Bruno Giussani is a writer, the European Director of the 
Movement: motion, gesture, action, activity, shift, transfer, variation, trend, progression, flow, current, change, development, roaming, energy. There are many other synonyms or near-synonyms of movement - not to count the most global meaning of the word, when it's used to signify the landing and takeoff of airplanes.
I'm off on one of those planes to Helsinki for the Aula 2006 conference, which will be devoted to that theme: "Movement". It's a somewhat exclusive event: only about seventy or so people from all over the world have been invited to share their views on mobility, (tech-empowered) social movements, the overlapping of the physical and the virtual, "the challenges and opportunities created by the global flow of wealth, goods and people and, on a personal level, taking action to shape the future" - in the words of the organizers.
Aula is a sort of think-tank founded five years ago by Marko Ahtisaari and Jyri Engeström (two of those Finn techies-designers-philosophers that always manage to surprise you with their understated yet insightful ideas) and others. Three years ago they gathered a similar group around the theme "Exposure". To discuss "Movement" they've now invited Japanese überblogger and gamer Joi Ito, NYU's Clay Shirky (he coined the concept of "social software"), Spanish entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, Nokia's new head of design Alistair Curtis (they will all speak at the kickoff event, on Wednesday, open to the public) as well as "We, the Media" author Dan Gillmor, Joshua Cooper Ramo (who theorized the concept of "personal velocity"), sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow, Donatella Della Ratta, an Italian specialist of Middle-Eastern media (they all will participate in the "invitation-only" part of the conference, on Thursday) and others.
So it will be a brainstorming about the direction in which society, culture and technology are heading, and how they intersect and hybridize. Needless to say, Jyri and Marko and their Aula co-conspirators have not forgotten that a movement is also a division of a piece of music - thus, the gathering will feature saxophonist Jukka Perko - and a body's function - hence, we will be joined by dancer Nina Hyvärinen.
I'm particularly interested in two things that will probably be discussed there. First, the fact that the virtual (digital) world is increasingly shadowing our real (physical) world in many ways and forms, creating a "bireality" where our personas multiply - some of which we control (say, my blog), some of which we don't (the "persona" that comes up searching for my name on Google, for example). Second: the implications of near-ubiquitous wireless connectivity; we're now basically living and moving under an omnipresent "cloud of connectivity", and while many scenarios have been put forth, and many early idiosyncrasies have been described (Blackberry addiction, invasion of private life by work, multitasking, obsessive texting, loss of frames of reference - symbolized by the "where are you?" question that opens many cell phone calls - etc), we have just started understanding its social and psychological implications.
More on all this in the coming days. Any input is, of course, welcome.
In any way, it's gonna be 140 concrete movements for the "ida y vuelta". Any VOD available next to the event ?
Posted by: Raphael | June 14, 2006 at 11:29 AM