Villa Aurora Events Archive
June 2018
Tweetup: #LNDI2018
Berlin
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In times of echo chambers and populism, we place the theme of open society at the center of the Long Night and at the same time want to make visible the diverse work of foreign cultural and educational policy in Germany.
In prominent locations in the Berlin cultural landscape, from the Humboldt Forum to the Gorki Theater to the Silent Green Quartier in Wedding, we will show you the range of foreign cultural and educational policy in more than a dozen events. What can we do about the culture and education of increasing skepticism about Europe? What must we do to build up and protect pre-political freedom for art and culture, science and opinion? How will Artificial Intelligence shape our society? These questions and much more are at the center of a total of 14 events - from exhibitions, interactive experiences, music, theater and literature to poetry slam.
This year, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. is participating in a Twitter project: accompanying the other events of the Long Night of Ideas, Fellows of the Villa Aurora will lead a discussion on open society and postnational cultural politics on Twitter. Against the background of their experiences with other cultural areas our fellows will fan the debate on Twitter under the hashtag # LNDI2018 with their observations, arguments and comments on the events of the Long Night of Ideas 2018. Be there!
Concert: "Three poems" by Olga Rayeva
Monk Space (4414 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90004)
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Performed by gnarwhallaby @ Tuesdays Monk Space
Supported by Villa Aurora.
The ever-adventurous and virtuosic ensemble gnarwhallaby performs at Tuesdays at Monk Space with a program of new works, each written specifically for them and their unique sonic profile. World premieres include "Three Poems" by Olga Rayeva (2016 Villa Aurora composer-in-residence) and a set of variations by UCSD-alum Daniel Tacke, inspired by the Morton Feldman miniature "Half a minute, it's all I've time for." Filling out the program are two very recent quartet commissions: one by local favorite Élise Roy, and the other by the world-renowned Richard Barrett, an epic homage to four great American composer-performers: Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, and Miles Davis.
Russian-born Olga Rayeva received numerous awards and scholarships, including two stipends from the Berlin Senate, a residency fellowship at the German Academy Rome, Casa Baldi, as well as a Villa Aurora Fellowship in 2016. Her compositions are presented at many of Europe’s most important festivals, as well as in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Korea.
Silent Film Special
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
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Following the Silent Film Special of THE ANCIENT LAW (by E.A. Dupont) on June 5th, we will honor Ernst Lubitsch featuring four of his lesser known German comedies.
We would like to thank The Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek for their support. “Before the Lubitsch Touch” was curated by Martin Koerber, Head of Audiovisual Heritage - Film of the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
June 5: Silent Film Special
July 7: Before the Lubitsch Touch #1
July 28: Before the Lubitsch Touch #2
August 18: Before the Lubitsch Touch #3
L.A. premiere of the digitally restored version by Deutsche Kinemathek: The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz)
(Dir. E.A. Dupont, Germany 1923, 128 min., starring Ernst Deutsch)
With Live accompaniment by Donald Sosin (piano) and Alicia Svigals (violin)
Presented in cooperation with the L.A. Jewish Filmfestival
The film tells the story of Baruch, the son of a rabbi in Galicia during the 1860s. Fascinated by the theater, Baruch leaves his shtetl for Vienna to pursue an acting career, against his father’s wishes. Through the love and support of an archduchess he succeeds at becoming a great classical actor. But he longs for home and is reconciled with his family, where he embraces his heritage as his father comes to appreciate the beauty of secular literature. “The movie paints a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity and was made at the last moment when the future of German an Austrian Jewry still looked hopeful.” (Hannah Brown for the Jerusalem Post, 2/24/2018)
Pianist and Composer Donald Sosin grew up in Rye, NY and Munich, Germany. Since 1971 he has performed his silent film music at Lincoln Center, MoMA, the Kennedy Center, and major film festivals here and abroad. He records for Criterion, Kino, Milestone and TCM. His one-act opera, Esther, was performed at the National Yiddish Book Center. Other Jewish music includes a short children's opera, A Parakeet Named Dreidel, Yiddish folk song arrangements, and Three Psalms, which was premiered in 2009 by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
Violinist/composer Alicia Svigals is the world's leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics. She has worked with violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Debbie Friedman and Chava Albershteyn. Svigals was awarded a Foundation for Jewish Culture commission for her original score to the 1918 film the Yellow Ticket, and is a MacDowell fellow. With jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer, she recently released a recording of contemporary interpretations of klezmer music from a long-lost Soviet Jewish archive.
Screening: The People vs. Fritz Bauer
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
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In Person: Burghart Klaußner (Thomas Mann Fellow)
Dir. Lars Kraume, color, 105 min., Germany 2015
Germany, 1957. The Hessian Chief Public Prosecutor Fritz Bauer receives vital clues about the whereabouts of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, a key figure in the mass deportations and murders of European Jews. Allegedly, Eichmann is hiding in Buenos Aires. Fritz Bauer, a Jew and Social Democrat, who had made it his objective since returning from Danish exile to bring perpetrators of the Nazi regime before the courts, tries to arrange the trial of Adolf Eichmann in West Germany.
"Energizing the entire film (...) is the compelling performance of veteran German actor Burghart Klaußner, who captures Bauer's firebrand intensity exactly. (Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times)
Post screening discussion with Burghart Klaußner and Hilary Helstein, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Filmfestival.
Morals & Machines
St. Elisabeth (Invalidenstraße 4a, 10115 Berlin)
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JUNE 27・PRE EVENT EVENING
WirtschaftsWoche is not only shaping a visionary day, but giving “Morals & Machines” due attention: In the course of an exclusive pre-event evening on June 27 starting at 7 pm, we’re initiating the discussions and entering new European AI strategy dimensions – speaking to Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Special Guest “Sophia” from Hanson Robotics.・More Information
JUNE 28 ・ PROGRAM
9:00 CHECK-IN & COFFEE TO GO
10:00 KICK-OFF Miriam Meckel, Publisher, WirtschaftsWoche
THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND – TECHNICAL REVOLUTIONS VS. CONSCIOUSNESS・Moderation: Léa Steinacker, Chief Innovation Officer, WirtschaftsWoche
10:05 FUTURE FORECAST: Homo deus – are humans and machines merging to cyborgs? Miriam Meckel in conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli Historian & Bestselling Author
11:05 KEYNOTE: Artificial intelligence for competitive advantage – verifying European approaches.
11:35 ENERGY BOOST Networking break & interaction in the “AI Experience Area“
STATEMENTS & POWER TALK・Industry & science – investigating morality and machine intelligence
12:05 SCIENCE STATEMENTS Developing algorithm decision-making systems Prof. Dr. Katharina Zweig, Director of Study for Social Computing, TU Kaiserslautern
12:20 Networks of control – about human behavior and ethical conflicts Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff, Director for Management Information Systems, WU Wien
12:35 Challenging algorithms of oppression Dr. Safiya Noble, Assistant Professor,Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California
12:50 TECHNOLOGY POWER TALK・What’s next for AI? Exploring machine learning technologies. Astrid Maier, Chief Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche Quarterly in Power Talk with Deborah Harrison, Writing Manager for Cortana & AI, Microsoft and Martina Koederitz, Global Industry Managing Director, IBM
13:20 THE ACADEMIC CHALLENGE・Questioning new tech dimensions – are we going to programme ethics in 2030? Dr. Safiya Noble, Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff and Prof. Dr. Katharina Zweig vs. Deborah Harrison and Martina Koederitz
13:45 NETWORKING BUSINESS LUNCH feat. „Reflection Rounds“・Reflecting on the future of humankind, discussing visionary scenarios and questioning intelligent systems – an interactive mission we‘ll approach during our extended lunch break in “reflexion rounds“: We‘ll thematise previous topics and speakers and deepen trains of thoughts – at talkative round tables.
MEN & MACHINE – THE AI CHALLENGE
15:00 BRIGHT SPOT・Technology to increase accessibility and enhance human lives Talk with Haben Girma, Disability Rights Lawyer & Author
15:20 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS・Ethics in application – about “Corporate Digital Responsibility” and new ways of making business
16:05 ENERGY BOOST・Networking break & interaction in the “AI Experience Area“
16:35 TECH & ETHICS ON THE GROUND・Live switches to Lea Deuber, China Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche and Matthias Hohensee, Silicon Valley Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche
16:55 TECH MECCA CHALLENGE・Fighting bias in algorithms Joy Buolamwini, Poet of Code & Founder, Algorithmic Justice League (Video)
17:15 FOOD FOR THOUGHT・Technology bringing our society together while driving it apart Zeynep Tufekci, Techno-sociologist
17:35 LEARNINGS & OUTLOOK
17:40 NETWORKING GET-TOGETHER & END OF CONFERENCE
For more Information on Morals & Machines and the program visit anmeldung.me/morals-machines/