Image:
Tariq Ali delivering the keynote address, titled On Being in the World, at March Meeting. Sharjah Art Foundation, 2024. Photo: Motaz Mawid
Overview
In times of crisis, cultural producers must fundamentally choose between remaining silent, justifying the acts of those who have provoked the situation in question, or critically responding in ways that challenge the centres of power. Creativity has long been a force for such change, solidarity and collective consciousness, actively shaping public discourse and intersecting with grassroots activism. New technologies speed up transmission to global audiences, viewers and readers. A completed poem or a painting can reach another city or country within minutes or hours. This assembly asks: What are the effects of technology and digital media on cultural dissemination and the evolution of human consciousness? How does creativity intersect with a collective and radical engagement with the world?