category conversation
It is time to talk about attention. A buzzing attention economy is inscribing itself ever more deeply in our lives: when the founder of a streaming platform proclaims that the company’s main competitor is sleep. When moving images and music are algorithmically and economically optimised and traded like financial assets. And when bursts of attention determine the political agenda and the agendas of our personal lives: attention is limited, desired and moves fast: the perfect currency for digital societies. How do we take part in these attention economies? Is it possible to approach attention differently? And what is cinema’s role in the future of attention?
These questions were the point of depature for an experimental conversational format I curated for the Locarno Film Festival. The event brought together distinguished persons from the world of cinema with scientists, thinkers and practitioners of attention. At each full hour, a new speaker joined the conversation, and stayed as long as they felt like.
category conversation
How do narratives influence our ideas about the future? Where are new narratives emerging? And which narraties shape our ideas of the future in 2021?
These questions were the point of depatrue for a panel I co-curated and moderated for Futurium in Berlin. With: Ann Cotten (writer), Julia Kloiber (Co-Founder Superrr Lab), Armaghan Naghipour (Lawyer and deputy chairperson of DeutschPlus e.V.) and Harald Welzer (sociologist and director of FUTURZWEI).