Workshop 1 -
“A CREATIVE BRAINSTORM”
ROYAUMONT ABBEY JANUARY 2023
Workshop 1 (Jan. 16 – 21, 2023) was about bringing everyone together as a group to start to get to know each other in a stimulating environment with experts speaking about their specific field of research. Through formal and informal interactions, the workshop gave each of the participants a sense of the group as a whole and some knowledge of each other as individuals.
Expert Talks
- After providing insights on long term foresight exercises, Aubert and Roure have presented a broad brush overview of major trends and challenges to be faced by mankind in the 21st century. Information, ethical and related issues will be evoked through the talk.
Tatjana Samopjan “Fire In the Eyes – turning our eyes from a projector into a camera”
- « All the storytelling skill, experience and craft in the world is not worth much if the story is not burning with the fire of clear vision. These are developed in life, not in the writers’ room. We’ll be looking into how the vibrancy of our life-experience and the quality of our perception influence the reach, depth and truth of the stories we create. »
Elena Esposito : « Artificial Communication: How Algorithms Produce Social Intelligence »
- Algorithms that work with deep learning and big data are getting so much better at doing so many things that it makes us uncomfortable. How can a device know what our favorite songs are? Have machines become too smart? If machines contribute to social intelligence, it will not be because they have learned how to think like us but because we have learned how to communicate with them…
Emma Stokking “How can stories save the planet?” In partnership with IMAGINE 2050
- Where are we now? What are our options? How can artists/writers contribute to change? This session includes key takeaways from the latest science-based prospective work, group work on the emotional load of climate anxiety and ideas to depict and dramatize change.
Massamba Guèye “Transforming narration through orality”
- Dr Massamba Gueye LBA, Teacher, Researcher, Writer, Director of the House of Orality and Heritage K etR LEYTI speaks about the transforming nature of oral storytelling.
Interactive nature walk with environ- mental activist & trainer Olivier Maurel “Connection with nature: what if we were surrounded by allies?” – In partnership with IMAGINE 2050
- What is more important: to save or love our planet? What if we could explore a new kind of conversation with the Earth to better support it? Through outdoor activities which mix fun and emotion, we will travel through space and time to stimulate our interconnected imaginations. We will discover how listening to the call of Nature can offer a new way of looking at our current climate emergency
Tessa McWatt “Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging”
- “What are you?” This is a question often asked of racialised people (along with “Where are you really from?”) — a question that reduces a person to their biology. This session will explore how as writers we might approach the ‘what’ and more, and how the personal, the political and hybridised ways of being and writing might answer some of the pertinent cultural issues of today
Clément Théry “The Cities of Tomorrow / City Planning and What Gets in the Way of More Sustainable Urban Living”
- Clément works for a real estate developer, based in Paris. He is VP of Mixed Used Projects and Innovation. Clément is puzzled by the fact that this slow process of creating new urban areas, by extension and transformation, is at its core a process generating inequalities and contributing to the ecological crisis – and yet it is needed to accommodate a growing population fueled by natality and migration.
Eyal Weizman, Forensic Architecture “Who Are Forensic Architecture?”
- Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London that uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world. The group is led by architect Eyal Weizman.