International artists, experts & audiences in conversation about risk, resilience & resources
Presented by the Goethe-Institut & Harbourfront Centre
Global forces affect everyone – join us for an outdoor dialogue between German & Canadian thinkers & makers to explore how arts, culture and nature can help us adapt to a world in flux.
Amid increasing challenges to societal resilience in the face of global mega-trends, the Goethe-Institut Toronto is hosting a summer conversation series on three evenings at Harbourfront Centre's Yo-Yo Ma Toronto Music Garden.
The launch event theme is "Art as an Early Warning System." It features
Gesche Joost, Professor for Design Research at Berlin’s University of the Arts, who heads its Design Research Lab and is Chancellor Merkel’s “Digital Champion” and EU Commission Advisor. Gesche will speak about “Social & Critical Design”. She will be joined by Toronto futurist
Sanjay Khanna’s visual and analytical exploration of the arts and culture as early warning signals of societal risk.
Prior to heading the Design Lab in Berlin and advising high-ranking politicians, Gesche Joost was a junior professor for Interaction Design & Media at the Technical University of Berlin. With international partners, she conducts research and development projects in the areas of human-computer-interaction, gender and diversity aspects in technological development, as well as user-centered design and participation. She is a member of the board of the German National Academic Foundation, as well as the advisory board of the Goethe-Institut and, since 2015, of SAP SE.
Sanjay Khanna was until recently Futurist-in-Residence at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and held the same position from 2013-14 at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, where he researched Strategic Foresight. Amid growing risks and uncertainty, he helps businesses, governments and not-for-profits to adapt to the future and launched the world’s first conference on how climate change may affect human psychology, society and culture. He has worked with the government of Canada, Walrus Talks, and others.
Followed by an open forum with the presenters and audiences.
PROGRAM: Open Minds conversation series
- June 14, 7:30pm: ”Art as an Early Warning System”
Double Keynote by designer Gesche Joost (Berlin) & futurist Sanjay Khanna (Toronto)
- June 28, 7:30pm: ”We or I? Doing Good in a Digital World”
Double Keynote by media researcher Stephen Kovats (Berlin) & social entrepreneur Ilana Ben-Ari (Toronto)
- July 12, 7:30pm: "Mindful/Digital: Art & Cultural Resilience"
Keynote by artist Annika Kahrs (Hamburg) and performance by Japanese rock band MunizO (Toronto)
Curated by Jutta Brendemühl & Sanjay Khanna
- Free / fully accessible
- BYOBlanket (or chairs if needed - limited seating)
- Please bring government photo ID if you want to borrow an accompanying Goethe-iPad
- Please check our social media @GoetheToronto and @HarbourfrontTO in the afternoon for possible rain check announcement
TTC directions:
- 510 Spadina streetcar south from Spadina Station to “Queen's Quay / Spadina Loop”, then walk west to the Music Garden
- 510 Spadina streetcar from Union Station to "Queens Quay / Spadina Loop", then walk west to the Music Garden
- 509 Harbourfront streetcar east from Exhibition Loop to “Dan Leckie Way", then cross the street to the Music Garden
- 509 Harbourfront streetcar from Union Station to “Dan Leckie Way", then cross the street to the Music Garden
Thank you to Lufthansa Group for flying our participants.
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