Festival of Ideas
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THE STATE LIBRARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA PRESENTS FESTIVAL OF IDEAS FREE EVENT1 The State Library of Western Australia acknowledges the traditional owners of Country throughout Western Australia and their continuing connection to land and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. The Library is honoured to be located on Whadjuk Country, the ancestral lands of the Noongar people. SUPPORT THE STATE LIBRARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA Donate to the State Library of Western Australia. Your support will help grow and preserve the State Library collections, fund scholarships for professional development, promote learning, language and literacy, and deliver exhibitions and events for all to enjoy. Make a secure online donation at slwa.wa.gov.au If you would like to discuss a specific donation, sponsorship or bequest call 9427 3111 or email [email protected] Donations over $2 are tax deductible. 2 WELCOME Welcome to the State Library’s 6th annual We are delighted to welcome to the 2019 Disrupted Festival of Ideas. This year’s festival Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Leigh Sales, festival explores the theme of truth, a Professor Geoff Gallop, Professor Tracy relevant and timely theme for libraries and Westerman, Bri Lee, and a host of local and communities throughout the world. interstate speakers. The State Library is a place of truth. We are Beyond this year’s theme, ideas are what the visited by over one million people every year Disrupted Festival is all about. This festival because we offer free access to knowledge. is a concrete manifestation of your State We are committed to being a trusted Library’s commitment to the creation and source of information, connecting people sharing of ideas. to skills that help them critically evaluate information in an unregulated online world. So please join us at the State Library, or if you can’t make it here, join us online via Trust is an essential ingredient of building Facebook streaming, as we share and debate social capital. Without trust our very ideas about truth. democracy is weakened. Trust, however, has been the victim of the manipulation of the truth, and in turn public trust in many of our institutions – government and the media, in particular – have been undermined. MARGARET This year’s Disrupted speakers will examine the roots of this loss of trust. Through ALLENPSM keynotes, panels and intimate conversations we invite you to join the debate on truth. CONTENTS 4 About the Festival 5 Keynotes 6 Panels & Conversations 8 Activities and Other Disruptions 10 Schedule 12 Biographies 19 Venue Info and Registration 33 DISRUPTED FESTIVAL OF IDEAS 27 & 28 JULY 2019 The truth. Can it be subjective? Meet scientists, journalists, writers, and Manipulated? Changed by opinion? professionals dedicated to truths that And will it really set you free? others deny as inconvenient. Discover how to harness your own truth, better The very concept of truth – bent, understand your brain and spot fake adapted, and questioned throughout news. history – has found itself under siege in the social media era, where the Learn the fascinating history behind loudest opinion can swamp even the mis-truths, lies, and other forms of staunchest fact. manipulation and how your library can be a powerful weapon in the Libraries throughout history have fight against truth distortion, bias and played a significant role as the agenda. trusted keepers of history, truth and information. This year, the State Library of WA’s Disrupted Festival of Ideas takes on the truth, in all its forms. 4 FESTIVAL GUIDE #DisruptedFestival @disruptedfestival FREE EVENT disrupted.slwa.wa.gov.au KEYNOTES FREE EVENT disrupted.slwa.wa.gov.au @disruptedfestival GUIDE #DisruptedFestival FESTIVAL KEYNOTES The Truth About Suicide Prevention Adj Prof. Tracy Westerman Facilitator: Carol Innes 11am, Saturday, Discovery Lounge Western Australian of the Year 2018, Professor Tracy Westerman has dedicated her career to promoting and educating in the area of Indigenous mental health. As the truth about suicide rates in Indigenous communities unfolds, Westerman urges us to see why optimism is critical to Indigenous mental health and suicide prevention. Any Ordinary Day Leigh Sales Facilitator: Meri Fatin 11am, Sunday, Discovery Lounge What would you do if everything you believed to be true changed in a moment? The day a life turns upside down usually starts like any other. But what happens the day after that? Dual Walkley Award-winner Leigh Sales discusses her new book, Any Ordinary Day, which investigates how ordinary people endure the unthinkable What is Truth? and are forced to explore their own truth in Dr Karl Kruszelnicki the face of great adversity. Facilitator: Gillian O’Shaughnessy 4.45pm, Saturday, Discovery Lounge Do mobile phones really cause cancer? Do vaccines cause Autism? Was the Great Fire of London started by a Catholic Frenchman? “Facts” like these have been disproved over and over and yet they remain. Fake news was in fashion well before emerging in contemporary politics. Join Dr Karl Kruszelnicki as he takes a deep historical dive to uncover the mis-truths that have infiltrated our everyday. 5 PANELS & CONVERSATIONS Fixing Truth – How Do Telling the Migrant We Do It, and What’s Story Stopping Us? James Jegasothy, Esther Onek, In partnership with ABC Perth Focus Mararo Wangai Dr Glynn Greensmith, Prof. Geoff Gallop, Facilitator: Shelagh Magadza Rafeif Ismail, Narelda Jacobs 1.45pm, Saturday, Discovery Lounge Facilitator: Jessica Strutt Australia is a diverse country with a 12.15pm, Saturday, Discovery Lounge rich migrant history. Despite this, new arrivals who make their way here are still What tangible actions could arrest the lumped into one category – refugees. This decline of truth in our democracy? Do fascinating panel uncovers the inspirational we require new laws, new journalism truth about these migrants and where they models and new ways of thinking? What come from. prevents these changes? Disrupted Festival offers radical ideas for a radical time, but also addresses elemental prejudices and The Truth about assumptions. What prevents us from fixing the lies and misinformation that surround Making a Living as a us? A panel of experts from across the Writer spectrum of truth discuss this essential topic. Morris Gleitzman, Juliet Rogers, Annabel Smith Facilitator: Rebecca Giblin The Place for Truth in 3.15pm, Saturday, Discovery Lounge Our Court System They say everyone has a book in them, but Bri Lee & Linda Black can everyone afford to write it? Authors 12.30pm, Saturday, Library Theatre Annabel Smith, Juliet Rogers and Morris Gleitzman join Rebecca Giblin to pull back Two legal experts discuss frustrations the curtain on the taboo topic of the within the Australian legal system and the economics of independent publishing and fact that sometimes the truth can be lost the realities of Australian author incomes. beneath bureaucracy, red tape and archaic regulations. 6 PANELS & CONVERSATIONS disrupted.slwa.wa.gov.au FREE EVENT @disruptedfestival #DisruptedFestival FESTIVAL GUIDE FESTIVAL #DisruptedFestival FREE EVENT @disruptedfestival disrupted.slwa.wa.gov.au & CONVERSATIONS PANELS FESTIVAL GUIDE #DisruptedFestival @disruptedfestival FREE EVENT disrupted.slwa.wa.gov.au PANELS & CONVERSATIONS PANELS FREE EVENT disrupted.slwa.wa.gov.au @disruptedfestival GUIDE #DisruptedFestival FESTIVAL Speak Your Truth Navigating Away from Melissa Davey, Bri Lee, Leigh Sales Truth Decay Facilitator: Narelda Jacobs Margaret Allen, Prof. Nick Enfield, 12.15pm, Sunday, Discovery Lounge Dr Julia Powles Facilitator: Daniel Midgley Recently, victims have been empowered 1.45pm, Sunday, Discovery Lounge to speak their truth and strive for justice through the #MeToo movement and the Royal Commission into Institutional Conspiracy theories, gaslighting, Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. There is confirmation bias – all ways in which truth is power in being able to harness your truth subverted and facts are called into question. to successfully fight for justice. This panel Join a panel of experts as they interrogate explores how some victims have found their how exactly falsehoods are confused for voice and are finally being supported. But facts, why people believe them, and how to will they be believed? counter it in yourself. Learn how the library, as one of the last trusted social institutions in contemporary society, can help you question assumptions, verify claims and seek How Reliable is Our out authoritative sources of information. Memory? Dr Karl Kruszelnicki & Prof. Alan Harvey 3.15pm, Sunday, Discovery Lounge As the arbiter of truth, memory carries enormous weight: but is it reliable? Join Dr Karl and neuroscientist Prof. Alan Harvey for a one-on-one on how our memories work, the physiology of our brains and exactly why your memory can’t be trusted. SPECIAL EVENT Career Advice from Dr Karl 10.30am, Monday 29 July, Discovery Lounge fields of science, technology, climate change, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki engineering and genetics. This session Facilitator: Lyn Beazley will open young people up to a world of opportunities and get them excited for their Join everybody’s favourite doctor for some futures. entertaining and educational career advice. Suitable for high-school students, Dr Karl will Bookings essential discuss the myriad options available in the [email protected] 7 WORKSHOPS & ACTIVITIES Disrupted Festival of Ideas provides plenty of other activities to fill your weekend. The program brings the Library to life with bustling activity. WORKSHOP The Information War is Here — a Digital Literacy Workshop by PEN Perth 1.45pm, Saturday, Library Theatre Have you ever wondered how to identify signs of inauthenticity? Or the exact definition of a bot, a trending algorithm, or a Deepfake? What about a disinformation campaign and what does that have to do with freedom of expression? WORKSHOP If you are digital-literacy-curious, and want Epistemicide in the to explore these questions and more, join PEN Perth’s Kelly Fliedner as she wades into Western Art Canon the inescapable and overwhelming fact Gabby Loo and Steven Finch that our internet is awash with 2pm, Sunday, Studio 001 misinformation.