More than just lights - here’s our pick of Vivid Ideas

The sprawling Vivid Festival has grown far beyond the familiar light installations around the city. Here is the pick of the talks, workshops and performances that make up the Vivid Ideas strand of the annual event.

Liesel Badorrek is the creative mind behind Window Dressing.Credit: Rhiannon Hopley

Window Dressing
May 24, Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, UTS
This performance suggests we are all, at heart, cryptoscopophiliacs, a word that apparently describes the irresistible urge to look through windows of houses as you go past. In this work, made by the brilliant Liesel Badorrek, eight performers appear at windows in the Frank Gehry-designed building, literally giving the viewer a window into their “strange and beautiful lives”. There’s no dialogue, but there is music you can access via your smartphone. The rest is up to your imagination.

The Art of Deep Listening Workshop
May 26, Royal Botanic Garden
When was the last time you listened? Really listened? In this era of the information economy that monetises all our attention, the art of focus and listening can seem like a thing of the past. In the uniquely calming environment of the Royal Botanic Garden, this practical workshop invites us briefly to still the everyday chatter in our lives and consider what deserves our undivided attention.

In A Thousand Ways two strangers come together either side of a perspex screen.

A Thousand Ways: An Encounter
From May 29, State Library of NSW
“Hell is other people” is one of Sartre’s better-known aphorisms, but the uniquely modern hell for many of us is being disconnected from others. This intriguing project from Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone (600 Highwaymen) brings together two strangers on either side of a perspex screen and invites them to interact based on cue cards drawn from a pile between them. Rather than Sartre’s bleak assessment of humanity, maybe WB Yeats was closer to the mark when he said, “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.”

Say My Name: The Humanity of Names
June 5, The Great Hall, UTS

What’s in a name? There is nothing quite so personal to us as the name we carry throughout our lives. And if your name happens to be “foreign” or difficult for the dominant culture in which you live to pronounce it can become a source of pain and embarrassment. This discussion will explore the psychology of names, how they can become a source of “othering” and what we can do to be respectful and inclusive when it comes to pronouncing other folks’ monikers.

Adam Spencer will join the debate over artificial intelligence.Credit: James Brickwood

AI Will Destroy Humanity: A Future Science Debate
June 7, Parliament House, Macquarie St
It’s hard to wrap your head around how swiftly the artificial intelligence revolution is unfolding and the almost limitless areas of our lives the technology will affect in one way or another. Add in the fact that there are plenty of aspects of AI scientists themselves can’t fully explain and the near-term prospects feel either terrifying or hugely exciting, or both. This debate brings together scientists and comedians, including scientist-comedian Adam Spencer, to consider what it all might mean – because if you don’t laugh, you’ll probably cry.