Southeast Asia’s first and only festival of ideas, The Cooler Lumpur Festival, returns with its fifth edition – Notes from The Future – this August. This year’s theme will look to the social, political, technological, and cultural ideas that have become representative of these times and tell the story of our collective futures.
Details of the festival are as follows:
Day/Date: Thursday, 17 August – Sunday, 20 August 2017
Time: 10am onwards
Venue: Publika, Solaris Dutamas
The Cooler Lumpur Festival is a multidisciplinary festival curated by PopDigital in partnership with the British Council Malaysia, Goethe-Institut and Embassy of the United States of America. The Kuala Lumpur-centric festival adopts specific themes each year with the aim to expand the city’s cultural horizons, build stronger communities and cultivate the creativity and imagination of people. The annual ideas festival plays host to a bevy of global writers, artists, thinkers and innovators to create new connections, share new and thought-provoking ideas as well as spark cultural conversations that hit close to home.
The question of what the future may bring has always been the driving force behind the world’s most compelling ideas. It has pushed us beyond the boundaries of our geography. It has brought us closer together. It has, in many ways, saved our lives. And yet, our trek toward the future, being a blur of perpetual motion, ticking away at a steady yet breakneck pace, has often left us with little time for reflection or contemplation.
People of all ages from all walks of life are invited to explore the answers in a series of conversations and activities at the festival which include:
1. The White Mask, Visual Art Exhibition curated by Sharmin Parameswaran, Interpr8 Art Space
Based on a short story called “The White Mask” authored by Zedeck Siew in an anthology titled CYBERPUNK: MALAYSIA, this innovative art exhibition will showcase the viewpoint of a world taken over by highly advanced technology such as religious control by nanobots, programmable graffiti, self-replicating urban architecture, and yuppie diversions in a dystopian landscape. The exhibition will be curated by local art connoisseur Sharmin and will run from 14 – 22 August 2017.
2. The Food Fringe Festival
Feast your eyes (and appetite) at the Food Fringe Festival with delicacies prepared by migrant communities in Malaysia. The fringe festival serves food for thought to the table – does our makan culture bring us together or divide us?
3. Cooler Lumpur Junior
Curated by Makchic, the festival will return with Cooler Lumpur Junior, an annual treat for the kids featuring storytelling sessions, comic drawing workshops, a play area on the festival grounds, and more.
4. Journalism Campus
Follow a series of conversations on the current state of journalism. Presenting both Malaysian and international journalists, the campus will explore issues and topics such as fake news, the role of social media, as well as the future of this field in the digital landscape.
The festival will play host to an impressive speaker line up of celebrated international names such as:
- Eva Horn (Austria) – A professor of modern literature and cultural studies at the University of Vienna, Austria and author of The Secret War: Treason, Espionnage and Modern Fiction and The Future as Catastrophe.
- Leif Randt (Germany) – Author of novel Planet Magnon which was adapted for theater and about to be adapted into a TV-series in 2018.
- Olivia Sudjic (UK) – Award-winning writer and author of novel Sympathy and named as one of The Observer’s ‘New Faces of Fiction’ for 2017.
- Cara Ellison (UK) – Game narrative designer and author of Embed With Games.
- Jeff Stein (US) – Covers the spy agencies and foreign policy for Newsweek in Washington and author of A Murder in Wartime.
Joining the international speakers will be a number of local movers and shakers such as:
- Hanna Alkaf – An experienced writer and author of GILA – an exploration of mental illness in Malaysia – which was published in 2016.
- Bernice Chauly – An award-winning author of five books of poetry and prose including Growing Up With Ghosts (2011) and Onkalo (2013).
- Uthaya Sankar SB – A freelance writer and editor who is keen in doing research and writing about Indian culture in Bahasa Malaysia – recent books include Pulau Pendatang (2015), Nari! Nari! (2015), Malaiur Manikam (2015) and Mandala Bicara (2016).
- Mahvesh Murad – Editor, book critic & voice artist from Karachi, Pakistan. • Jian Goh – Author of comic series Miao&WafuPafu.
Other than selected workshops, the festival is free of charge and largely open to participants of all ages from all walks of life.
The Cooler Lumpur Festival has always been about the future. About providing that vibrant space at which we can have those important (and sometimes difficult) conversations that help explain who we are and, most importantly, where we’re going.
For more information and updates, follow The Cooler Lumpur Festival on Instagram (@CoolerLumpur) and facebook.com/CoolerLumpur/ and check out the website at coolerlumpur.com.
Read also: DiverseCity’s KL International Arts Festival is Back this September!
