Weirding the Digital

I'm speaking at SXSW on Saturday

Yes, I’ll be at SXSW this year and I’m doing something weird. Please come if you’re around. I hope for this event to serve as a sigil - an invocation - and help mark a pivot point in how we use technology (rather than letting it continue to be used on us).

Here’s the blurb:

Featured Session: Weirding the Digital: An Invocation
Saturday Mar 8, 2025 - 4:00pm – 5:00pm CT
Austin Convention Center
Ballroom EF

The net began as a haven for the counterculture and a catalyst for strange new possibilities, yet it quickly surrendered to the needs of the market for predictability and profits. Digital technologies promote utilitarian ends instead of creative ones, and artificial intelligence favors the probable over the possible.

It's time to talk ourselves down off this bad trip and - in the spirit of the OG SXSW - to fold the weirdest fringes back to the center of our digital society. This session will initiate the next interactive age. Convened by Douglas Rushkoff, celebrating the new 15th anniversary edition of his classic text, Program or Be Programmed.