From October 8-11, the 10th Internet Festival will take place in Pisa with four days of physical events, and three months – continuing until December – of online streaming initiatives. Asking the question of how the internet has changed at the time of Covid-19 and how Covid-19 changed the internet, the event that has been investigating the online world for 10 years will return with dozens of international experts, panels, workshops, contests and cultural events.
The festival will be following careful Covid-19 guidelines, involving about 10 different venues to disperse the event. The focal point of the festival is Le Benedettine Congress Center, which will host most of the live panels, in addition to the Hello World exhibition, a technicolor journey exploring the birth and growth of IT. There has been a high level of committment to invigorate the economic and social fabric of the city, through book presentations in city bookshops, and contests involving commercial activities, particularly areas that have suffered most from the crisis due to Covid-19.
The Hello World Exhibition
The guests include Alessandro Vespignani, one of the leading experts in computational epidemiology; several leading names of the anti-Covid task force of the Ministry for Technological Innovation and Digitalization such as Paolo De Rosa, Dino Pedreschi and Fosca Giannotti; Paolo Benanti, the professor of ethics of technology at the Pontifical Gregorian University; the architect Massimo Roi; journalists Alberto Flores D’Arcais, Anna Masera, Carlo Bartoli and Emiliano Bos; and the influencer Giovanna Burzio.
Various panels will explore current topics such as the need to redefine what constitutes as public space in the wake of the pandemic, and how to interpret data through a sociological and anthropological perspective. There will also be an analysis on the role of social media and its influence on information and democracy via Infodemia, an interview with several guests lead by the director of IF2020, Claudio Giua.
Work by Italian Street Artist NOCURVES
The cultural and social #Reset will also be told through music, cinema and food, with initiatives aimed towards human creativity. Climate change and sustainability will also play a central role with the interactive installation by Legambiente, which will be set up at the Logge dei Banchi. There is also a push to involve younger generations, with activities including an an international online challenge on quantum physics coordinated by Marilù Chiofalo, professor at the University of Pisa, and Sabrina Maniscalco of the University of Turku, Finland.
For more information and the full festival, visit www.internetfestival.it.
