Coming event: Technology for Humans

On the 15th and 16th of March we will host Technology for Humans, a two-day residential event exploring what it is to be an engaged human within the fast unfolding reality of technological change. The weekend is being held at Grow Heathrow a one hour train and bus/bike ride from London Paddington.

Offering spaces for talking, cooking, playing, encrypting and dreaming, the weekend will provide a tapestry of carefully curated practices designed to reassure and embolden participants regarding their place in the digital landscape. The sessions will also provide a grounding from which to consider what it is to be human both within and outside of the digital.

How does technology affect us? Does it impede or enhance our political agency? Do we have the philosophical and emotional resources to cope with it? How will it transform things in the future? How might we renew and cultivate our primal urges in this context?

Over two days, participants will be invited to discuss these and an open-ended flurry of related issues through a series of workshops, discussions and other activities.  By the weekend’s close, participants will have gained the ability to encrypt their emails and will have considered digital threat models, as well as a set of skills and practices for wholesome, wholehearted living.

The event will run from 11am the morning of Saturday 15th March to late in the afternoon of Sunday 16th. Food and dormitory sleeping will be provided.

Registration for the sessions closes on the 12th March. To register to attend or for more information contact info@microsplash.org

Schedule

Saturday

Activities subject to change

Intro and discussion

Open discussion, increasing our understanding of technology both now and in the future. Email is our case-study

Email encryption workshop

Learn to encrypt email, discuss threat models

Communication for humans

Refreshing and grounding our understanding of ourselves Reflections on the fundamentals of communication abstracted from the digital

Design Fictions

Immersion in possible futures, confronting complex tech

Night time communion

Sensory sessions and storytelling

Sunday

Discussion continued

Alter-sensory lunch

Blindfolded breakfast where participants feed each other.

Design fictions continued

Tools for empowerment in the possible future

Back to nature

Exploration of ancient/primal forms and sensibilities in the natural settings. Activities take place outdoors Exercises to help get out of your head and into your body

Session ends - Reflection and revision

For more information contact matthewlinares@gmail.com