The Digital Wellness Show

maandag 2 september 2024

In Paradiso - Main Hall

Doors: 18:45, Main programme: 19:30

Program is seated only

Next Nature invites you to the Digital Wellness Show. A conference and visual spectacle featuring presentations, 'treatments', debates, and much more, where we examine our digital wellbeing and prepare ourselves for a future with technology.

How is your digital wellbeing actually? Do you feel the urgency for a digital detox, or should we collaborate more and better with technology? And most importantly, what does that then look like? How can AI improve our lives?

In the past, staying connected required effort. Today, it's hard to disconnect from the constant flow of messages and notifications. Our smartphones have become extensions of our bodies. Technology has lightened our physical load but increased our mental one. It's tempting to completely unplug. However, the real challenge is finding our wellness without abandoning the fruits of our tech advancements.

During this evening, Stefan van der Stigchel will explain what attention is and how it actually works. Marleen Stikker will critically examine technology to discuss the future narratives we believe in. Peter Lunenfeld jumps through time, offering a global view on digital well-being.

Silvio Lorusso compares today's digital maximalism with physical minimalism. Roanne van Voorst showcases the influence of AI. There will also be performances by none other than Benjamin Fro, Geoffrey Lillemon, Luna Maurer, and Marina Orlova.

The Digital Wellness Show is supported by AFK and organised in cooperation with Paradiso.

Line-up

Main Hall

Next Nature

Speakers

Roanne van Voorst
Roanne van Voorst is a Futures-Anthropologist and Principal Investigator of an international research project focused on the future of healthcare, funded by the European Research Committee. She serves as the president of the Dutch Future Society, is a research fellow within the Next Nature Network, and produces the podcast/radioplay platform ‘The Emic – Anthropological Insights from the Field’.

Peter Lunenfeld
Peter Lunenfeld is a professor in Design Media Arts at UCLA, and founder of the Institute for Technology & Aesthetics (The ITA). The author and editor of over a dozen books, including The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading and City at the Edge of Forever: Los Angeles Reimagined, his forthcoming project revolves around AI and what he terms the “neo-synthetic.”

Benjamin Fro
Benjamin Fro inspires and brings people together. He does this through words or music, but usually through a combination of both. With his music, he moves you, but his words make you pause and reflect. Whether something terrible has happened, or something wonderfully exciting, Benjamin, with his sense of rhyme, ambiguity, and dynamic performance, can make people think and spur them into action.

Luna Maurer
Luna Maurer is a mixed media designer, artist, lecturer and author with a focus on digital technologies' impact on daily life. She explores human characteristics through installations, performances, web experiences, and films. She co-founded studio Moniker, known for participatory and web-based projects, and co-authored the influential manifesto Conditional Design. Currently, she's redefining perspectives on digital technology and co-authored the Designing Friction manifesto, advocating friction in digital culture.

Stefan van der Stigchel
Stefan van der Stigchel is professor of Cognitive Psychology at Utrecht University. He heads the AttentionLab research group, which investigates how attention and visual awareness together shape our view of the world. In addition to his scientific publications, Stefan is the author of several popular science books, which are also published internationally.

Geoffrey Lillemon
Geoffrey Lillemon (USA/Netherlands) is a cult figure and artist in Amsterdam. Specializing in CGI and media art, he blurs the lines between commercial and fine art. Renowned for his innovative work, he is influential in defining new aesthetics, pipelines, and visionary ideas. He is now leveraging his unique approach to shape the future of health and art.

Marleen Stikker
Marleen Stikker is founder and director of Waag. In 1993, Marleen was at the cradle of the internet. As creator and 'mayor' of The Digital City, she developed the first free gateway to a virtual community on the internet. In 1994 she founded Waag together with Caroline Nevejan. Waag has grown into a leading European research institute for technology and society.

Silvio Lorusso
Silvio Lorusso is a writer, artist and designer based in Lisbon, Portugal. He published Entreprecariat (Onomatopee) in 2019 and What Design Can’t Do (Set Margins’) in 2023. Lorusso is an assistant professor and co-director of the Center for Other Worlds at the Lusófona University in Lisbon and a tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences from the Iuav University of Venice.

Marina Orlova
Marina Orlova is an independent dance/theatre maker based in Amsterdam. Her main topics are mental health, tech ethics and migration. Combining her backgrounds in sociology and experimental choreography, she takes the role of a mediator between AI engineering logic and theatre apparatus and creates anti-disciplinary performances on the crossover of mental health, AI ethics and Data feminism.

The conference will be moderated by Koert van Mensvoort.

How to get to Paradiso

Paradiso is on the Weteringschans 6-8 in Amsterdam. That is very close to Leidseplein. From every part of the city there are trams heading towards Leidseplein. From there on out you can walk to Paradiso. Free and secured underground bike parking is available on the opposite side of Paradiso. Travelling by car is difficult, since there are only a few busy parking lots nearby.

Google Maps

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