Picnic 11 – A better future is possible
Three days in Amsterdam: the future is now
- Series: PICNIC - Urban Futures
Science, arts, culture, architecture, design, politics, or economy – when you come back after three days at the Picnic, your head is buzzing with so many new impressions, ideas, and perspectives regarding these topics. What to make of it? Well, that’s up to the individual visitor.
The last day of the Picnic festival in Amsterdam starts with an exciting speech by Mark Rolson (Frog Design). His visions concerning the topic „Building the Mega City“ are an outlook on (urban) life: the city as an open idea, as „extension of our senses“. He refers to the comic strip character Iron Man („I can see through satellites from now“) and offers some enthralling examples regarding a more natural interaction between man and computer.
Metacity Picnic: Its stories are generated simultaneously, check Hashtag #picnic11
Beth Coleman („Hello Avatar: 9 principles of transmedia design“) and Heath Bunting („Switched Identities“) challenge you with their abstract theses, whereas Jacke Barton impresses his audience with practical ideas: he does not only present the project Give A Minute which supports the communication between residents and city leaders in an unconventional, simple way, but also provides a moving insight into New York’s 9/11 Memorial Museum which collects and connects the background stories and experiences of all those who were involved, concerned, and affected.
25-year old Amanda Monet talks vividly about the issue of trust, the trust of her generation, the so-called Millennials – the young adults who have grown up in the new millennium.
Her studies are aimed mostly at companies and enterprises facing a self-confident and reflected clientele. Her verdict is as simple as it is unusual: they should just do what their ad campaigns and commercials (“We care for you” etc.) announce: „Live up to your promises!“
New experiences and old habits
This day, too, shows that it’s not all about a vision for the far future, but processes which happen here and now. This is also confirmed by Scott Snibbe who presents his fascinating Björk-App, a completely new experience for the consumer to hear and perceive music – which, after all, just builds on old habits: the haptic experience of listening to music. In the past, the record was put on the turntable, the artwork and the liner notes of the LP were studied, and the listening experience opened a whole new world – this is where Biophilia-App continues the idea.
Around the Grand Theater, there are also a lot of things to explore: today, five young enterprises from the Ruhr present themselves in front of an open-minded international audience on the market place – and they make many new contacts; during some boat trips on the IJ, the speakers introduce themselves and their ideas a bit more detailed in some in interviews; workshops and talks – for example concerning „Story telling in the 21. century“ with Academy Award nominee film maker Lucy Walker (Wasteland) – deal with the topics at hand, adding depth, understanding, and promote communication to them; initiatives such as the COMM: Digital Media for a better Future (which is focused on Africa) want to help building networks; and the Mobile Clicks Award ceremony supports start-up enterprises.
The future is painted black and considered inhumane very often – after these three days, the Picnic festival offers a pleasant antithesis: a better future is possible, the prerequisites have been set. What we make of it? That’s up to us.
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