Review: Day Two – Technology / Energy / Resources

Saturday,22 Oct 11 14:57

Yesterday’s discourses about technology, resources and energy were started off by Mona Bricke from the German group gegenstrom. The main focus of her workshop “Power to the People?“ was on breaking with the recent energy policy and the need to change towards energy democracy and networking.

„From lack to luxury“ was the topic of the following discussion, referring to how we handle our planet's resources. New technologies, which had promised prosperity, actually caused damage to our ecosystems. Cradle to Cradle and permaculture run counter to this development – every product is intended to be recycled into the the natural or technical cycle again after its use.

Are new technologies of any benefit at all or are they already dangerous to society? Should people be provided with free access to these technologies or should there be restrictions so as to avoid misuse? Mark Stevenson, Pat Mooney, Karen Kastenhofer and Niels Boeing discussed these questions in the crowded Forum Stadtpark in the afternoon. Stevenson called for an open use of technologies and for more discussions about this development with as much people as possible since it lies in the nature of human beings to try things out, fail – and try again. In his opinion, technologies could even contribute to a better society if people were given more possibilities to realize their ideas and visions.
However, this view met the resistance of Pat Mooney, who explained that technologies were still often utilized to keep the powerful in power, and warned that open access to technologies could as well come to a bad end. Following his opinion, Karen Kastenhofer added that it was even possible to manipulate and misuse technology without fully understanding it.
Niels Boeing described a technosphere we all already live in. An assertion upon which all of the discussants agreed, was the fact that technical development can no longer be held back anymore. What we can do is reflect upon the ways in which we want to participate in it, and consider necessary social values to help us deal properly with this development.

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New technologies and ideas will soon be even more vital topics in the field of energy production: resources like oil, gas and coal are drawing to a close, and the use of nuclear energy became even more controversial after the disaster at Fukushima. In a discourse about alternative production of energy, solar thermal installations were presented by Christian Holter, founder of S.O.L.I.D., Mona Bricke mentioned the concept of energy democracy, while Ernst Schriefl brought up for discussion the vision of energy autarchy.

The film “plug and pray” was shown for the first time in Austria and marked the end of the discourse program. Afterwards, Director Jens Schanze answered questions about his documentary and talked about technical developments. Advances in the area of replicating humans in every detail are enormous and raise questions about humanity and respect for life and death.

With a mixture of Avant Pop, House, Techno and Electro, the music program was presented in the tunnels and caves of the Schlossberg. Artists like Planningtorock, Holy Other, Kyle Hall and Acid Mothers Temple performed on four floors. To get an insight into the night-time events, watch the videos produced by students of the FH Joanneum:

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You can find photos, videos and the full program of the festival here.