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Thinking About the Pandemic

The rapid expansion of COVID-19 has dramatically forced us to face up to the fragility of human life and, in a world which, for some years now, has been plunged into several political and ecological crises, that this situation is taking on a significance of a scope we do not yet know. Tomorrow’s world looks full of uncertainties, but also new possibilities. More than ever now, we need spaces for discussion, for sharing, and for exchanging the possible futures that are opening out before us.

Alessandro Baricco and Jorge Carrión

Augmented Humanity

In the present situation of health emergency and restrictions on collective life, the Italian novelist and essayist Alessandro Baricco, and the writer Jorge Carrión will speak from their respective confinements about this unprecedented state of affairs and its meaning and consequences at the global level.

Stefano Mancuso

Vegetal Future

On the occasion of the publication in Spanish of his book La nación de las plantas (The Nation of Plants, Galaxia Gutenberg 2020), the writer and researcher Stefano Mancuso, a pioneer in the field of plant neurobiology and one of its most influential popularisers, offers his revolutionary views on the plant world.

Teresa Caldeira and Judit Carrera

The Future of Cities: A View from the Global South

The anthropologist and Professor of the University of California-Berkley, Teresa Caldeira, speaks with Judit Carrera, director of the CCCB about the challenges confronting cities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Obsolescence of Interfaces

Carlos A. Scolari

COVID-19 has highlighted the need to redesign current interfaces to tackle an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

Teju Cole and Carolin Emcke

Imagining the Future

The philosopher and journalist Carolin Emcke and the writer and photographer Teju Cole speak with the journalist Marta Arias about the present situation and will reflect on the political, social, and psychological implications of the pandemic.

The Global Disco: Technology and Surveillance

Soy Cámara online

George Orwell alerted us to the dangers of totalitarian technology under the sinister slogan: "Big Brother is watching you." Orwell sets the story in 1984, a decade that made digital technology a proving ground for innovation and connected digital technology. It was what Nam June Paik called ...

Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Saiba Bayo

Thinking the World from Africa

The philosopher Souleyman Bachir Diagne, lecturer at Columbia University and one of the most outstanding voices in contemporary African philosophy, speaks with the political scientist Saiba Bayo about the global crisis we are presently experiencing.

Mary Flanagan and José Luis de Vicente

New Perspectives on Digital Leisure

In this session, the researcher, artist and games designer, Mary Flanagan, and the curator, writer, and researcher, José Luis de Vicente, speak about how confinement has accelerated the cultural dynamics of the hyperconnected society.

Núria Montserrat and Javier Martínez-Picado

COVID-19: Finding the Cure

Núria Montserrat (ICREA – IBEC), expert in the new strategies of regenerative medicine, and Javier Martínez-Picado (ICREA – IrsiCaixa), expert in HIV research, speak with the journalist Cristina Sáez about the state of research aiming to find a cure for COVID-19.

April

Soy Cámara online

In Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, an imaginary Marco Polo tells the Great Khan of the marvels of the cities in his empire.

What to Expect When You Are Waiting?

Soy Cámara online

Waiting catalyses many of our life experiences. We wait for the hours to pass so we can go home, we wait for the weekend or holidays to arrive… We surround ourselves with short waits (the train, the traffic lights, the microwave) and we sink into longer waits (a lover’s return, ...

Ricard Solé and Núria Jar

Virus, Ecosystems and Pandemic: The Challenge of Understanding Complexity

In this session, ICREA Research Professor Ricard Solé (Pompeu Fabra University and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies - ICREA), expert in analysing complex systems and synthetic biology, will speak with the journalist Núria Jar about the evolutionary dynamics of viruses, their importance for ecosystems, and the impact of the present pandemic on ways of working in science.

Reimagining the human-virus entanglement

Ignasi Torrent

Away from human-centred forms of knowledge production, the pandemic opens up the possibility of speculation about more-than-human forms of storytelling

The New Normality

Soy Cámara online

The COVID-19 pandemic has tabled what Alexander Kluge refers to as time for the executive: the recentralization of the nation state in debate and public action.

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Gonçalo Tavares and Tina Vallès

Updating the Important

The writer and playwright Gonçalo Tavares speaks with the writer, translator, and publisher Tina Vallès about how culture helps us to envision the world after the pandemic.

Ghosts & Viruses

Soy Cámara online

What was intended to be a tribute to hands has turned into a reflection on the virus and a global crisis that has resurrected old ghosts. We lay people bring a more magical mindset to the things of science than we think. In advanced societies, the fears and ideas of guilt and punishment of ...

Iconographies of the Pandemic

Ivan Pintor

We review the visual symptoms of the pandemic, its representation by individuals, politicians, media and the entertainment sector, and the dilemma posed by combining these with the personalised tracking of the population.

Ivan Krastev and Jordi Vaquer

Europe after the Pandemic

The political scientist Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre of Liberal Strategies in Sofia, and the political analyst and co-director of the Open Society Initiative for Europe, Jordi Vaquer, will discuss the future of Europe after the COVID-19 crisis. The economic and political ...

The Year of the Spectre

Max Besora

A confined writer keeps himself entertained by rearranging his private library and seeking refuge in books as windows to other worlds.

Manel Ollé and Sergi Vicente

China after the Lockdown

What can we learn from the Chinese management of the crisis? Will it change the role of the country in world geopolitics? Manel Ollé, a historian specialising in modern and contemporary China, and Sergi Vicente, TV·correspondent in China from 2003 to 2014 and present director of betevé, discuss the effects of the pandemic in China and its global repercussions.

Ideas to resist

Víctor Recort, Berta Gómez Santo Tomás, Albert Lloreta, João França, Joana Moll, Tania Adam, Lucas Ramada Prieto, Toni Navarro, Míriam Hatibi

Some inspiration to lift our mood during the days of confinement we’re experiencing in some parts of the world.