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 second conversation on the theme of "We or I? Doing Good in a Digital World" features
Stephen Kovats, the 2012 founding director of Berlin’s r0g_agency for open culture and critical transformation, a transnational non-profit organisation that helps create open systems solutions for sustainable, innovative and hybrid forms of development in post-conflict and rapid transformation regions. They are active in peacebuilding and open technology initiatives in the new state of South Sudan as well as Pakistan, and helped launch Transformaking - the Summit of Critical Making in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Complementing Stephen’s presentation is
Ilana Ben-Ari, founder of Toronto-based Twenty One Toys, a company that makes toys that teach empathy. Ilana will speak about socially innovative design as a pathway to helping children and adults become more open and collaborative in the face of 21st-century challenges. Their joint topic is “We or I? Doing good in a digital World."
Stephen Kovats is a Berlin-based Canadian media researcher and former artistic director of transmediale, Berlin's festival for art and digital culture. In 2011, he initiated the McLuhan in Europe Centennial Network. Previously he curated the international program at V2_Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, helped lead the development of a new urban Master Plan for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, and was director of the 'ostranenie' electronic media art forum at the Bauhaus Dessau. His interests are focused on open forms of digital collaboration, exploring the dynamic relationships between technological, political, and urban space and their application on the transformation of societal and cultural landscapes. His report on 'Open Systems Solution for Peace and Development' formed a thematic session at the first UNESCO WSIS+10 Review.
Ilana Ben-Ari grew up in Winnipeg and studied design at Carleton University in Ottawa. With her company Twenty-One Toys she is revolutionizing the way toys educate both children and adults. She has invented both the Empathy Toy and the upcoming Failure Toy. Ilana is also a curator for the website Education Revolution and has presented at the TEDxConcordia conference.
With a live TweetChat by Hal Niedzviecki, author of Trees on Mars: Our Obsession with the Future. Follow #OpenMinds @halpen @goethetoronto @JuttaBrendemuhl & join in!
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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