Beyond the pandemic: finding hope in cybernetics

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic plunged us into a liminal moment of instability, and systems around the world are still in flux. With this destabilisation comes an opportunity to deliberately and carefully recalibrate our future. How might we do that when it comes to the future of technology? What sort of future might we want to imagine and build? In this presentation, Genevieve Bell will explore how cybernetics – which grew out of another moment of global disruption and technological change – can give us a hopeful, generative and creative approach for the future. It invites us to look differently at the world all around us, to consider technology, people and our environment as inseparable. The talk will conclude with a small cybernetic keepsake you can make at home.