Sensorium Festival took place in the nomadic hybrid edition from August 19 to September 7, 2020 in several cities in Slovakia. Last edition was building on previous good practice and experience. The festival has a lot to offer also in terms of experimental design.
Discussions, performances, installations and experiments promissed the curious mind to immerse into new ideas about a conscious future. Authors of the visual identity of the latest festival was an artistic duo Andrej & Andrej together with Martin Kahan and Matej Vojtuš. They explain the use of symbols following: "The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology,” is an urgent proclamation of Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard professor and renowned father of sociobiology. Sensorium 2020 reflects his words in its theme New Sensibility, which communicates rapid development and power of technology that is outpacing our own physical or mental development in every aspect. Sensorium tries to diminish this gap. Through art exhibitions, workshops and talks it explains, educates and showcases the god-like abilities of modern technologies. Our visual identity visualised these abstract connections between technology and humans with pictures in which both of these aspects act as one."
The curators had the intention to connect different audiences, to offer a truly multidisciplinary program, which is the basis for building a community, bringing fresh ideas and connect in hard times.
Except of virtual reality performances and installations, multimedia experiences, the visitors were able to attend various lectures and workshops. One of them took place in Bratislava with the title Design Ethics. "Design ethics" is a term which often feels quite nebulous and intangible - after all, how can you apply it to your everyday work? The challenges of design ethics were discussed with Safa Ghnaim, the lead on Data Detox Kit at Tactical Tech, in 4-hour workshop. The Data Detox Kit’s clear suggestions and concrete steps helped organisations like Vogue, BBC or Forbes.
Workshop included how to effectively and ethically lead a digital life, make more informed choices and change ones online habits in the best way possible.
Data detox evaluates a number of examples of weaponized design. Then, we can concretely apply and test out tools and methods for critical design thinking on a number of real life app examples. After the workshop, the participants were able to take these tools and methods and apply them to your everyday work.
The Tactical Technology Collective is an international non-governmental organization based in Berlin that has been working in the field of privacy and personal data since 2003. It combines activism, awareness-raising and projects that make complex topics more accessible to the general public.
For more exciting projects and history visit: https://sensorium.is/
Lenka Hámošová 01–10–2020 11:22
It's great that Sensorium Festival brought design ethics and awareness of problems that come with new digital technologies in festival's program. Every festival that focuses on crossover between art/design and technology should include some critical discussion in order to balance the tech-optimism and solution-oriented design approach.