show via the Edinburgh Science Festival website. 

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