Feb. 1: Night of Ideas | More? Slow is Beautiful

Feb 01, 2023

Presenting Night of Ideas 2023 – an evening of creative thinking taking place in 200 cities and 100 countries around the world in early February 2023.  A highly popular ‘world-wide festival of thought’, the Night of Ideas was initiated by French cultural institutions and organized with international partners.

Night of Ideas 2023 is the 8th edition, and this year’s theme is More?.  In Vancouver, speakers and performers will reflect on More? from a temporal view, Slow is Beautiful. This FREE event encourages participants to engage in a global debate on contemporary issues.

We live in an age of urgency (climate change, capitalism, food) and acceleration (lifestyle, transportation, networks). This poses a paradox: does this urgency raise the question of slowness, as a possible antidote to the “Anthropocene” era, also defined by climate crisis and vulnerabilities? What is at stake with this acceleration in our lives?

More? Slow is beautiful invites us to reflect on the models of “performance” and “growth” on which current logic is based, to think of innovation but also over-consumption and programmed obsolescence, local and global effects on global warming.

Presenters: Phenia Marras, marine protected areas and biodiversity strategies, French Biodiversity Agency; Ndidi Cascade, hip hop artist and educator; Severn Cullis-Suzuki, environment and culture activist, David Suzuki Foundation; Azul Carolina Duque, Colombian-born multidisciplinary artist, PWIAS Catalyst Artist; Tabitha Robin, professor, Indigenous food systems; Brendan McLeod, writer, theatre creator and musician, Andrea Reimer, professor, public policy, former Vancouver city councillor; John Desnoyers-Stewart, interdisciplinary artist-researcher, SFU Interactive Arts and Technology.

Presenters at Night of Ideas

Join our performing artists and speakers on February 1, 2023 for an exciting exploration of these ideas at the BCIT Downtown Tech Collider, 555 Seymour St. All are welcome. Registration is required.

BCIT Tech Collider, 555 Seymour St. Vancouver

Presented in Vancouver by the French Embassy, Alliance Francaise, BCIT and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.