CODE[D] MIXTAPE

“Code[d] Mixtape,” is a monthly virtual gathering where we bring together a diverse group of artists, technologists and scholars to explore the current, and sometimes unexpected, convergence of the technocultural world across disciplines. The mixtape will be arranged around five sessions; Visible, Audible, Liveable, Sustainable and Emerging [V.A.L.S.E] Futures. Imagining a possible future without centralised, sometimes destructive systems, but with lightweight, distributed, sustainable and co-creative order, that disregard the top down hierarchical models of society, which are often times with inbuilt processor for inequalities. 

The progress of civic society can only move as fast and steady as our ability to trust one another, what we’ve experienced with the design of social media platforms is ironically doing contrary to the principles of a connected world that was its driving ethos. Technology as we have noticed can bring great wealth, but oftentimes, not shared prosperity, therefore, since technology isn’t neutral, and data isn’t neutral, AI isn’t neutral and protocols aren’t neutral, it is up to us to encode the kind of future we want. How to structure power and its financial models. This is an opportunity to let go of preconceptions and embrace new opportunity to think beyond now. 

Our Main Stage speakers will address a wide range of issues relating to their researches, practices or projects; of informality, embodied and artificial intelligence; the social sciences, connection sciences, ethics and emergent strategies; our mixtape moves us from dance to data, music to codes, poetry to IP, Film to currency; land based art practice, art distribution and value generation via blockchain; data equity, trust data and the Digital Universe; planetary sensorium, human-centric internet and computer vision; diverse ecosystem, deep learning, deep tech and how all these small world networks fit within the human framework.

We seek an antidisciplinary approach to the mixtape, because we want to actively break down the artificial boundaries between disciplines, because innovation typically occurs not at the centre of domains, rather within a cross-fertilisation among disciplines. If we are to address the complex social and environmental problems of our time, it is essential to connect people with broadly diverse experiences and skills. If we are to meet these challenges, we believe in the integration of creative approach to design, to public policy, and to technology. 

We want engineers to think like musicians, we want artists to embrace computer science, and data scientists to be interested in dance, while choreographers compose with codes and algorithms. This gathering is essentially proposing a technocultural model for future making, for collaboration between emerging technologies, emerging thought patterns and emerging art practices, which perceives technology not as a solution but as a tool for understanding and imagining a balanced future.