Too Much Information: being human in a digital age Nov 2014

To launch the first Being Human festival of the humanities in November 2014, I organised a one-day programme of events themed around the idea of ‘Too Much Information: Being Human in a Digital Age’.

Intended as a public facing ‘anti-conference’, the day drew together some leading thinkers, and around 2,000 members of the public, to consider some of the following questions:

What does it mean to be human in a digital age? When information is ever more readily available, how do we assess what is valuable? How does the constant barrage of information affect and shape human consciousness? Who are the gatekeepers and custodians of the information flow, and can they be trusted?

The programme of events included Ministry of Information themed tours of Senate House, digital art displays, visualisations and ‘hacks’ of the Mass Observation and Senate House archives, talks, performances and workshops, a research ‘Ignite’ event, and a keynote debate featuring Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor Heather Brooke and internet technologist, journalist and broadcaster Ben Hammersley.

The event also featured a collaboration with the British Library and the Speakers’ Corner trust. We organised a pop-up speakers’ corner in the Senate House Crush Hall, where Guardian columnist Zoe Williams sparked a debate on ‘Truth, Propaganda and Purpose’.

There was some press coverage of the event, including an interview with invited speaker Ben Hammersley in the Camden Journal. 

The full programme of events can be viewed below.

Saturday 15th November,
12 – 8pm
Senate House, University of London