NOW 2008

NOW is a project focussing on the scientific, technological, artistic, social and spiritual transformations that are taking place at the start of the 21st Century. NOW doesn't follow a specific format, although it can take the shape of many different genres and formats. It was conceived as a platform from which to work towards different aims within seven thematic areas: Open science, Cybersphere, Eco factor, Art now, Emerging culture, Psi particle and New activism.

Open science: creation of a shared project and bridges of communication between science and the humanities.

Cybersphere: how "cyber" technologies now affect every area of everyday life.

Eco Factor: the need for a systemic, organic view of the planet to ensure its survival.

Art Now: exploration of the present moment in art: what are the leading lines, the criteria of validation and the meaning of new practices?.

Emerging culture: a critical analysis and resituation of alternative and independent culture in the face of accelerated socio-cultural transformation.

Psi particle: an exploration of new spirituality that takes as its starting point the crisis of traditional religions.

New activism: commitment and militancy, networking, new social involvement and global citizenship.

The fifth edition of NOW explores three big paradoxes of the present that have generated new forms of research and activism. At a time when scientific advances allow for unforeseen knowledge of the universe, light pollution keeps us from seeing the stars. For the first time, the number of overweight inhabitants worldwide is larger than the number that goes hungry, creating irrational systems of food overproduction. At a time when new information technologies have begun to come within the reach of a wider range of people, the control of its operating systems remains in the hands of just a few.