What are we saying, and is the city listening?

The modern city has captured society’s imagination as a symbol of free and democratic expression, a commons for open dialogue. However today both art and science are pointing at the city’s more worrying ability to silence and marginalise voices. Every space we shape inherits a social contract that guides our behaviour, and either affords or takes away our agency for different forms of expression. In the public sphere, social contracts can support or hinder social interactions that affect social cohesion, resilience, and even innovation. A city open to more forms of expression that represent the spectrum of human experience will create a culture with a richer, deeper dialogue. How can we make spaces and places that encourage more forms of healthy social interactions? How do we change the contract and regain our agency in the city? Talks will address: – Artistic Expression in Public Space: Dance as Cultural Introspection (Ishay & Mira) – Wellbeing and the Workplace (Talya Landau) – Language and Space (Elizabeth Kostina) – Science as a Multiplier of Expression (Ting Jiang)