Audrey Tang: Hi, this is Audrey. Can you see and hear me?

Jack De Caluwe: Hi, Audrey.

Audrey Tang: Hello. Good local time.

Rachel Coddington: Well, I would love for us to, if this is OK with you. I am Rachel, pronouns she/her. I am working with the Instrument team and The Great Foundation on this event. Jack, do you want to introduce yourself, maybe?

Jack De Caluwe: Yeah. My name is Jack De Caluwe. Pronouns he/him. Work at Instrument. Creative Director on the team. Been a part of the foundation origins of The Festival Urgent Reinventions. Your name Audrey was from day one. We thought about the event. It was part of our wish lists of people we wanted to have in our lineup. Really honored to be on this call with you.

Rachel Coddington: Absolutely. Do anyone else want to make any intros? I think we all know everyone else, but if you wanted to…

Annie Joshua: We’re the All American, I’ll be here taking notes. I may just mute myself, but I’ll be right here. If you need anything just call it for me.

Rachel Coddington: Thank you, Annie. That’s so wonderful facilitating all of this. Thank you.

Annie Joshua: You’re good. Thank you, Rachel.

Audrey Tang: Excellent. As a point of note, we’ll also be making a transcript of our conversation today. Only after you co-edit for 10 days, where we update a transcript with your input and then publish into the Commons under public domain, Creative Commons zero. My pronouns are */* — whatever — but you already know that.

Rachel Coddington: [laughs] I assumed you would be recording a transcript of this, because of what I know of you. [laughs] Awesome. Then, would you remind me of your name one more time?

Sheau-Tyng Peng: I’m ST from Audrey’s office. My pronoun’s whatever, too. Thank you.

Rachel Coddington: Jack, maybe do you want to give a little bit of a history of the event and then I can talk a little bit about what we’re doing this year?

Jack De Caluwe: Absolutely. The festival started about two years ago, additional one was in February 2021. Time is vague, but that math works out. It stemmed from this idea that in the US at that moment in time, people felt powerless. People felt like they couldn’t have the impact.

Jack De Caluwe: Didn’t have the tools or didn’t have the power to make a difference in the world. We’re depending on the government’s solutions to see solutions, to see progress out in the world, society and so forth. Our partners set the great foundation.

Jack De Caluwe: Wanted to create something, a platform, a tool, an experience that will enable and empower people, anyone to make a difference. That was the brief that we started out with. We arrived at this idea of a virtual festival. This was the start of COVID.

Jack De Caluwe: Obviously, the idea of conferences and events and make it almost…The format of that was evolving and growing and changing rapidly.

Jack De Caluwe: We wanted to create something that could bring people together, that could empower people. That, the tools that they use on a daily basis with service of corporate organizations, Google and so forth, could be used for good as well. The format that we landed on was really part conference.

Jack De Caluwe: The thing, the TED type format, where people, ambassadors, thought leaders, and so forth, represents a topic, an idea, a concept that has the potential to change something in the world. The paradigm of an actionable brief.

Jack De Caluwe: Something that people, whether developers, designers, architects, scientists, whatever their skill is, they could actually create, invent an idea and submit it as as a potential solution to counter that brief.

Jack De Caluwe: The idea was to connect these thought leaders, these change makers, with young, passionate creators, inventors, developers, designers, to create this bottom-up change and enable the difference in the world. Last year, we had four briefs, we had four speakers. We ended up with about 70 to 80 submissions of ideas, all incredible.

Jack De Caluwe: Blew us away. We had four winners come out of it. The format worked. That got us on a path towards year two, which is where we are now and thinking about, what’s the lineup? Where are those urgent problems that we can help rally ideas around. That’s where we landed with you as one of the people and the groups we’re excited about.

Rachel Coddington: I can give you a little lay of the land for what our other speakers look like this year, and then that way you can have some context. I know one of the things you’re passionate about is misinformation. One of the speakers we have is Jessica Malaty Rivera and she’s a science communicator, who fights miss and disinformation frequently, epidemiologist.

Rachel Coddington: One of our briefs will be about that, one of our talks. We also have Olatunde Sobomehin, he does work in impoverished communities of color to bring tech awareness to them, to create leaders within those communities. Not just bringing laptops to underprivileged schools, but to actually foster talent inside those communities.

Rachel Coddington: That’s what his talk is about. Then our third brief is very exciting as well. I should say, we’re very aware that you could talk about probably 700 different things.

Rachel Coddington: Part of this [laughs] because you are so talented and so storied, you have so many things you’ve done. Today is a chance for us to give you what our idea might be for this, and then, of course, you can help us from what that might look like.

Rachel Coddington: Anyway, the third speaker is Leah Thomas, and she does work in the intersectionalism of climate change and how climate change more deeply impacts brown and black communities. That’s what that brief will be centered around. Do you have any questions or anything? I’m going to pause. I tend to talk a lot and fast.

Audrey Tang: No, I’d raise my hand or unmute myself whenever I need to say something, so that’s fine.

Rachel Coddington: Good to know. Just checking, want to make sure. We have you with us and basically what it would be, is we’ll talk about what that end brief will look like, but your talk would essentially tee that up.

Rachel Coddington: The video that you pre-record would be something talking about your own experience in that space and why you think it’s such a crucial issue and problem.

Rachel Coddington: Then, there would also be a tiny segment at the end where you say, “Therefore, we’re looking for these homegrown, individually empowered solutions that people can implement.”

Rachel Coddington: This is not meant to be something that solves the problem on a global scale, because that’s not the point here. The point is, can you look into your community and find a way that you, as individual person can make a difference because, as we know, the systems are quite cumbersome.

Rachel Coddington: That’s what I have to tell you about the speakers that we have. In addition to that, we have interesting music breaks, and movement breaks, and meditation. We have a lot of other things happening within the festival. The big keynote speakers are what drives the content in general.

Rachel Coddington: All right. I think that with that context, Jack, do you want to talk a little bit about what we were thinking Audrey might be able to speak on?

Jack De Caluwe: Absolutely. Thinking about the bigger concept of the festival, what your work at the highest level is all about, it’s a one to one with the festival as well.

Jack De Caluwe: One key thing that we were thinking about and really excited about, was the idea that through the last two, three years, the last decade, let’s say, the trust between government and society has eroded in the United States drastically.

Jack De Caluwe: There’s still this distinction, this friction of politicians just saying, “You should just trust us,” and almost the society, you can take that face value and accept that that’s the way it is. We are excited about this idea of leading and civic participation, which is so much more of what your talks are about and what your practice is about.

Jack De Caluwe: Thinking about how can these young innovators, designers, developers create tools and systems and practices that we build that connection between government and society.

Jack De Caluwe: Whether it’s increase of dialogue, increase of participation, increase of back and forth, whatever that may be, but creating infrastructure or a brief around this idea of how do we reshape and rebuild that connection, that dialogue between government and the society, civilians in United States.

Jack De Caluwe: That is short, one liner, also we’re excited, different from the other briefs. It does talk about misinformation. It does talk about all these other themes as well as all wrapped into it, but it’s slightly bigger, slightly grander than those themes as well. That was what we were getting excited about, and we’d love your thoughts on as an overall thought starter for the brief and the topic.

Audrey Tang: Most certainly. That was my brief for the Summit for Democracy as well. Leading up to the summit, I’ve talked in various podcasts, like “How to Citizen with Baratunde.” That is pretty much exactly what you just outlined. I feel comfortable talking about that, of course.

Audrey Tang: There’s plenty of existing materials and the call to action.

Audrey Tang: I was looking not so sure, when you said that people cannot really make a difference in the world by implementing local solutions, because “start small, think local” is exactly the message I’m giving.

Audrey Tang: If sufficient amount of people – instead of blindly trusting the government – build up civic participation platforms, then it’s possible for the public servants to start trusting the citizens. Then it makes a world of difference.

Audrey Tang: In a sense, it has to start from the grassroots. I believe it also works well with your other messages from the other three keynote speakers about countering disinformation in pandemic, empowering communities.

Audrey Tang: Intersectionality in general in both climate change and in equity, challenges, because this also requires grassroots action, and then, simply cannot be solved by unilateral action, a top-down. I believe that these four themes do work together.

Jack De Caluwe: Awesome. We think the same thing. The new democracy the way you talk about that topic it’s so fresh for the United States. There’s such a stigma around democracy. It’s so stuck in the old way of thinking about it and almost the politicized version of democracy that we see.

Jack De Caluwe: I’m not from the US, but I’ve been here long enough to understand how people are talking about it. I love the way you’re rethinking and reformatting democracy as something positive and something future forward that we can change, and have an impact on.

Jack De Caluwe: That feels like it’s actionable, and grounded and real, but also, there’s a sense of hope in there, that I’m really excited about.

Audrey Tang: In creating a brief, I understand that there needs to be a short title. We all agree that democracy should be a part of the title. Are there anything else you would like to add to it?

Audrey Tang: I can talk about reinventing democracy, the future of democracy, and so on, focus on democracy rather than any other messages. Or I can talk about emphasizing digital democracy or some sort of democracy as a form of technology. What would be your preference?

Jack De Caluwe: Introducing that digital democracy theme or topic, as part of your talk, will be very interesting. It sets us up for brief that really centers around enabling civic participation and dialogue between citizens and government. It’s a click-down from traditional democracy that could lead to digital democracy.

Jack De Caluwe: The talk will be slightly bigger, talking about the division and so forth, and then the brief can be slightly more drilled down to get to something specific intangible.

Rachel Coddington: Wonderful. We by no means actually expect you to put together any additional…You don’t need to do a slideshow if you don’t want to. We’ll be able to produce the brief that can go out to the individuals if you want to just record yourself talking. That’s what we did last year with the speakers and it came across in a very authentic way.

Rachel Coddington: It felt good to just have folks seeing people talk. If that’s OK with you, and that’s what is easiest for you, we would love for that. Great. Then, what else was I going to say about that? Oh, yeah. I will set you up however you prefer to send files once you have the recording done. I’m open to whatever is most comfortable for you.

Rachel Coddington: I can set up a folder, or if you just want to send it to me via whatever is most comfortable, I’m happy to receive it whatever way it works.

Audrey Tang: I usually use this Dropbox account, but if you have existing folder somewhere, I’m happy to use that as well.

Rachel Coddington: Great. Perfect. Then we’ll send you over an existing folder so that we don’t have to do any download cross, all that nonsense. We’ll put it in one and then I will be done.

Audrey Tang: There will be parts of my talk that are inherently visual. What I’m trying to say, is that I usually do this. While I’m talking I show exhibit one, exhibit two, and then I’m back talking, if that’s OK with you.

Rachel Coddington: Absolutely. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t feel pressured to create something new if you didn’t already have it, whatever you use is lovely. [laughs]

Audrey Tang: Excellent.

Jack De Caluwe: That was a master class, presenting those.

Rachel Coddington: I know. Those are amazing. [laughs]

Audrey Tang: The people at Summit for Democracy found it refreshing too, I guess, surprising as well.

Audrey Tang: If I send you the files in this aspect ratio, that’s to say, 16x9 MP4 at 60 FPS, that should work for your purpose?

Rachel Coddington: Yeah. That’s exactly right. Format is great. Were you going to say something, Jack? I’m sorry,

Jack De Caluwe: I was going to say, in terms of brief development to find the right language, with the other speakers, we tend to go back and forth and a word doc or paper doc and Dropbox, having a first draft looking at the formatting of it.

Jack De Caluwe: Of course, you want them all especially the briefs to be formatted in a similar way, so we tend to go back and forth on this language and shape that together. I’m curious your appetite on process and that way…

Audrey Tang: Usually, our process is that, I first talk to an audience of one, usually ST right here. Then we make a transcript of that. We love transcripts here. Then ST looks at the parts that she thinks needs reordering, and so on, and working with the organizer, in this case you.

Audrey Tang: Then I read that aloud again, and then we fix the Indonesian or whatever emphasis, the nonverbal parts of the delivery. By the final recording, I’ll be reading off a teleprompter. That will feel familiar to me, because it was my words after all. That’s the process we usually do.

Audrey Tang: ST Peng also turns that into columns for international audience and local magazine and things like that, which is why we asked for the material to be in the Creative Commons attribution, because that’s the only way we can remix it for other media formats. But as a compensation, we charge very little, almost none [laughs] for the service. It’s a good thing if what we’re focusing on is getting the message out.

Rachel Coddington: I think specifically, that’s perfect for the talk itself. Specifically, we’re talking about the brief that we send out to everyone. What would work best, Jack, you tell me if this sounds OK. Is that we can come up with, how we have formatted it in the past and send it your way, and then you can decide if that feels all right.

Rachel Coddington: The PDF of the actual thing. We can maybe wait for the transcript of this session first to make sure that the wording matches with what you’re describing. Use that as a tool. Then that’s the one piece we’re talking about is that.

Audrey Tang: Sure. If you use Dropbox Paper or Google Docs or any collaborative document, also send us that as well, so we can make comments and suggestions right away. ST is a master in that. I’m not worried about the content.

Rachel Coddington: Perfect. We’re not worried…

Rachel Coddington: …want to make sure we’re clear about precedent. Great. Anything else, Jack. I want to make sure we’re being mindful of time, too.

Jack De Caluwe: No. This is great. There is alignment and synergy. The benefit of you and your practice says that it’s absolutely clear what the subject and topic should be. I’m excited that there’s alignment, and I can’t wait to hear the talk. It’s going to be amazing.

Audrey Tang: Excellent. Anything from ST because you’ll be doing the editing? [laughs]

Rachel Coddington: [laughs]

Sheau-Tyng Peng: I want to confirm, the title is “Digital Democracy,” right?

Audrey Tang: Yeah. It will be about digital democracy. Then, maybe, we add some adjectives as Jack and Rachel talks through our draft.

Sheau-Tyng Peng: “Digital Democracy Collectively,” something like that?

Audrey Tang: Or maybe “Digital Democracy Builds Trust,” or whatever.

Sheau-Tyng Peng: We will edit a brief, and send it to Rachel and Jack?

Audrey Tang: I think they will create a brief based on our conversation that we’ve just had. Then, we will make the outline based on that.

Sheau-Tyng Peng: Yeah. We will start recording, and we will upload the file to the existing folder, right?

Audrey Tang: Yes.

Rachel Coddington: Exactly.

Sheau-Tyng Peng: OK, great.

Rachel Coddington: Perfect, and I’ll send a summation to Annie as well. Annie is here, we’ll send to Annie as well. We’ll just make sure that we all have visibility and so, what the next steps are? We can be efficient, but yes, this all sounds wonderful.

Sheau-Tyng Peng: Yeah, for your information the next week, I mean the January 31st is our Lunar New Year, so we will have a holiday. Maybe something like the brief you can forward to us before the January 31st.

Audrey Tang: …in the next couple of weeks. Yes, and I’m sure we’re all professionals here. It wouldn’t take us two weeks. [laughs]

Sheau-Tyng Peng: Yeah.

Rachel Coddington: We’ll try to get to you as much as we can in the next couple of days, and that way we just have all the info that we need and then we can roll from there, but we’re quite responsive.

Rachel Coddington: Jack and I are working almost exclusively on this right now. Anything that you need we can return in a very short time-frame if there are any additional questions. Yes, very exciting.

Audrey Tang: OK.

Rachel Coddington: Awesome.

Audrey Tang: Excellent.

Jack De Caluwe: Thank you very much.

Audrey Tang: Thank you.

Rachel Coddington: Thank you so much.

Audrey Tang: Thank you. Live long and prosper.