Category Archives: Futurism

One of Africas most distinguished philosophers, Professor Mogobe Ramose, will be heading to Kigali next week for eLearning Africa, the continents leading conference on digital learning, training and skills development. In the Rwandan capital, he will meet a senior futurist, Dr Njeri Mwagiru of the University of Stellenbosch, and other experts for discussions about the role of learning in transforming Africa.

Professor Magobe Ramosa has been described as one of Africas key thinkers, having helped to popularise African philosophy and, specifically, its Ubuntu tradition. He and Dr Mwagiru are scheduled to join Rwandas Education Minister, Dr Valentine Uwamariya, Mark West of UNESCO and Albert Nsengiyumva of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) at the opening plenary session of the annual eLearning Africa conference. Conference organisers are not hesitating to emphasise the significance of their discussions, which provide an opportunity not only to focus on how education on the continent is changing, but also about its fundamental purpose in an era that is increasingly defined by rapid technological change

eLearning Africa Founder Rebecca Stromeyer says that participants at this years conference, which is being held in real time for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, will be looking for answers to fundamental questions.

What is the post-pandemic, African agenda for education? As the continent begins to evolve towards a single market, what do Africans expect from their education system? And what can Africa teach the world about the real purpose of education? These are very important, urgent questions for education professionals and decision makers.

I am delighted that well joined by such a distinguished panel for the opening plenary session, which will set the tone for three days of debates, discussions, interaction and networking. Its wonderful that were going to be meeting together again for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. eLearning Africa is a unique network of professionals and our conferences bring people together from all over the world, which results in a huge amount of knowledge-sharing, as well as the formation of many new partnerships and projects in the field of digital learning and training in Africa.

eLearning Africa was founded in 2005 and has been held in cities across the continent ever since. In the past, the conference has hosted more than 20,000 participants from over 100 countries around the world, with more than 3,730 speakers talking about every aspect of technology supported learning and skills development. In the last 14 years it has also been the occasion for a ministerial round table meeting, at which African education and technology ministers exchange ideas and experience with leading figures from the private sector.

The eLearning Africa conference is accompanied by an exhibition, at which leading international eLearning manufacturers, suppliers and service providers present their latest products and services, providing visitors with an opportunity to gain an insight into the latest developments in the EdTech market.

Plenary speakers Professor Ramose and Dr Mwagiru will also be taking part in the eLearning Africa debate at the close of the conference on the evening of Friday 13 May. The motion for discussion, at what should be a very lively debate, is This House believes Africa urgently needs an African education model.

More details on the conference can be found here: https://www.elearning-africa.com/conference2022/

For more information (and Media Inquiries):

For more information about the elearning Africa, including booking details and a guide to taking part, please visit the website at elearning-africa-conference.com, or contact info@elearning-africa.com.

eLearning Africa - Africa's Home for Ideas, Innovation and Sustainable Solutions for Education, Training and Skills Development since 2005

Secretariat: ICWE GmbH, Leibnizstrasse 32, 10625 Berlin, GermanyContact: Rebecca Stromeyer, info@elearning-africa.comTel: +49 (0)30 310 18 18-0, Fax: +49 (0)30 324 98 33

Platinum Sponsors: HP. TooShare, Class Technologies, OneConnect

MRT Sponsors: HP. Cypher Learning, Coursera for Campus

Gold Sponsors: Appliansys, Moodle, Deviare

Silver Sponsors: ETS, Panopto, Vigilearn, Coursera for Campus

Sponsors: Alison, Certiport, Kamaleon, Bookt

Partners: UNESCO, Mastercard Foundation, EdTech Hub, Enabel, AHEEN, Hasso Plattner Institut, Atinigi, iMove, Africa Connect3, Association for the Development of Education in Africa, Global Business Schools Network, Smart Africa, Kepler, mEducation Alliance

Co-Hosted by: Rwanda Convention Bureau

Official Carrier: RwandAir

Media Partners: Checkpoint eLearning, Learning News, Africa News Agency, EduGist, The New Times

Stay connected:eLearning Africa News PortalFacebook GroupFacebook PageInstagram PageLinkedIn GroupLinkedIn PageTwitter: @eLAconference #eLA22

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eLearning Africa 2022: Philosopher and futurist top the bill for 'fundamental' discussions - BusinessGhana

Representative of the increasing presence of powerful agent teams on the real estate landscape, RISMedias 2022 Real Estate Newsmakers list includes many stand-out teams among its ranks.

ACHIEVERSJon LaheyThe Fine Living Group at eXp

Reaching ICON Agent status less than six months after joining eXp, Lahey and his team expanded their reach across the United States. Success is not measured by the number of homes you sell, but by the lives you change. Im proud of where I have led my team, and the trajectory of our growth has no sign of slowing down.

FUTURISTSChristopher AudetteThe Group at RE/MAX First

With a passion for branding and marketing, Audette received two prestigious marketing honors: the TITAN Property award; and Best Internet Ad and Best Internet Website for Real Estate in the Internet Advertising Competition. I find most marketing for real estate devoid of life, but were marketing a home, a place that at its finest, houses life itself.

FUTURISTSMarkus Canter andCristie St. JamesBerkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties

From uniquely curated property videos to prominent exposure in broadcast outlets to targeted online marketing campaigns, this dynamic team mastered the art of digital and social media to expose luxury properties to the masses. We are honored to be viewed as one of the most trusted sources for lifestyle and luxury properties throughout Southern California.

ACHIEVERSMor Zucker andMaytal HessTeam Denver Homes

Zucker and Hess signed on as a second broker on a 46-unit residential development in September 2020. Within a matter of months, they had sold out the entire development. After the local press reported on their approach to the sale, the pair were signed on for three upcoming developments in Denver. With hard work and dedication, you can make anything a reality.

TRENDSETTERSKeith SmithThe Y.E.S Team REALTORS

For Smith, the crisis in affordable housing remains one of the largest barriers to broad, equitable homeownership. Under his leadership in 2021, the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership created a new Regional Housing plan. While still leading his team, Smith helped create new partnerships between housing advocates, parlaying $140,000 in funding into $1.8 million.

Visit rismedia.com/2022-newsmakers to learn more about this years more than 300 Real Estate Newsmakers.

Read more:
Meet the Newsmakers: Teeming With Team Presence - RisMedia.com

Although Gates regrets the friendship, this isnt the first time hes been the subject of scandal.

It emerged last year, for instance, that he had to be warned by Microsofts top council to stop hitting on employees at the software giant, and that comes on top of allegations that he mistreated employees while building a software monopoly.

To be fair, Gates has also sometimes been the target of conspiracy theories, ranging from nonsense accusations that hes trying to create a food shortage to mumbo jumbo about COVID vaccines.

Gates did fire back against the vaccine conspiracies in the BBC interview, saying that he had no reason to track people through his public health philanthropy.

Gates also went soft on rival Elon Musk, despite the Tesla and SpaceX CEO publicly insulting him on Twitter over Tesla stock. Gates also refused to bite back when asked for his thoughts on Musk buying the entirety of Twitter.

I have a wait and see attitude, Gates told the BBC.

In other words, it sounds like the aging Gates just wants the drama to end.

More on Musks plans: Famous NFT Hater Elon Musk Changes Profile Picture to Stolen Apes

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Bill Gates Says It Was a Bad Idea to Pal Around With Jeffrey Epstein - Futurism

Inspired from the practice of lumbung, an Indonesian rice barn tradition, the 15th edition of documenta brings a range of conversations about the multifaceted practice of collectivism. These conversations are informed by histories of anti-racial, anti-caste, and anti-majoritarian activism from aboriginal Australia, India, Indonesia, Cuba, the African continent, and its diaspora, to mention a few. ruangrupa, the artistic directors of documenta fifteen, refer to its participants as lumbung members and lumbung artists who come together to expand definitions of collective responsibility today. While exploring the ongoing projects of Mumbai-based lumbung artist Amol K Patil, this article also reflects on histories of collective resistance by other lumbung artists participating in documenta fifteen.

For over a decade, Indian artist Amol K Patil has been working around the ideas of the collective and community, while developing a practice that encompasses a wide range of social and political issues in the Indian subcontinent. The material scope of Patils conceptual practice includes video installations, kinetic sculptures, and performance. In the past few years, he has been preoccupied with the sonic fields of Mumbais chawl architecture built by the state in the early 20th century for working-class communities.

The emphasis on community engagement is grounded in Patils work due to his involvement in different kinds of collectives including Shunya Collective and The Clark House Initiative (Mumbai). "I wanted to expand the conversation from the collective to the community by engaging with people from different places who are speaking about similar issues I was interested in. The format of performance and video helped me to embark on this journey, he says.

Patils recent body of work integrates performance and community by revisiting the theatre work of his grandfather and father, who are powada (traditional Marathi ballad) performers. Patil elaborates that "the history of powada is multifaceted. In its early years, it used to play for the rajas(kings) as a form of praise, over time there were powada performers who travelled from one village to another articulating visions of social and political change. For instance, during the 1950s and 60s Ambedkar movement, mobilisation happened through powada to inspire the Dalit communities to join the path of caste annihilation." For Patil, the uniqueness of the powada form lies in its ability to embody different purposes across locations and communities. From praising kings to the songs of resistance for lower caste communities, powada also seeped into the working-class mobilisations in the industrial city of Mumbai.

Patils current work revisiting the powada includes collaborations with a young community of sweepers in Mumbai who are also practitioners of popular theatre. Most of the powada protest songs, according to Patil, speak about the Dalit community fighting for their rights. Patil notes, "Powada is not a very well-known form despite its historical and political significance, even the accounts you find of it on the web are not reliable. This is why it is important to me to revisit the history of powada since I come from a family of powada practitioners.

The history of resistances that embody the artistic visions of Patil, will also be accompanied at documenta fifteen with anti-race, anti-authoritarian solidarities including, Taring Padi (The Institute of People Oriented Culture) from Yogyakarta,Indonesia, and Black Quantum Futurism from Philadelphia, USA.

Taring Padi, a collective of underground artists, is an inspiring instance of cultural production that emerged in the wake of social and political activism during the countrys reformation era. It began in Yogyakarta, in the late 1990s that marked a shift from Indonesia's authoritarian regime. Formed by a group of students and activists, Taring Padis artistic engagement includes street protests, woodcutting workshops, art carnivals, and exhibitions in unorthodox spaces. Their role has been catalysts of political change with long-term alliances and solidarity with local and marginalised communities.

Taring Padi began with a manifesto to contest, what they call, the "Five Evils of Culture. These five provocations challenge the ideas of art for art's sake that are catered to and serve the elite classes of the society. They propose democratic ideas of art driven to build communities beyond the individual interests of those in power. They imagine art and cultural practice as sites of alternative imagination and critique that should steer clear of associations with those they contest.

In a contrasting approach to contest the mainstream histories and temporalities, Philadelphia-based Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) integrates the ideas of quantum physics and Afrofuturism. Founded by Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips, BQF repurposes science and science fiction to uncover "counter histories, Afrodiasporic mythologies, and Black quantum womanist futures." In its material manifestation of these visions, BQF has created films, organised time camps, conducted time and memory surveys, and started community initiatives to foreground the experiences of Black communities in Philadelphia and beyond.

At the core of their inquiry is the perception of time as non-linear and their artistic endeavour is to transform negative cycles of historical temporality "into positive ones using artistic and wholistic methods of healing." It is to reintroduce into public imagination that different cultural histories embody different temporalities that should not be limited to the western ideas of linear time.

The radical and alternative imaginaries of Patil, Taring Padi, Black Quantum Futurism will both contribute and partake in a diverse constellation of collective endeavours that documenta fifteen will bring to Kassel in June this year. Together they will remind us that collectivity is perhaps the path for social and political transformation.

documenta fifteen will take place from June 18 until September 25, 2022 in Kassel.

More:
documenta fifteen's 'lumbung' artists on embodied resistance via collective action - STIRworld

Techn Disruptors, an art exhibition displaying art in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs, is live in New Delhi at the India Habitat Centre till May 6, in conjunction with India Art Fair 2022.

The show is supported by the American Center and the Italian Embassy Cultural Center and features more than ten cutting edge, tech forward pioneers and digitally native artists from India and the Global South. The show is curated by cultural curator and producer Myna Mukherjee.

The show features work by world renowned artists like Raghava KK, Harshit Agrawal, Rochelle Nembhard, Gemma Shepherd, Seema Kohli, Adil B. Khan, Minne Atairu, Babak Haghi, Dr. Mandakini Devi, Nandita Kumar, Satadru Sovan and Shilo Shiv Suleman + The Fearless Collective.

The curator toldBusiness Today, Techn Disruptors features works imagined with the most future-forward technologies of our times, including Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, holographs, and a brand-new minted collection of Global South NFTs.

She further goes on to explain that the show has themes of urbanism, postcolonial art, futurism, etc. She said, This show has been conceived through the lens of urbanism in the Global South countries, Indian futurism and cultural perpetuity, post-colonial art, the Anthropocene as global discourse, indigenous technologies, and future forward aesthetics.

Mukerjee explained that the art displayed in the exhibition touches each aspect of our modern existence. She explained by saying, The works in Techn Disruptors question the past, the present, and the social spaces we navigate in our daily lives, the private, the public, the inner, the market, and the imaginary.

When asked what she thinks of the artwork that is displayed, Mukerjee said, They (the artwork) upends political narratives around gender, feminism, art as resistance, environmental rights, and freedom and access, as well as subverting notions of identity, contesting social norms, critiquing consumer culture, and imagining dystopian alternate realities. Collectively these works interrupt expectations and unsettle conventions, inviting visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which artists challenge norms and push boundaries through disruptive actions.

Also Read:Walk through the India Art Fair in the metaverse - BusinessToday

Also Read:US Fed raises interest rates by 0.5%, what it means for crypto markets - BusinessToday

Read more here:
Now in Delhi you can experience an art exhibition through NFTs - Business Today

May the Force be with Endor.Empire Falls

Hot on the heels of Star Wars Day, SFGate reports that the redwood forest in northern California where the Star Wars franchise filmed the famed Battle of Endor you know, the one with all the cute Ewoks? doesnt exist anymore because it was obliterated in real life. Bummer, right? Seems like not even scifi classics can escape environmental devastation.

The forest caught a movie scouts eyefor Return of the Jediback in 1982, according to SFGates reporting, so the team reached out to ask the local community development director if they could film on location. Ernie Perry didnt know who exactly was asking at the time, though.

They tried to pull the wool over our eyes saying the movie was called Blue Harvest,' he told SF Gate. But theres a restaurant called Jims, and when I saw Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher sitting next to each other, it was a dead giveaway that this is not a horror movie.

Unfortunately, though, its not a fun spot for fans to visit because a logging company came through and cut down all the redwoods long ago.

Sadly, those trees arent the only ones in danger.

Even while California works towards 100 percent renewable energy grids, the US government lists redwoods as endangered and declining. Of course, the Golden State isnt alone, either 15 billion trees were being cut down globally in 2015 each year, according to a much-referenced study in the journal Nature.

Its a shame that were robbing ourselves of historically and culturally important sites. Maybe Star Wars fans could use their infamous brand loyalty to find and secure the future of other filming locations?

More on climate change: Scientists Claim New Enzyme Can Break Down Plastic In A Single Week

The rest is here:
Bad News! The Ewok Forest From "Star Wars" Got "Obliterated" In Real Life - Futurism