"FuturePlayer" brings hundreds of presentations from FutureFest together since 2013. The horizon is now covered...
One of our co-initiators, Pat Kane, has been the founding (and continuously shaping) curator of Nesta’s FutureFest since 2013. FutureFest was a bold, multiform public event (four in total, all in London) that tried to make a variety of technological, social and environmental futures concrete and manifest (through installations, talks and debates, demos and expos).
Like many other public events, FutureFest 5 - due last March - had to morph and change under pandemic conditions. But this week, it’s come back in a powerful new online form - FuturePlayer (free to watch, but registration required).
This contains the best speakers and debates that Nesta had already lined up for FF5 - including (from Pat’s curation) George Monbiot and Gail Bradbrook (keynote speaking and in discussion) about the extent of our eco-crisis, and a major debate on the future of journalism in an era of fake news.
Other names include comedian Richard Ayoade, novelist Elif Shafak, and documentarist Louis Theroux. We also point you to an innovative discussion format called The Long Conversation, where speakers hand over to each other in a continuous loop of exploration of topics.
We also point to you some inspirational conversations - A Young Person’s Guide to the Future, and Activism, Analysis and Armageddon, a discussion on nuclear disarmament with members of the Nobel Peace Prize winning team from ICAN.
Over the coming months, hundreds of presentations, experiences and debates from FutureFest’s 8 year archive will be distributed on the FuturePlayer. The names include:
Edward Snowden, George Clinton, Brian Eno, John Lanchester, Vivienne Westwood, Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, Douglas Rushkoff, Jon Ronson, Ev Devlin, Will Self, Mustapha Suleman (Deep Mind), Paul Mason, Akala, Ruby Wax, Nicola Sturgeon, Caroline Lucas, Imogen Heap, DJ Spooky, Vinay Gupta, Roberto Unger, Neal Ascherson, Jamie Bartlett, Sir Martin Rees, Helena Kennedy, and many others.