The newly announced line-up for the Festival will interrogate a global conundrum: how can we trust in a post-truth world?
From sex robots and sex clowns, to being tied in a knot of lies or even rope, the ninth Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) released its line-up of speakers and artists on Tuesday. In November, they will converge in Sydney from around the world to dissect the dangerous ideas informing our future.
With speakers as diverse as writer, thinker and raconteur Stephen Fry, through to ex-Westboro Baptist Church member, Megan Phelps-Roper, this year’s line-up comes together under the themes of truth and trust. As part of this, speakers and artists will interrogate key aspects of a post-truth world: artificial intelligence, the ethics of data, online privacy, censorship, rethinking colonial histories, sex, drugs, the rising power of disenfranchised online communities and more.
“In an age of hyper-political correctness and fake news, there’s no better time to reflect on our evolving understandings of truth and trust; to encourage audiences to listen to ideas they may not agree with and facilitate engagement in the art of disagreement,” says Festival Director and Co-curator Danielle Harvey.
Director of UNSW Centre for Ideas and Co-curator Ann Mossop says, “UNSW and our new Centre for Ideas champion the public discussion of ideas, so co-presenting FODI is a perfect fit. In 2018, when we are talking about dangerous ideas, qualities like critical thinking and credibility that universities exemplify are vitally important. FODI will bring these qualities to the big conversations that audiences are hungry for.”
The line-up of speakers features some of UNSW’s brightest talents, including:
- Professor Toby Walsh – The End of the World (as we know it)
- Scientia Professor Rob Brooks – Sex Robots Have No Taboos
- Dr Khandis Blake, Scientia Professor Rob Brooks and Associate Professor Donna Green – Fight the Fear
- Professor Rosalind Dixon and Professor Richard Holden – In Praise of Economic Inequality
- Dr Rebecca Huntley and Darren Goodsir – Cancer on Democracy
- Professor Jeremy Moss – The Ethics of Climate Change Workshop
- Professor Susan Dodds – The Ethics of Vulnerability
The weekend program, hosted on Cockatoo Island, will include ferry transport in the price of a Festival Pass.
For more information and the full list of speakers and artists, visit festivalofdangerousideas.com
2018 Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Date: Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 November 2018
Venues: Cockatoo Island & Sydney Town hall
Tickets: Festival passes from $89 + booking fee (includes ferry transport to Cockatoo Island)
Single tickets to The Hitch with Stephen Fry from $89 + booking fee
All tickets on sale from midday Tuesday 4 September
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