Aug 15 2009
Live from LiveFutures, PART 1
By Rachel Beaney
10.30am.
Oh dear god. Massive conundrum. I haven’t had coffee yet – and I looked at the program and was looking at what I wanted to attend and two things I want to see are on at the same time.
Rachel's morning crisis
Saul Griffith, Skyping in from the USA to reduce his Carbon Footprint, will be talking about the Future of Energy at the same time as the discussion of film”Us Now” will be taking place.
I know you’re all thinking ‘Skyping in! It’s live! You’d be nuts to see a film instead!” but the discussion which happens with the film isn’t something I can see later – and it’s something I’m really interested in: how can technology like social networking change the way we exist as a democracy?
That gripping decision won’t be till 2pm. Stay tuned to see which one I see. Comment below if you’ve got a particularly persuasive argument.
At the moment, I’m checking out the Opening, with the Professor Ian Howard, the Dean of COFA sharing his thoughts of the future. In the past, we had no control of the future: but now, we not only can control it, but need to take charge of it.
“We do have capacity of change” he says, “and the role of leadership is really important.” And we’re seizing that today.
COFA Dean
“We need to converge and share with other disciplines to move forward with innovation” he says.
Next, I’ll be exploring a perfect example of this collaboration of disciplines, Creative Nexus Collaboration, where artists and scientists combine their powers to create some really exciting projects – like whether we affect each other heartbeats and becoming a gene for a day.
I’ve booked in for the Decipher Code 2020 exhibition to become a gene and discover Sequencing Analysis at 11am, which should be really exciting!
When I book it, Lucy Wang, who created the exhibition, asks if I have three other friends, for the Sequencing Analysis, or fourteen friends, for Micro-Analysis.
Alas, at the moment I can only think of three people nearby who I can wrangle in to coming into Sequencing with me.
Come on guys – I need fourteen friends so I can see Micro-Analysis! Tweet me if you’re up for it!
Catch you soon!
-Rach.
p.s. Bill Hollins has just started – he’s awesome! Rumour has it podcasts will be available later – I’m excited! And forgive me for my pics on my phone inside the lecture! I promise the ones outside will be better!
Bill Hollins
We always had the chance to change the future, it was just that the powers that be (or rather, that were), were fully aware of this and made sure the general populace were not…
“History”, in the traditional sense, is a construct – and the future is a construct as well. Not only can we actively participate in future creation but, perhaps more vitally, we should all be part of future perception. This is where I think social media has a very strong role to play, not only in connecting people with different ideas, but in enabling us to see clearly, for the first time, dominant notions across the entire social spectrum.
No longer do we need to have our politics dictated to us – finally, everyone has the opportunity to consider different factors and angles and make an informed decision as part of a wider community (theoretically, anyway).
We don’t have to follow our leaders in ignorance – we can follow and lead ourselves, investigating the possibilities as they arise, and pushing for what is best for us.
It sounds utopian, and maybe it is, but I think if it will ever be within our power to attain true self-determination, now is the time (before censorship and political correctness catch up with rampantly developing technologies and we are again restricted by media monopolies and legislation).
Em
PS: not there today, too busy studying, but good wishes to all! Fun fun. Pip pip.