Too Much Information: Being Human in a Digital Age

Senate House – the building famous for being home to the WWII Ministry of Information and, inspiration for the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984 – opens its doors, on 15 November, to a day of debate and discussion on the future of ‘being human’ in a digital age of information overload. The Art Deco masterpiece offers an impressive ‘hub’ venue for one of the inaugural events for Being Human, the UK’s first-ever national festival of the humanities.

'Too Much Information' is among more than 150 events happening nationwide over the nine days of 'Being Human: a festival of the humanities'. It will bring together world-leading academics, education practitioners, activists, authors, artists, computer scientists, hackers and young people for a day of debates and digital discovery in the Bloomsbury headquarters of the University of London’s School of Advanced Study (SAS), its lead organiser.

Dr Michael Eades, the festival’s curator said: ‘A lot of people are unsure about what the humanities are, and how researchers in this subject area spend their time. Being Human aims to change that, and to build public awareness not only of the range and diversity of humanities research, but the ways in which it connects to our everyday lives and culture.

‘This is the first year, and we are really proud of the programme that has come together. We have contributions from right across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, from the Orkney Isles in the North to Cornwall in the South. We have an exciting range of activities on offer, from a joke-generating computer program to a memory banquet, exploring how our memories are linked to our senses of taste and smell.

‘For our Too Much Information launch at the festival hub in Senate House, we have got a brilliant line-up. Some of the leading researchers in the digital humanities will rub shoulders with ‘hacktivists’, digital artists and writers. Together they will address one of the biggest issues facing our shared future: how we maintain our humanity in a digital world of “data overload”. We want this year’s programme to be stimulating, provocative, fascinating and fun – all the things which make the humanities such compelling subjects. And we want Being Human to become a key fixture on the festival calendar too.’

Top names speaking at 'Too Much Information' include Sir Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence and co-founder of the government-funded Open Data Institute, author and broadcaster Ben Hammersley coiner of the phrase ‘podcasting’, freedom of information campaigner, journalist and writer Professor Heather Brooke and the British Library’s web archivist Helen Hockx-Yu. The day also features contributions from the Mass-Observation archive and the Speakers’ Corner Trust.

Kicking off the programme of events led by some 60 universities working with over 120 cultural partners, the opening day of the festival promises to be packed with exciting activities. Aimed first and foremost at the general public, they are designed to make research accessible and to demonstrate the role of the humanities in the cultural, intellectual, political and social life of the UK.
Many include workshops, debates and master classes, which aim to provide a fresh perspective on what it is to be ‘human’ in times of extraordinary challenges – like conflict, poverty and rampant technology.

Some of the sessions, such as 'Openness, Secrets and Lies', will ask controversial questions. For example: how much freedom do we really have online? Does the growing reach of online surveillance and censorship pose a threat to the future of democracy? Others will be more hands-on, inviting people to search for their online traces in the British Library’s vast web archive, or take a Ministry of Information- themed tour of Senate House. At the close of the 'Too Much Information' day artists will create a walk-through art exhibition using digital visualisation tools. After dark, the 200ft tower of the former Ministry of Information will be lit up as a beacon to digital humans across the country.

For a full schedule of events, visit the Being Human website beinghumanfestival.org.