@SouthbankCentre Marks 25 years of the Web with a NEW Festival WEB WE WANT
Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Jude Kelly launch Web We Want festival with ‘think-in’ event today
Southbank Centre’s festival to spearhead the UK arts community contribution to the ‘Web We Want’ – a global campaign for a free, open and universal WebSouthbank Centre is partnering with Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web Foundation and a host of other organisations including the British Council and the British Library
Three dedicated weekends throughout festival to look at issues of Web freedom, learning and creativity and the future of the Web
Hayward Gallery Project Space to feature exhibition of artwork that embraces digital forms
Details
WEB WE WANT FESTIVAL: September 2014 – May 2015, Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre announces Web We Want – a major new festival that celebrates 25 years of the invention of the Web and looks at the profound impact the Web has had on individuals, governments and societies at large. The festival launches today (7th May 2014) with the support of the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, Jude Kelly. The launch takes the format of a ‘think-in’ event, held with an invited audience of artists, activists, technologists, journalists and thinkers, and will explore the ideas of freedom and creativity on the Web. Today’s think-in will help shape the ambitious festival programme of talks, debates, performances and installations.
Dedicated to the idea that the World Wide Web can empower people to bring about positive change in their lives and in the lives of others, Southbank Centre’s Web We Want festival will span eight months from September 2014 to May 2015.
In addition to three dedicated weekends, the Web We Want festival will span Southbank Centre’s Winter 2014 – Spring 2015 programme including the London Literature Festival, Imagine Children’s Festival and WOW – Women of the World.
Southbank Centre’s Web We Want Festival will play a leading role in the UK’s contribution to the World Wide Web Foundation’s ‘Web We Want’ global campaign for a free, open and universal Web. Centred at Southbank Centre and with offshoots across the country and key parts of the world, the Web We Want Festival will connect all organisations that wish to participate in the festival in this country and will build bridges with other partner countries including Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Kenya, Tunisia, Nigeria and Japan.
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, Southbank Centre, said:
‘Inspired by the pioneering work of the World Wide Web Foundation, we have created this festival because we believe the Web holds the key to many of the questions facing humanity today. The Web is vitally important to all of us and needs to both be fully understood and protected for it all it can achieve, but presents particular opportunities and challenges to women, young people and those in developing economies and will continue to transform our world in ways we cannot yet fully imagine. This festival will be a platform for artists, thinkers and many others to come together to discuss and define what is the Web we want.’
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, said:
‘The future of the Web depends on ordinary people discussing it, taking responsibility for it and challenging those who seek to control the Web for their own purposes. The first step is to answer one simple question: what kind of Web do we want? Southbank Centre’s festival will make an important contribution to building – from the ground up – a global, participatory movement where ordinary people can discuss, debate, and have their say. It is vitally important to me and our work at the World Wide Web Foundation that we empower people from all walks of life to shape the future of the Web.’
Web We Want – Weekend 1: Web Freedom, our freedom online (26th – 28th September 2014)
Inspired by the work of the World Wide Web Foundation and the global ‘Web We Want’ campaign, the first of the three dedicated weekends explores the freedom of the Web and our freedom online. These three days will feature a broad range of keynote speeches, talks and events that will explore why a free and open Web is vital, how we can protect our privacy online and the role the Web can play in activism with its capability for protest.
Web We Want – Weekend 2: Creativity and Learning (28th – 30th November)
The second weekend will present a diverse, multi-disciplinary celebration of the creative and collaborative opportunities the Web has afforded. Southbank Centre will present innovative digital work which speaks to the themes of Web freedom, our freedom online and Web creativity.
Hayward Gallery Project Space exhibition (November – December 2014)
As part of the Web We Want festival, the Hayward Gallery presents an exhibition which will bring together works by artists interested in the ways that the web has altered old and created new forms of social interaction. The artworks embrace digital forms of communication, and examine some of the thought-provoking aspects of the medium.
Web We Want – Weekend 3: The future of the Web (May 2015)
The third and final weekend looks to the future to ask what the Web will be in 25 years hence. Working with the British Library as part of their celebrations of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, we ask what a new manifesto or ‘charter’ for the Web might look like.
Placing the Web in the context of a post-War tradition of British ideas and creativity, we ask what new behaviours or applications of the Web allow thinkers and activists to imagine and define society and connect nations. Celebrating the gift of the Web to humanity, how can we ensure that the Web stays true to Tim Berners-Lee’s original vision and remains truly ‘for everyone’?
Further details on the festival’s programme will be announced in due course.
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/web-we-want
#WebWeWantFest
The World Wide Web Foundation
Established by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web Foundation (webfoundation.org) seeks to establish the open Web as a global public good and a basic right, creating a world where everyone, everywhere can use the Web to communicate, collaborate and innovate freely.
Web We Want
Web We Want is a global movement to defend, claim and change the future of the Web. For more details, please see: www.webwewant.org
