Revision Summit 2018

Most people spend at least ¼ of their productive lifetimes at work. Indicators show a growth in productivity while at the same time studies have pointed out that a great proportion of it is happening due to automation. Some scenarios indicate that over the next 10 years at least 50% of all current jobs could be automated. In this context, how do we envision the future of work? In a world where the 5 richest people on earth accumulated more wealth than the 50% poorest, what are ideas and narratives of the concept of work, that help us to address the mentioned challenges?. Are our current social infrastructures up for the task? ? Could a universal basic income be a reasonable solution? Or is it only a tool for existing elites to manifest the status-quo of inequality?

In this panel we want to take a look at one of the major challenges in recent times: the great influx of migration due to economic, political and environmental circumstances: What are the causes and what or who might bear part of the responsibility? How do we want to address the issues causing migration with emerging technologies at our back? What visions do we have of a global system of solidarity and how might emerging technologies be able to support that?

According to Albert Einstein we can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to create them with. Looking at impact investment, are we thinking out of the box and risking enough to finance radical ideas? Are we investing in ventures that might give truly surprising results? Are we aware of our responsibility in shaping the digital infrastructure of the future? Here we would like to discuss what frameworks finance needs to enable radical ideas and evaluate what best practices are already in place.

In this panel we will discuss about how we could use technologies to create a more inclusive and democratic world. In February 8, 1996, John Perry Barlow published the famous Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace. This declaration mirrors an idea where the internet and new technologies come together to liberate the individual from the monopoly and corporate power. Over the last decade new technologies changed power structures in the world, but where to? The technology industry has grown to dominate almost all aspects of human life and in the internet sphere power concentration has even increased. How does this comply to democratic principles? How can technology be reframed in order to distribute ownership and governance?

Social practises rely on many different formats and so does social change. What role art and art practise can play in this regard will be the topic of this panel. How can we effectively foster behavioural change, the most relevant prerequisite for a change towards a more human-centric society? What impact does or can art have in this regard? Joseph Beuys already challenged the perception and works of “the social”, the question remains how his findings can be made fruitful for our current challenges.