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Making Waves: Our Spring 2025 Programme of Events 

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Edinburgh Futures Institute is delighted to announce the opening of “Making Waves” – our fifth season of events running from 14 March to 2 May. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute is delighted to announce the opening of “Making Waves” – our fifth season of events running from 14 March to 2 May.  

The season’s theme, “Making Waves” showcases an exciting programme of panel discussions, performances, workshops and events that explore creativity in different forms.  

Crossing creative areas such as the arts, technology, science, and the environment, our spring event season is designed to inspire innovation and encourage new ways of thinking.   

Like our previous seasons, “Making Waves” will offer a range of co-produced live events, including conversations, readings, participatory workshops and commissioned performances.   

The season features more than 10 events, six of which will be delivered in hybrid format, livestreamed from the Futures Institute building to audiences across the world.  

All events are free to attend and open to the public, held at the Edinburgh Futures Institute building. 

Exploring The Future of Creativity  

The “Making Waves” season brings together academics, authors and creatives to explore the theme of creativity through performances, workshops, critical discussion and debate. 

The season opens with a dance performance, ‘In the Shadow of Tomorrow: A preview and an invitation.’ This performance will take audiences on a compelling journey through humanity’s techno-evolution – from the birth of mathematics to the speculative emergence of autonomous technologies. The performance will be choreographed and performed by Madeline Squire, along with 10 students from the MSc Dance Science & Education programme at the University of Edinburgh’s Moray House School of Education, accompanied by an original score composed by Jo Patterson, musician and composer for film and television. 

The season features important conversations with authors and leading academics, including events with comedian Fern Brady (Strong Female Character), Professor David Farrier (Evolution’s Lessons for a Changing World) and Orian Brook, and Professor Dave O-Brien (Culture is Bad for You)

Other events will feature artists and their creative practice. A special event celebrating the Edinburgh Seven Tapestry, the first major artwork installed at Edinburgh Futures Institute, will bring together the artist Christine Borland and Dovecot Studios Master Weaver Naomi Roberston. This season’s Utopia Lab session will be led by artist and writer Anna Chapman, whose work explores relationships between drawing, writing, body and place. 

The final event of the season is a conversation with one of the UK’s leading scientists, Marcus du Sautoy, who in 2008 was appointed to Oxford University’s prestigious professorship as the Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science, a post previously held by Richard Dawkins. This event will explore how mathematics shapes art and creativity, connecting the seemingly disjointed areas of logic and aesthetics. 

Creativity and AI 

The interplay between creativity and Artificial Intelligence (AI) remains a running theme throughout the season, with a number of events exploring this connection. 

The second event of the season is a live performance between poet Kathleen Jamie and visual artist Kate Steenhauer from groundbreaking Research and Development company, Painting Music, that combines spoken word, live painting and music created by cutting-edge AI technology.   

The season will also showcase the international premier of ‘A&I (Beta)’ by US-based dance, design, and film company, Orange Grove Dance. The performance is a new dance and multimedia live production between five performers and a solitary AI interface (Luna) that uses smart home technology on a theatrical scale.  

This season’s Techonomoral Conversations led by the Centre for Technomoral Futures explores ‘AI and Creative Labour,” while The New Real will introduce a new international initiative, ‘Doing AI Differently’ in the third iteration of The New Real Salon. A series of four workshops, ‘Future-Proofing Creative Skills for Responsible AI Adoption’ is also included in the season, which brings together creatives to collaboratively imagine the future of creative practices.  

Feedback from Learning Curves 

Close to 4500 tickets were sold for Learning Curves, our previous season, reaching audiences across all seven continents via livestream. 

“This was an outstanding event season with education, learning and futures at its core. It was interdisciplinary, creative, risk-taking, challenging, welcoming and beautifully produced.” 

-Professor Sian Bayne, Director of the Centre of Research in Digital Education 

“I really liked the panel chair, membership and venue. I appreciated the fact it was free to attend in person or online, making it very accessible.” –Participant feedback 

“Another fabulous event in the series, I’ve enjoyed every talk I’ve attended virtually.” – Participant feedback 

We look forward to welcoming all of you to our new event season!

Book now: Making Waves Spring 2025 Event Season

Further information 

Subscribe to our mailing list for invites and updates on upcoming events here: http://efi.ed.ac.uk/news/join-our-mailing-list  

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