Imagining Future Tech in Stories | Beyond Text

Description

Important Notice

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About the Programme:

Can technology merely be a tool, rather than the master? Can stories of technology be optimistic? In this session of Beyond Text, we survey how contemporary art, speculative design, and world-building in games/VR are used for storytelling, as well as the portrayal of speculative tech in fiction.

Join our panel as they imagine tech they wish could exist, the ones that have captured our imaginations for decades, and discuss the potential and misconceptions of Generative AI and emerging tech.

About the Speakers:

Debbie Ding (speaker)

Debbie Ding is an artist who builds virtual worlds in physical and digital media. Her ongoing PhD research explores virtual worlds in games as a medium for artistic practice. Selected exhibitions include “Worldbuilding” (Julia Stoschek Foundation, 2023), “Radical Gaming” (Haus der Elektronischen Künste Basel, 2021), “Wikicliki” (Singapore Art Museum, 2021), “President’s Young Talents” (Singapore Art Museum, 2018); “After the Fall” (National Museum of Singapore, 2017); Singapore Biennale (2016); Radio Malaya (NUS Museum, 2016). Her work was shortlisted for the President’s Young Talents 2018 and Impart Art Awards 2020.

Debbie received a BA English Literature from National University of Singapore and MA Design Interactions from Royal College of Art, London (as recipient of National Arts Council Singapore’s Arts Scholarship). Her PhD research at NTU ADM is supported by the Nanyang Technological University Research Scholarship. She previously taught Interaction Design and has a Specialist Diploma in Teaching & Learning (Higher Education) from NIE-NYP.

Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (speaker)

Victor Fernando R. Ocampo is the author of numerous short stories, as well as the International Rubery Book Award shortlisted The Infinite Library and Other Stories (Math Paper Press, 2017 ; US edition: Gaudy Boy, 2021) and Here be Dragons (Canvas Press, 2015), which won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012. His play-by-email interactive fiction piece “The Book of Red Shadows” debuted at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2020. He is a fellow at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference (UK) and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Scriptwriting Workshop, as well as a Jalan Besar writer-in-residence at Sing Lit Station (2020/2021).

Victor is also a technology consultant specializing in Business Development, Product Management, and Science Fiction prototyping. He specializes in telling stories to describe and explore the implications of futuristic technologies and the social structures enabled by them. He is also the Co-Chair of the Decentralized Identity Foundation APAC special interest group, an engineering-driven organization focused on developing the foundational elements necessary to establish an open ecosystem for decentralized identity.

Johnny Jon Jon (moderator)

Since his first full-length play in 2006, Johnny Jon Jon’s works have evolved from being thought pieces on socio-political constructs to ruminative explorations of the human condition set within the characteristics of a minor literature. Besides the critically acclaimed Hawa (2015) and Potong (2018), his works include National Memory Project (2012), Family Dinner (2017) and Punggah (2020). When not writing plays, Jon Jon writes short stories and facilitates design thinking workshops. He currently lives with his better half as they try to get their startups (children) to become unicorns.

About Beyond Text:

Explore Beyond Text, an NLB literary arts series delving into the multisensory experience of reading. Discover how creators and industry professionals tell stories on wellness, sustainability, and careers through comics, theatre, and more.

Join the conversation on how we encounter words and images in today's world! To sign up for the other Beyond Text sessions, click here!