Talks & Keynotes
Amsterdam + Online
28 — 30 Oct

Talks & Keynotes

On both Thursday, Friday and Saturday, visitors attend intriguing talks covering a wide range of topics within FIBER 2021’s main theme Mutation. On Thursday, guests can dive into ‘Mutant Making: Artistic operations in more-than-human metabolisms’ with postmedia artist Saša Spačal and media/data researcher Orit Halpern. Writer and historian Thomas D. Moynihan will address the behavioural science provoked by the possible impending human extinction, discussed in his new book X-Risk. On Saturday, Špela Petrič, Maggie Roberts and Stephanie Moran explore interspecies communication through AI and the arts. Interdisciplinary artist Camille Barton and Victoria McKenzie present two talks on body activism and healing, reflecting on Mutation.

Scroll down this page to find out about all talks. Tickets are available separately per talk. Friday and Saturday Day Passes also give access to the talks on that day.

All talks are also streamable online. Find out how to attend via the button below.

PHYSICAL TICKETS

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Session #1 — Mutant Making:
Saša Spačal & Orit Halpern

Artistic operations in more-than-human metabolisms

In order to envisage a future that doesn’t centre humankind, but instead values a thriving web of planetary interrelations between human and non-human bodies, our understanding of living and autonomous systems has to be developed in new ways. Get to know the artist-scientists whose artistic work captures the otherworldly workings of living and self-learning systems.

Thursday 28 October, 19:00 - 20:30 CEST

Session #2 – Xeno Futures:
Adriana Knouf & Mary Maggic

Breaking down barriers with biohacking, technology and speculation

Under the current capitalist system, identities and bodies are held captive in the way they were born. Free experimentation with transformation is rejected. Simultaneously, capitalist petrochemical and pharmaceutical systems create global pollution and cause unwanted (and often unregistered) mutations in humans and non-humans.

Artists and biohackers reveal and break through these systems using DIY and speculative art projects. Experimenting on the self to achieve body autonomy and dis-alienation from the destructive constraint that capitalism places upon us. In this session, two speakers take us through their experimental research at the intersection of biohacking, technology and science.

Thursday 28 October, 21:15-22:45 CEST

Session #3 – Melting Mind & Body:
Camille Barton & Victoria McKenzie

Breaking boundaries with embodied art, activism and the psyche

Many of the ecological and social problems the world faces today can be traced back to thinking and acting in divisions and categorisations. Just as there's a separation between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ in Western thinking, there’s a clear separation between the ‘mind’ and the ‘body’ (also known as the mind-body dualism). This puts us in all kinds of problematic situations, separating the impact of our actions from a holistic reality.

In this session, we will talk to two change-makers who are active at the crossroads of embodied art, activism and the psyche. What can we learn from them in the fight for systems change and building new communities?

Friday 29 October, 13:30 - 15:00 CEST

Session #4 — If This Is Our End, What Then?:
Thomas D. Moynihan & Alison Sperling

How to move forward during the sixth extinction?

The idea that our existence as human beings on earth is finite is becoming an everyday reality for more and more people. The impact of runaway climate change on our planet becomes more tangible every year and it seems unlikely that we will stay below a 2 degree global warming.

How do we deal with this realisation and the moment we are in? In what way will thinking (and speculating) about the inevitable end of human life affect us and in what way will it cause us to act?

Friday 29 October, 16:00 -17:30 CEST

Session #5 – There’s No Such Thing As Nature:
Leanne Wijnsma & Grow Your Own Cloud

Towards a new understanding of interconnectedness

When we think of 'nature', it is always something that is outside ourselves. We go into 'nature', but are misled by what is called the nature-culture divide. This has caused man to see the planet as a backdrop for extracting resources for the development of a hyper-society. Now that we have gone beyond the limits of the planet, we must think and act beyond this dichotomous divide.

In this session, the speakers will stage a different perspective on the interconnectedness of our planet, ourselves and our technologies and contemporary society.

Saturday 30 October, 13:30 - 15:00 CEST

Session #6 – Mutant Myths Worlds: Sahej Rahal & Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti + Erik Peters

What if stories could challenge the fabric of our existence?

Worldbuilding - the craft of creating desirable worlds - gives an impulse to the actual development of new realities. In this panel, we will discuss the role of myths and how artists merge stories, creatures, symbols and environments to alter our understanding of the world around us.

In what ways can they help us understand the impact of colonial history on culture and the planet? Can they work as tools to build desired green futures?

Saturday 30 October, 16:00 - 17:30 CEST

Session #7 – Strange Relations:
Maggie Roberts, Stephanie Moran & Špela Petrič

Exploring interspecies communication through AI and the arts

In order to develop a true understanding of how ecosystems work, we will have to step outside the borders of human perception and communication. For instance, plants and animals interact with the world in different ways.

How do plants experience the concept of time differently? How does an octopus communicate through complex bodies? In this session, we will talk to artists who use artificial intelligence and scientific research to develop new ways of interspecies communication.

Saturday 30 October, 18:45 – 20:00 CEST

Tickets

FIBER 2021

Day Passes: access to all events & installations
Regular €30 | Student €20

Music & Performance Ticket: access to everything BUT the talks
Regular €20 | Student €15

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FIBER 2021

Talks & Keynotes
Separate tickets per talk are available for €8
(access to one talk, the Garden programme and all art installations)

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PREMIERE: RAUMKLANG (MUZIEKGEBOUW)

Regular ticket: €5,00
Student ticket: €3,50
FIBER 2021 ticket holders: free (reservation mandatory)

TICKETS & RESERVATION

 

 

LIVESTREAM

Attend FIBER 2021 from anywhere in the world!

All talks for €5
Group ticket €7,50

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