The Impakt Festival for Curators in the Netherlands

Impakt is hosting the annual Impakt Festival for curators for 5 days from 25 October – 29 October 2017 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The festival will be a multi-media festival with film screenings, conferences, talks, performances, exhibitions and presentations.  Those who are interested must submit a proposal on themes that fit the general mission of Impakt or one of the following themes:

[1] Post Truth? – How did we end up with a defeatist concept like Post Truth? The Internet, social media and new communication technologies have a great potential to support an open, diverse and stable democracy. Yet we find ourselves confronted with alternative facts, conspiracy theories, filter bubbles, and a decline in the quality of news and journalism. What are the structural and systemic causes that brought about these recent phenomena? How do technological mechanisms and societal change interact? And how can we use the potential of contemporary and future media to create a positive approach to information, facts and opinions?

[2] Free – On the exchange of value without money. If we give or receive something for free, what do we get in return, if it isn’t money? What, other than financial incentives, motivates people to engage in value exchange involving their time, work, energy or other goods considered rare?

[3] The Interface – On the present and the future of communication between humans and technology. With the potential of technology growing faster than we ever imagined it, the possibilities we find to efficiently interact with increasingly intelligent tools will determine the new frontier. What are the perspectives for the near and not so near future? How can wider and more abstract interpretations of the concept of what an interface is help us to see new possibilities?