ATHENS
Expanded Metaverse
hosted by MADE Group
BCA College, 205 Alexandra’s Avenue, Athens, P.C. 115 23
info@madegroup.co
‘Change is coming faster than we think’ – Bill Gates. Despite all of the uncertainties surrounding immersive virtual worlds and our universal systems, the metaverse is here to stay. It introduces a workplace revolution, reshaping everything we knew. The Fourth Industrial Revolution’s shifts and post-covid realisations allow us to imagine future scenarios for jobs, education, immersion, experience and access. Existing jobs will be eliminated, while others will be transformed and new ones created. Careers that currently sound like science fiction, such as avatar clothes designers, metaverse event managers, metahuman doctors, or data bounty hunters, will soon become a reality.
Programme
11:30 Registration
12:00 Welcome & Introduction (MADE)
12:30 Meta-realities in the Metaverse
Stylianos Iordanis, Machine Learning Engineer (Technology)
Christiana Kazakou, Researcher, curator & producer (Digital Arts)
13:00 Inspirational Talks
Emilio Perez, Artist
Michela Magas, President, Institution of Industry Commons
13:40 Lunch break
14:00 – 16:00 Future Scenarios
Dimitrios Panopoulos, Labour Market Data Analyst, Labour Market Diagnostic Mechanism Department, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
Un-disciplinary Access
Charalambos Tsekeris, Researcher at the National Centre for Social Research, Vice-Chairman of the National Bioethics & Technology Ethics Committee
Immersive Virtual Worlds
Amalia Agathou, Interdisciplinary artist and strategy and innovation consultant (ΖΟΟΜ)
Theodore Georgiadis, CEO, RoiMat, Digital Marketing Agency
16:00 Metaverse Cafe: Illusion or Reality?
17.00 – 18.00 AUGENEXT Live Transnational connection with partners
18:00 Greetings and Conclusion
Challenges:
- How can we co-invent these futures in an un-disciplinary manner? ·
- What will the future workplace look like? · How will professionals be reskilled and upskilled, and how will humans and machines communicate?
- How can we redesign our educational systems to strike a balance between emerging technologies, creativity, social welfare, and digital democracy?
BERLIN
Nature | data | narratives:
What digital art can do for climate engagement?
hosted by Public Art Lab
Brunnenstr. 72 in 13355 Berlin
info@publicartlab-berlin.de
How can youth in the 21st century grapple with the climate crisis without succumbing to frustration and powerlessness? How can they meaningfully engage with the impacts of climate change and challenge the structures that enable hyper-capitalism? What resources exist to help them better understand the interconnected nature of our planet and develop solutions to turn the tide against environmental degradation?
Programme
11:00 – Introduction by Susa Pop, Public Art Lab
11:45 – How Photogrammetry can be used for climate action or climate engagement? by Jesús Velázquez, Media Artist and Lecturer at Bauhaus University Weimar
12:15 – Nature Data Narratives by Michaela Vieser, nature writing author
13.30 – How the Games Industries can contribute to climate engagement, by Georg Broxtermann, founder of Gamesforest and Gamesinfluencer
14.00 – Artathon – Climate engagement – Group Work with challenges
16.00 – Transnational meeting with AUGE NEXT partners in Milan, Riga and Athens
17.00 – Climate Rap Performance mit Payback Beatz and Olek030
Many art-activist actions have contributed to responses of critical urgency in society in the last years. The agenda of media art to act out tactics of subversion and resistance and promote new forms of citizen engagement and democracy is long. Peter Weibel considers how art has found a new agency in a new kind of activism: artivism, a performance- based art form founded on the tactical and strategic use of media technologies. In Auge NEXT Berlin we want to explore new ways of ‘artivism’ for climate action and engagement.
How can we collaborate with young engaged nature and climate activists to co-design community interaction tools and campaigns to put forward active participation towards climate visions? How can we develop synergies between climate activists and citizen engaged media artists to reach out to a broader audience? What are the new public campaigns that create awareness about the impact of climate change starting from a personal statement?
MILAN
Digital awareness as a tool for cultural,
social and job inclusion
hosted by MEET Digital Culture Center
Viale Vittorio Veneto, 2, 20124 Milano MI, Italy
info@meetcenter.it
Programme
10:00 – 11:00 Welcome
10:30 – 11:00 Keynote speech & presentation of ideas. Keynotes by Laura Carrer, Journalist and researcher, an expert on surveillance technologies and the link between technology, gender and human rights violations); and Matteo Spini, an expert on Climate movements and the socio-ecological impact of digital capitalism
11:00 – 12:40 Brainstorming session (group work)
12:40 – 13:00 Group Presentation (First Pitch) + Feedback
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14.00 – 16.00 Group Work
16.00 – 16.50 Connection with partners, Final Pitch
16.50 – 17.00 Greetings and conclusions
Digitization, as the process of integrating digital technologies into everyday life, is shaping our society and has a significant impact especially on younger generations. As a social phenomenon, digitization can either support or hinder the efforts needed to achieve social inclusion.
It is important to critically analyze the narrative about digital innovation and technological entrepreneurship, which tends to turn exceptional stories into possibilities for everyone that are not for everyone. They especially focus their attention on Artificial Intelligence, which rests on a value system derived from the culture of predominantly white, American male billionaires. Artificial Intelligence rests on a value system derived from the culture of predominantly white, American male billionaires. This implies, that the use of AI in youth policies and services could unintentionally introduce congenital forms of discrimination.
Due in part to the speed of the changes taking place with the ongoing digital revolution, it is difficult to recommend best practices to adopt or provide a definitive judgment on the relationship between AI, social inclusion and youth work. What is certain, however, is that the future cannot be entrusted to the excessive narrative of digital innovation, which brings with it the risks of increasing precarity.
Challenges:
- Social and algorithm: being present on social means being immersed inside a bubble that filters news and content we receive. How to burst the bubble? What does it mean to be censored on social media in 2022? Strategies and techniques to confuse the algorithm.
- AI and bias: The future of artificial intelligence will depend on the ability to resolve the issue of bias. In a non-inclusive society, artificial intelligence replicates the biases and prejudices that cause social discrimination. How does AI influence policy decisions and surveillance systems? The increase in available data and the development in computing capabilities are likely to make this a key issue for the future. Training data as a tool for removing bias and building a more inclusive AI and society.
- Digital Utopia: Another Future is Possible. Decades of dystopian literature and cinema have shown us the dangers of digital progress, but it’s hard to get the big picture when you are immersed in a transitional phase. How can hyperconnection and continuous sharing lead to a more welcoming and less judgmental society?
- Commodified data: Advertising is certainly not a new phenomenon, but profiling so precisely based on interests, actions and behavioral patterns certainly is. We all authorize the use of our data, but how aware are we of the risks we are taking? Today the advertising you find online is already customized for you, what will it be like 50 years from now?
RIGA
Climate, Art and Energy
hosted by RIXC – Center for New Media Culture
Liepaja University, Liepaja, Latvia
rixc@rixc.lv
Programme
11:00 – 11:15 Welcome by Rasa SMITE, introduction to challenge: Climate, Terrestrial Co-Existence and Non-Human Communication.
11:15 – 12:15 Keynote lecture by Lina KUSAITE and discussion (on challenge: Climate, Permaculture, and Ethics)
12:15 – 12:45 Keynote lecture by Maija DEMITERE and discussion (on challenge: Climate, Food, and Situated Knowledge)
12:45 – 14:15 Keynote lecture, workshop by Bart Hubert Maria VANDEPUT and discussion (on challenge: Climate, Green Energy and Resources)
14:15 – 15:00 Lunch break
15:00 – 16:30 Workshop (continues) by Bart Hubert Maria VANDEPUT
Paralel: Feedback from Update workshop participants and final discussion
16:30 – 17:00 Preparation of the final presentation
17.00 – 17.50 Connection with AUGE NEXT partners in Milan, Berlin and Athens
17.50 – 18.00 Greetings and conclusion
How much do we actually know of interconnections and how our daily life affects our planet, climate, energy, and resources? Climate change and energy are the challenges of the present and future. Now more than ever, art and creativity are approaches that can show new ways to work and interact and raise awareness of these different issues, envisioning more imaginative and sustainable future scenarios. Art can help us understand and be more aware of the components and connections in the Earth system, contributing to the discussion of the topics of renewable resources and electricity consumption with regards to climate change.
The artathon will serve as a platform for discussion on how arts, creativity, and digital technologies can contribute to raising awareness of climate change and energy issues and building a ‘greener’ and more sustainable Europe. This arthathon will explore creative and alternative ways and approaches to create a future vision based on “ecosystemic” perspective, which is more than just socially inclusive, namely, involving not only us, humans but also “non-humans”, all living beings on our planet, referring to the notions of “terrestrial co-existence” (Latour), and “natureculture” (Harraway) which suggests that culture shouldn’t be never been separated from nature…
Challenges:
- Climate, Permaculture, and Ethics
- Climate, Food, and Situated Knowledge
- Climate, Green Energy and Resources
- Climate, Terrestrial Co-Existence
and Non-Human Communication