“The Route is being recalculated” – this is the title of the Goethe-Institut invites to a future Symposium in Weimar. An Interview with Johannes Ebert, the Secretary-General, to the culture of the people in the digital world.
It is already the second cultural Symposium of the Goethe-Institut, this year from 19. to 21. June in the Goethe city of Weimar takes place. With well over 50 events, lectures, discussions, and art activities you want to dedicate on the pressing issues of the future. The starting point of the debates on the current social changes, which have been brought about by the globalization and digitization are in progress.
Deutsche Welle: John Ebert, “The Route is being recalculated” is the title of the Symposium, the Goethe-Institute in Weimar. Which Route you think and where should lead?
Johannes Ebert: We are at a threshold and at a turning point, so we perceive that, in the social Situation in the world. Where is this turning point, and what are the factors that affect us there? We focus on the year’s First of all, on the question of how one orientates in the world – in the sense of: How does one find his way? The second theme relates to issues of control systems and autonomy: How the man retains his self-reliance and independence in the face of, for example, digital influence, control by Algorithms?
Johannes Ebert
A third theme asks for the Regression on the whole world political Situation developed in a way of an openness to a re-nationalisation and the limitation of freedoms. In a fourth Block, the Diginomics, we ask ourselves the question of where the economy is heading in the light of new models of platforms, in the face of new digital items? This is the special feature of the Symposium: We put these four strands side by side and see where the Connections are? How will this affect the other?
What social changes do you have in mind?
Of course, the digitalization, which affects us very strongly – both positively and negatively. So we, here in the future – for example, how the relations between the robot and the human will develop, for example, in the medical field. Or the question of how digitization impacts on the war, for example, with killer drones. Of course there are very many opportunities, a lot of Positive – but also very many questions. The Same is true for personal autonomy, if my data is everywhere, collected and recycled. Also during the cultural Symposium, a Panel, such as a comparison of how countries such as China, Estonia and India with data. In this respect, the digitization is for me a very big break.
Finally, the globalization: How do we deal with that our world is on one side, always the same, always similar – that there are no more big questions, the national answer? On the other hand, people who feel threatened or left behind, which can then lead to a re – nationalisation and foreclosure trend.
The consequences of this uncertainty you speak of, everywhere are worth a visit: the populists on the rise, religious extremism, the Emergence of nationalism and isolation, a rejection of multilateralism. The world is currently backwards?
Yes, this is exactly the question that we want to see at the Symposium. How do people together on the Internet? How to contribute the data to people limit? Or what techniques there are to work against populist movements in the arts? Such things occupy us here.
Brave new world: Determine robot in the future, our destiny?
We see from their point of view, a kind of culture war between proponents of the “More so” and the Backward-fighters?
I shy away a bit, to use the word ‘ war ‘ in such matters…
But you already have the feeling that something Big is happening?
Yes, it was something Big is underway. However, not everything that happens is negative. The digitization particularly, but also the political developments show that we must consider as a society, really, where the journey goes and how we as a people want to make. The Symposium provides a contribution to this discussion. We focus on these aspects. The important topic of Ecology by the way we not this Time, we’ll deal with that as the Goethe-Institut in several other events.
You see, an alternative route?
I think Yes, (laughs) I am an Optimist. But everyone must begin with himself. We need to reach with our discussion, including people who may disagree with you, or things simply deny it. This is a big task that is not easy.
Johannes Ebert, Born in 1963, is, since 2012, Secretary-General of the Goethe-Institut.
The future Symposium “The Route will be recalculated” will take place from 19. to 21. June in Weimar instead. The Keynote address on the opening holds the British Futurist and designer Anab Jain. Among the prominent guests of the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra (“Welcome to the age of wrath”), Harvard Professor of physics and navigation expert John Huth, as well as the Australian KI-expert, Toby Walsh also. With the Greek artist collective, “Most Mechanics Are Crooks”, which addressed self-presentation in digital media. As the festival centre, the E-Werk in Weimar serves Share, as of 2016, the first Symposium of the Goethe-Institut, at the time, on the topic of “Swap”.
The interview was conducted by Stefan Dege.