On 15 and 16 October, The Social Hub Amsterdam City will host the fourth edition of the Society 5.0 Festival, with the theme ‘The hybrid reality’. Through workshops, lectures and performances, the festival will explore a world where the boundaries between online and offline, and between real and artificial, become blurred. How does that affect our relationships, our mental health and our reality, shared or otherwise? And how do we want to shape that world?
Written by Rens Lieman
These are big questions, for which the festival organiser Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation (CoE CI) has invited internationally leading thinkers and artists. Festival visitors will not only be made to think but will also be challenged to activate their imagination and senses. That way, you will walk out of the festival with more than just ideas: with a real experience.
As with any revolution: watch out
‘Together, we will explore the hybrid world we live in,’ says festival director Esther Hammelburg, who is also a media scientist at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), with a PhD in media and live experiences. ‘This is important, because only when we recognise that our living world is also digital, and the associated impact, can we shape it ourselves. If we don’t, we will be at the mercy of the big tech companies that now largely determine what our world looks like.’
‘Previous major social revolutions, mostly driven by new technology, have taught us how important it is to pay attention and stay in control. This applies to our target audience in particular. After all, the new generation’s creatives, policymakers, societal stakeholders and educators are the ones shaping the world.’
Relationship advice from an AI chatbot
Hybrid reality may sound like a complicated concept, but in fact we are all part of it every day. Our lives are increasingly a mix of online and offline experiences. We automatically take what we see on the Internet – news, social media or videos – into our physical environment. Thus, digital impressions increasingly colour how we experience the world around us. Sometimes that blending goes even further, for instance when you ask an AI chatbot for relationship advice or even develop feelings for it.
‘This festival does not judge and does not outline dystopian or utopian worldviews. We do look at things with a keen and critical eye. We try to distinguish the different layers, each of which has its own value and effect on people and society,’ Hammelburg explains.
A tangible and imaginable future
When it comes to major social revolutions, it often seems as if we have no influence and must conform to a rapidly approaching future. But we don’t have to. Society 5.0 puts people at the wheel of this fifth major social revolution. So that we can keep an eye on diversity, accessibility and inclusiveness.
To that end, festival programmer Kitty Leering has put together a full and varied festival programme.
‘We have speakers who will make you think. Agnes Callard, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, makes a plea for curiosity, for questioning everything: a ‘Socratic lifestyle’. We are also proud that internationally renowned journalist and tech thinker Jamie Bartlett is coming to speak about how disinformation is endangering our democracy. By drawing parallels with storytelling in literature, art and film, artist, researcher and writer Georgina Voss shows how fiction and reality influence each other.’
‘Art and other expressions of creativity can make problems feel tangible and help us imagine a different future, different from the future presented to us by big tech companies. That is why the festival is bringing, among other things, the interactive art installation “Otherworlds”, previously shown in London and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, to Amsterdam. In it, you will experience via Augmented Reality (AR) how cultural heritage is threatened. Also, “Dream Archive: Live Collection” will give visitors the opportunity to contribute to an archive of dreams, another form of a virtual world. “The Forgotten Promise of Machine Creativity” by multi-instrumentalist Jacco Gardner will show what you can do with artificial intelligence in a creative context.’
Everyone is a speaker
The various workshops will focus on themes such as human relationships, creativity, ethics and public values in times of AI. VPRO Medialab is also organising a two-day hackathon, where students will work in collaboration with clients such as NOS, VPRO and #UseTheNews on new AI tools and concepts that promote reliability, transparency and diversity.
Let it be clear: ‘This is not one of those conferences where you sit in your chair and just let everything wash over you,’ Leering says. ‘At those conferences, you only get the perspectives of a handful of speakers. With us, every visitor participates – everyone is a speaker. That way, perspectives from every corner of the creative vanguard are covered.’
This festival challenges you to not just think, but also to experience, feel and even reconsider your own reality. Festival director Hammelburg remembers from previous editions: ‘At the end of the festival, you feel the energy. You hear how everyone has experienced and picked up something different and talks about it enthusiastically. That is beautiful to me.’
Come and join this fourth edition of the Society 5.0 Festival at The Social Hub Amsterdam City!
The Society 5.0 Festival is organised by the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation (CoE CI) – an initiative of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, the Amsterdam University of the Arts, Inholland University of Applied Sciences and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Within this network, we combine the power of researchers and education with creative makers, policymakers and civil society organisations. The festival is produced in collaboration with VPRO Medialab, EIT Culture & Creativity and The Social Hub.
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