20 thematic conversations to feature at Cinnamon Colomboscope 2016

The fourth edition of Cinnamon Colomboscope, presented by EUNIC Sri Lanka together with Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, will host a series of thematic conversations between artists and experts in the art and technology fields. The festival this year is titled ‘Testing Grounds: Art and Digital Cultures in South Asia and Europe’ and will be held from 25 August to 1 September at the General Post Office (GPO) in Fort, Colombo.

Cinnamon Colomboscope changes shape with a new curator each year and is a contemporary multidisciplinary arts festival that takes place in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. Testing Grounds was conceived by German curator, Susanne Jaschko, an expert in the field of media arts. This year, the festival will provide ‘testing grounds’ for a new liaison between contemporary arts and digital technology in Sri Lanka.

Testing Grounds has been curated under three sub-themes that offer different perspectives of how society and contemporary art is responding to the shift towards digital technology in Sri Lanka and the region. The sub-theme ‘Kaleidoscopia’, highlights how digital communication technologies are shaping our identity and worldview by democratising the public sphere through the bringing together of multiple voices making knowledge on society and environment more accessible as well as the global archive of the Internet;

‘Under the Cloud’ is the second sub-theme that will address the de-territorialisation and re-territorialisation of communications technology and the resulting emergence of new geographies while bringing to attention the current debate over the control of our data – its ownership, manipulation and surveillance; ‘Deep Sensing’, will explore how the developments in the informational environment and new digital technologies offer new ways of sensing, feeling and perceiving the world. This sub-theme will discuss and produce new relationships between material, information and our own physicality.

The festival will see the participation of over 50 Sri Lankan and international artists, of whom several, in addition to presenting their works at the exhibition, will engage in a series of thematic conversations.

Urs Stäheli, Professor of Sociology at the University of Hamburg, Germany will present ‘Disconnecting: New Forms of Privacy in the Network Society’ and investigate how privacy can be rethought through the experimentation of new techniques and practices of disconnecting, as connectivity has become imperative through the digitalisation of all areas of culture and society today. This conversation takes place on Saturday, 27 August from 12 noon to 1 p.m. at the GPO.

‘Networked Life: Don’t Worry, Everything Is Under Control’ will explore our relationships with the network, and how we can maintain a level of privacy and protection over our lives and our information. This conversation is curated and moderated by Sam de Silva, an expert in culture, media and technology who will speak on this topic with Fieke Jansen, Project Lead of Politics of Data at Tactical Technology Collective (Germany); Bobby Soriano, Program Advisor for Tactical Technology Collective; and Sujit Christy, an information security adoption evangelist and a security and compliance professional. It will take place on Saturday, 27 August from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the GPO.

Also curated and moderated by Sam de Silva is ‘Fuzzy Power: Navigating the Dark Side of Tech’, which looks at how access to powerful communications tools, mobile devices and software platforms has resulted in new ways of harassment in amplifying hate and violence. Hans Billimoria of the Grassrooted Trust and award-winning journalists, Dilrukshi Handunetti and Nalaka Gunawardena will explore how we can engage and negotiate with a new power that uses digital technologies to target individuals and groups, and disrupt society. This conversation will take place on Saturday, 27 August from 4 to 5 p.m. at the GPO.

The program also includes conversations by Jocelyn Robert, Josephine Bosma, Subha Wijesiriwardena, Tobias Revell, Sanjana Hattotuwa, Munira Mutaher, Yudhanjaya Wijeyaratne, Shihar Aneez and Dr. Susanne Jaschko. In addition, the festival will feature an exhibition, a film program, audio-visual performances, workshops and an online exhibition. Visit the official festival website (www.cinnamoncolomboscope.com) for the schedule and full list of artists and speakers.

Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts is the title sponsor of Cinnamon Colomboscope 2016 and the event is organised by EUNIC Sri Lanka comprising of the British Council, Goethe-Institut and Alliance Française de Kotte. The festival is supported by the John Keells Foundation, Cinnamon Life, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, MBC/MTV, iFilm Sri Lanka, Debug, Embassy of Switzerland, Embassy of the Netherlands, Turkish Embassy, German Embassy Teheran and the Universite Laval. 

The festival is held in venue partnership with the Ministry of Post, Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research.