Expansive Ideas

Expansive Ideas

Bridging the boundaries between art, culture and philosophy, HowTheLightGetsIn Festival, Hay-on-Wye, brings together an array of thinkers, musicians, comedians and performers to make sense of the contemporary condition. With a line-up including Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Krauss, David Nutt, Diane Abbott and Rowan Williams, the programme explores topical and cutting-edge ideas whilst offering new perspectives on the future.

In the creative realm, HotDocs’ new film Basquiat: Rage to Riches offers an insight into the artist’s life and work, investigating the late Brooklyn practitioner’s rise to fame. Furthermore, Patricia MacCormack’s The Art of Activism considers the margins between political protest and art, positing that creative production should always be socially-engaged. In a similar way, civil rights activist Kimberle Crenshaw outlines the vital relevance of intersectionality, examining the everyday realities of race and gender to lay out a vision for social and political change.

Speaking to wider narratives, Chomsky’s Darkness, Authority and Dreams examines the need for power structures, leadership and rules whilst Democracy and Culture offers a new perspective on the digital present, revealing the automated mechanisms underlying creative production and news agendas in the age of the internet. In a similar way, Postmodern sociologist Steve Fuller examines the post-truth condition, tracing its trajectory through intellectual history and philosophy. Debates such as Dreams to Believe In investigates life in an uncertain, divided world, offering and questioning alternative visions of the future. Comparably, engaging with new technologies, The Madness of Machines considers the impact of artificial intelligence, decoding the possible complications of an increasingly imminent machine age.

Music highlights include electric pioneers Hot Chip and Orlando Seale’s new band, Harpo Smith. Other notable performers include The Orb, Town of Cats and Sam and the Womp, performing alongside SDJ Percussionist Lyndsay Evans, Blanaevon Male Voice Choir, singer-songwriter Phillip Jeays, Bloom De Wilde, Tricity Vogue, Abigail Collins, Speak Brother, electro-pop musician Tsar B and Filthy Spectacular.

From 25-28 May. Find out more here. 

Credits:
1. Tsuyoshi Tane, DGT Architects, Light is Time.