As the first symposium day comes to an end, I managed to find a couple of hours before the dance show at the winchester theatre and gather my –very long and messy–notes.
The title of today’s section of ST was “Art, technology & science ideas” featuring a number of presenters in the most disparate fields, spanning education (both offline, academic and face-to-face) and online (through social networks, especially from the dynamic and very visual-oriented popular youtube channel); motion studies and motion capture; the environment; and physics.
We had enough for a dense and, dare I say, animated discussion on everything science and ideas.
Despite the slight modifications in the way the program was organized, some same old issues emerged: as the presenters struggled to be synthetic and comprehensive, there is never enough time for discussions. the format of this festival abhors parallel sessions. this one of its most positive features and a great formula to foster a sustainable dialogue among all participants. however, the festival has grown over the years meaning that presentations are sometimes crammed one after the other. time spent doing the set up takes away from the presentation and the discussion. this year, a few glitches in the system of the new venue was enough to almost cut off the final discussion of the first two groups of presenters. every year it’s the same story: not enough time to engage in discussions as we would like!
Sside from this “detail” and except for a few exceptions, I must say that the festival has maintained its consistent quality and I am waiting forward for the next days.
but first thing (day) first…..