Modena: Smart Life Festival 2024 will be “True, False, X”

Modena: Smart Life Festival 2024 will be “True, False, X”

Modena. With 6.000 attendees at the 60 scheduled events and 700.000 users reached through social media concluded “Generations”, the eighth edition of Smart Life Festival that is it held in Modena from 28 September to 1 October.

“True, False, X” is the title of the 2024 edition of Smart Life Festival which will investigate the boundary between true and false in the era of digital transition by questioning what knowledge and skills are necessary to understand it and to know oneself move between imagination and reality.

The Smart City Councilor of the Municipality of Modena announced the theme of the next edition of the Digital Culture Festival Ludovica Carla Ferrari. "The ninth edition will be dedicated to a concept, that of choice, the exercise of discernment, the ability to distinguish between what is true and what is not, which is profoundly current as applications of Artificial Intelligence spread”, explained thecouncilor. “The world of information is already riddled with fake news, no longer just fake news but now also images, videos, voice messages; the manipulation of public opinion is a real risk even in moments of high expression of democratic life such as electoral deadlines. “True, False, potential of artificial intelligence to make life better”.

“Smart life festival – added the president of San Carlo Giuliano Albarani College Foundation - was born and consolidated, over the years, as a training ground for open and problematic discussion on what we do, and how we do it, in the society of digital transition. The theme chosen for 2024, like the previous ones and perhaps more than the previous ones, highlights how much impact new technologies have on our lives and our societies, to the point of questioning the very idea of ​​'truth' and how much, consequently, training and public reflection on these issues represent not an option but a duty for cultural institutions that want to be, to all intents and purposes, present".

A significant fact emerges from the satisfaction questionnaire distributed during the days of the Festival: the 2023 edition of Smart Life saw the average age of visitors drop which has settled about 30 years old and young people were protagonists of many of the events. In particular, the edition just concluded saw 3.000 people participate to artistic performances and visit multimedia installations in the artistic and musical fields. Cellar, the first edition of the independent publishing fair which was held at the Open Laboratory, was visited by a thousand people. As many students, families and interested parties participated in the initiatives and workshops that took place in the schools. There Unimore University Student Radio which, thanks to the involvement of 35 students, followed the entire Festival and broadcast it live from the Modena Foundation's Space F, totaled 35 hours of broadcasting and in 19 interviews made during the days of the festival collected the voice of 25 of the guests attended "Generations”.

The 2023 edition has also started new collaborations with training institutions in thedesign and digital humanities area, Dhialogue by Unimore, Iuav (University Institute of Architecture of Venice and Ied (European Institute of Design) which have been added to the now consolidated ones.

Smart Life Festival is promoted by Municipality of Modena, Collegio San Carlo Foundation, Modena Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Democenter Foundation, Modena Chamber of Commerce, Province of Modena, together with Laboratorio Aperto Modena, After Futuri Digitali, ER2Digit, Modena Arti Visive Foundation, Future Film Festival, Laboratorio Aperto Modena, Lepida and Ventie30 and in collaboration with Forum PA.