Mid November 2019, I was once more lucky enough to attend the 9th edition of Techonomy, in my opinion, one of the best tech conferences and networking events in the world.
The event is set up as a three-day retreat at The Ritz-Carlton on the shores of Half Moon Bay, CA. The format is pretty straightforward: many fireside chats, some presentations, and some early morning workshops. Content leads and is focused on tech, business, and social progress. Full program here. All live video streams here.
The theme for Techonomy 2019 was “Reset and Restore: Governing Tech, Retrieving Ethics, and Acting on Climate” with an awesome list of speakers and instigators.
Here is – in more or less random order – a set of tweetable memes that I collected at #Techonomy19:
Can technology help us listen vs. sharing/shouting?
From giving fish > learn to fish > create fishing schools
Only the Walmarts can save us from Trump
by addressing the root cause of big problems such as healthcare
The hierarchy not always wins
There has to be some kind of return (on investment). Why?
Real-Time Crime Solving vs. Real-Time Health Development
Real-Time Evil Control vs. Real-Time Good Amplification
5G Beam Forming
Precision Economy
Computing moving back to the edge
Trust is consistency over time
Transparency vs. Clarity
Your digital twin is not you real me; it is just a model of me
All companies are connection machines
I will not work on fully autonomous weapons
Voice First
The Time of Engineering Innocence is Over
Privacy is Dead vs. Anonymity is Dead
The Absolute does not Exist
Worry and Concern are two different things
The State (country) is done
Welcome a future of 2,000 “Nations” aka Superminds
An irregular update on what happened since my previous August 2019 post and some updated plans. With lots (!) of images and videos 😉 Looks like I have been busy, but it did not feel that way.
The Artschool Project
The Artschool academy year started again in Sep 2019, and I decided to do a cross-over year combining Painting and Digital Visual Arts. Progress has been a bit slow as I need to find a good rhythm to combine these two areas, and the abundance in creative apps has overwhelmed me a bit, to be honest. Some examples:
With thanks to my Academy coaches Chris, Inge, and Patrick
Time Capsules Project
The Time Capsules Project (see my previous update) is still on hold. The plan is still to have at least a prototype of our Beyoncé project, before further engaging with other commissions
Delicacies
Delicacies is an irregular, unpredictable, incoherent, unfocused publication of mind-sparks that got me thinking. There have been three issues of Delicacies since Aug 2019. Check-out them out here:
I also queued up a huge list of reflections, and there are some juicy pieces in preparation for identity and – what is he now thinking – about “foam”. I will try to post them at a rhythm of 1-2 per month.
Petervan Rides
Lots of fun putting together some monthly Spotify Lists. Most fun when you choose shuffle play:
Check out Neil Young’s book “To Feel Music”: the book is related to his efforts to let you re-discover high-res sound, as most existing streaming services only offer low quality sound. These days, young people who never heard vinyl analog sound through a decent HiFi kit, have no idea what really good sound sounds like. Neil Young wants to fix that.
With his book and the Neil Young Archives, you can enjoy again his full collection and much more in high-res. There is also a dedicated App for iPhone, iPad, and Android, but the best listening experience is on your PC/Mac connected to a good amplifier and speakers. Highly recommended.
Visual Collisions
I started collecting a number of “visual collisions”. Most of these are videos, a minority are pictures. These visual collisions are intended to de-frame an audience before introducing something new.
Check out this YouTube Channel:
New toys
I added some new toys to my studio, most of it is software (and most of it free of charge, at least for art students):
3D animation: Blender
Photo & Video: VideoLeap, Insta360 ONE, Arloopa, Leo AR Camera
„Foams „completes Peter Sloterdijk’s celebrated „Spheres“ trilogy: his 2,500-page „grand narrative“ retelling of the history of humanity, as related through the anthropological concept of the „Sphere.“ For Sloterdijk, life is a matter of form, and in life, sphere formation and thought are two different labels for the same thing. The trilogy also together offers his corrective answer to Martin Heidegger’s „Being and Time,“ reformulating it into a lengthy meditation of Being and Space — a shifting of the question of „who we are „to a more fundamental question of „where we are.“
The absolute #1 recommendation is Sad by Design by Geert Lovink. If you want to go beyond the worn-out opinions of Silicon Valley libertarians vs. Humanity, this is your book.
You can find a link to all the books I am reading in my Goodreads
Sarah Baker – Portrait of Bill May – Museum Dhondt Dhaenens
End Aug 2019 – Picture by Petervan
Lace is more – PiKANT exhibition about Lace in Aalst.
Video and soundscape by Petervan
Jannis Kounellis – Untitled – 1983 - Arte Povera – SFMOMA Nov 2019
My own exhibition
Angel in Chapel of Mater
Location of my upcoming exhibition end May 2020
Since I started academy some years ago, I produced something like 500 drawings, paintings, sketches, soundscapes, and video experiments. Many have asked whether I even thought of setting up an exhibition of my own work. That’s going to happen end May – beginning June 2020:
Location: Chapel of Mater (a small village in the Flemish Ardennes, Tour de Flanders territory)
Dates: 29 May 2020 4pm – 2 June 2020 1pm
Vernissage & reception: 29 May 2020 from 4pm – 9pm
Great summer morphing into rainy Sep-Oct-November. Not too bad. We visited a vineyard close to Aalst (Belgium) and biking tours continued at irregular intervals; small distances (20-40 km) at a very low speed. Maintenance of the garden also kept me busy. I have about 150 meters of hedges (x2 both sides), so by the time you get to the end, you can start again 😉
Vineyard in Aalst, Belgium - August 2019 - Picture by Petervan
Life of a Sunflower from 26 Aug till 30 Sep 2019 - Montage by Petervan
Bike tour along a very green Dender (river crossing Aalst)
Freelance
Main project was a leadership immersion for a client that took us to Shenzhen and Hong Kong the first week of October 2019. Think of an Innotribe @ Sibos but then in a intimate retreat format for small private audiences; with artists of course. A good example of Imagining Worlds That You Believe In – aka “Worlding”, a term coined by Ian Cheng in his book.
Hong Kong Peak Tram Oct 2019 – Picture by Petervan
Reflections
Retirement is coming closer. I will be officially retired as from 1 May 2020. Not that I plan to stay idle, on the contrary. Within limits, I will stay available for interesting freelance work and plan to stay very focused on my artwork.
In other words, no time for too much social media engagement (I put some blockers on most of my devices) or making selfies.
Graffiti in Ghent Citadel Park 16 Sep 2019 – Picture by Petervan
All the above helped me getting sharper on what I am and what I do: create artistic interventions, interruptions, and provocations that lead to higher states of alertness and aliveness. Formats can be analog and digital artwork, performances, writings, poems, blogs, installations, exhibitions, immersions, soundscapes, recordings, documentaries, and time capsules.
So, what’s next?
The plan for Jan – Mar 2020 is to work on:
“Interesting” freelance work
Artwork
Pick-up “Time Capsules” again
Studio renovation
As you can see, a labyrinth of choices. The red thread may be the solution: stay hungry, stay foolish, stay focused.
So, that’s it for this edition. If there is something worth reporting, the next update is for Apr 2020.
Merry Christmas and Happy New-Year!
Video play with Videoleap by Petervan – Music James Brown “I feel good”
I believe the file-rouge of this edition’s collection is the challenging of “traditional” internet critics. Forget what you know, unlearn, and develop your own new insights.
As a teaser, check out Utopian Overreach, a great counter-narrative to the narrative of staying human by being disconnected.
The digital-wellness movement, though it seems to counter the grandiose schemes of the tech industry, shares a similar aspiration of fixing people for their own good, prescribing a specific one-size-fits all relationship with technology as a way to build an ideal society. This movement is typified by former Google employee Tristan Harris’s Center for Humane Technology, books like Georgetown computer science professor Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism and Catharine Price’s How to Break Up With Your Phone, and software such as the Before Launcher and Google’s new suite of experiments aimed at “balancing life and tech,” including a counter that tells you how many times you’ve unlocked your phone in a day.
What these interventions all have in common is how they frame our problems with technology as a matter between the individual and a specific device or app rather than the social, moral, and infrastructural relations that ultimately bind them together.
I am still reflecting on some feedback regarding an event that I recently designed and facilitated. One of the comments was that “there was too much ebb and flow”, and that we should create more “pressure” to keep the highs at maximum volume at all times.
But is ebb and flow such a bad thing? I don’t think so. On the contrary, the tension between ebb and flow is a requirement for growth and creativity. Adding more pressure will not keep the flow on, it could create exhaustion and fractures and breakages.
Instead of pressure, I believe we need to design opportunities for expansion, probably in the form of silence or more in general, reflection moments in the absence of inputs and triggers.
Like in Jan Chipchase’s expeditions: “Long trekking days were spent in meditative solitude or long conversations depending on personal preference, as energies ebbed and flowed”
