Earlier this year RADII headed to Hangzhou “unconference” 2050 to host a series of events exploring culture, technology and digital currents in contemporary China. The inaugural FUTURE OF X events featured a Grammy Award winning musician, a pioneering animation studio founder, a host of consumption experts, one of the leading collectors of “post-internet” art in China, and hyper intelligent robot Sophia, the first robot to have received citizenship of a country.
If you weren’t able to make it to these fascinating events themselves, you can now watch highlights from each via the videos below:
THE FUTURE OF ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE
In the digital age, visual art can spread across the world in a matter of seconds, a phenomenon that offers great opportunities but also provides a number of challenges. How are artists in China responding to this and the general creep of technology into every area of our lives? And how are traditional art institutions having to adapt in this ever-shifting environment?
As a co-founder of Beijing’s visionary M WOODS museum, a collector of key new media and post-internet works from some of China’s most exciting artists, and someone with a hand in an array of blockchain and AI projects, Michael Xufu Huang is uniquely positioned to examine these issues.
THE FUTURE OF MUSIC
Music in the digital world brings people together in ways few other media can. Music has historically been an integral part of many facets of life, including entertainment, wellness, worship, and social change, but the ways that musicians create and listeners engage have radically changed in the digital era.
From his unique vantage point at the convergence of technology, wellness and composition, two-time Grammy-award-winning artist, composer and producer Dana Leong discusses and demonstrates the FUTURE OF MUSIC in the age of interconnectivity.
THE FUTURE OF ANIMATION
Alongside China’s continued rise on the world’s economic stage, homegrown brands, cultural output and consumer goods are looked upon more favorably than ever. Yu Zhou, co-founder of Beijing’s Light Chaser Animation Studios, speaks to this phenomenon through the lens of China’s fast-growing animation sector, where a newfound sense of creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation are revealing how the “Made in China” tag has become cool.
THE FUTURE OF ROBOTS
Robotics have come a long way from comic book fantasies and cult film classics. Today, the intelligent, humanlike robots that captivated science fiction writers are closer to reality than ever before. Sophia is a hyper-intelligent robot backed by some of the industry’s most advanced AI, and she’s the most recent stage in that evolution. The robot made waves when she debuted for her advanced AI, eerily human conversation abilities, and string of non-traditional robot accolades (Sophia is the first robot to win a title from the United Nations, and the first robot to receive legal citizenship, having become a proud citizen of Saudi Arabia in 2017).
Sophia herself joined RADII at the FUTURE OF X series at 2050, to talk about humans, robots, and the space between.
THE FUTURE OF CONSUMPTION
The way consumers think, feel and act in the digital age is completely different compared to previous eras. Observing interconnectivity and social media, big data and the convergence of culture and commerce, panelists from diverse backgrounds ranging from advertising to AI will share their insights and debate how technology, creativity, and culture are shaping the future of consumption today.
Discussing all this and more was our expert panel, comprised of Adam G.Y. Chen, Founder & CEO of CREATEC and Chairman of Shanghai Creative Collective, Emily Cheung, Cultural & Heritage Columnist at 中国广告 and Founder of STW赏游 Platform, Zak Manion, Innovation & Analytics Associate Director at ABInBev, Adrian Lai, CEO and Founder of social e-commerce platform Yumi and System & Co. and our moderator Ruby Chui, Founding Partner of Brandnographer and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
For more on the background to FUTURE OF X at 2050, see below:
