ElectroSmog Festival0

I'm very excited about the ElectroSmog International Festival of Sustainable Immobility taking place in Amsterdam later this week from 18-20 March. The three day event will be transmitted live online with participants from all around the world. The festival is based on the premise that trends towards hyper-mobility (travel and transport) are environmentally unsustainable and that new communication technologies might provide some solutions - these technologies will enable us to connect and collaborate with people in other parts of the world without the need for physical travel. This is exactly what we're doing at Dialogue Cafe.

For three days, designers, architects, environmentalists, technology experts, artists and urban planners are going to explore alternatives and design sustainable forms of immobility.  I'm particularly interested in the theme of Witnessed Presence where Dr. Carline Nevejan is going to talk about trade offs between presence and trust in social interaction -  essentially exploring which kinds of technologies are most appropriate in particular settings. In her research, Nevejan has argued that 'witnessed presence' is critical in building trust and truth. There are also really interesting discussions lined up on 'energy and information' and 'food and global mobility'. You can take part online - see here for the live streaming schedule.