In today’s conversation, I speak with Low Kee Hong – Creative Director at Factory International, a pioneering Creative Company and Charity that commissions, produces, and presents a year-round programme of cultural opportunities and extraordinary artistic experiences, driven by innovation and a focus on sustainable futures.

Responsible for overseeing the work of the Creative Engagement programme which brings opportunities for people from all backgrounds, ages and from all corners of the city of Manchester, where they’re based, Low also leads the international department in collaborating with venues, festivals and other cultural organisations around the world.

Having previously worked as Artistic Director and General Manager of the Singapore Arts Festival, and the Founding Director and General Manager of the Singapore Biennale and Associate Artistic Director of TheatreWorks (Singapore), Low also headeded up the Theatre for Performing Arts at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for formulating the district’s artistic direction and strategies for Contemporary Performance, Dramatic and Theatre Arts.

Now, you may be asking yourself why, on a show that principally explores our relationship with one another, with technology and with the living world, I’m interviewing an Artistic Director… Well, as the challenges we face increase in complexity and unpredictability, I believe that it is precisely our capacity to think pluralistically, laterally and creatively, that will help us to shift the initial conditions from which we operate, so that more fruitful futures might emerge.

I believe that this is particularly true when it comes to redefining how we imagine, develop and deploy public-facing technology. As the dynamics that underpin our current media systems serve to fracture the social fabric and capture our algorythmically-influenced imaginations, it is often the artist – in all their forms – that can dance amidst the chaos, swim against the tide of homogeneity, and whisper into being alternative futures that unfold far beyond our conceptions of the beaten track.

I first met Low at an IBTM travel conference that we were both speaking at in Barcelona last year, and I was so captivated by his thinking and approach that I just had to invite him onto the show. I hope you revel in ths conversation as much as I did.

WEBSITES

• https://factoryinternational.org/
• https://www.onassis.org/people/low-kee-hong-uk
• https://gdi.ch/en

CHAPTERS

7:26 The Power of Art as a Change Maker

11:24 Cultural Memory and Indigenous Knowledge

12:25 Sensory Expansion

18:19 Artistic Collaboration and Community Engagement

32:20 Community Engagement

33:54 Art and Governance

43:33 Financial Sustainability in the Arts

49:18 Corporate Partnerships

51:27 Artistic Perversity

54:32 AI and Creativity

61:31 Conclusion and Future Vision

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Professor Gerd Gigerenzer – a world-leading psychologist, author and internationally acclaimed expert in decision-making, risk literacy, and bounded rationality.

Formerly a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and John M. Olin Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Law at the University of Virginia, Professor Gigerenzer has reshaped how we understand human intuition, heuristics, and the ways in which we make decisions under uncertainty.

A long-time director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development with decades of groundbreaking research to his name, he is currently director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam and vice-president of the European Research Council (ERC).

Having trained managers, doctors, and U.S. federal judges in dealing with risks and uncertainties, Professor Gigerenzer has received a litany of awards, from the German Psychology Prize and Communicator Prize, to the award for the best journal article in the behavioral sciences by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Switzerland’s prestigious Duttweiler Institute has named Gigerenzer one of the 100 most influential thinkers in the world, and it is there – at their International Trends Day – that I met him, sharing a stage exploring our perpectives around the impacts of digital noise, the current use of LLMs, and how we might more wisely navigate an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

His talk was one of my highlights of the event, and so it is with great pleasure that I share this conversation with you today.

BOOKS

https://www.gerd-gigerenzer.com/books

WEBSITES

• https://www.gerd-gigerenzer.com/
• https://www.mpg.de/en
• https://www.hardingcenter.de/en
• https://erc.europa.eu/homepage

CHAPTERS

02:32 Technological Paternalism and Human Agency

05:36 The Role of Intuition in Decision Making

08:45 The Impact of Algorithms on Human Interaction

11:35 Human Intelligence vs. Algorithms

14:48 Understanding Stable and Unstable Worlds

17:43 The Risks of Predictive Policing

20:33 Deep Fakes and Disinformation

23:42 The Accountability Shift in AI

26:36 The Influence of Tech Oligarchs

29:27 Changing the System for Better Leadership

32:37 Reclaiming Agency in a Digital World

35:34 Hope for the Future of Digital Literacy

36:32 The Cost of Freedom in Social Media

38:38 Conditioning and the Need for Critical Thinking

41:28 Mental Health and Cognitive Challenges in the Digital Age

45:24 The Shift from Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation

51:36 Rediscovering Joy Beyond Screens

56:39 The Future of Technology and Human Connection