The Bassetti Foundation recently continued its long-term collaboration with the International School Utrecht as on 23 October Jonathan Hankins delivered a Performance Lecture about sociotechnical imaginaries during a Diploma Years TOK (theory of Knowledge) lesson.

The Foundation and the school have been collaborating since 2018, when topics under discussion were ‘the driverless society’ and developments in nanotechnology.

More recently, conversations have centred around the relationship between society and technological innovation, a question that is central to the TOK curriculum and which we approached again this year.

Any performance lecture brings elements of art to formal education settings, the aim being to provoke reflection. In this case a ‘scientist character’ performed the unveiling of Longevity: Now Available in Cans! a new, revolutionary nanotechnology product, a drink that can lengthen life using technology. The students then had a discussion about the sociotechnical  imaginaries that might produce such a product (which is 100% fake, although that is not always obvious). Questions addressed were whether objects and processes (AI and new gadgets) reflect the values of society, or form them, or both, and do they have politics as Winner suggested back in 1980.

The students raised lots of critical and difficult to answer questions about global politics, realities and visions for the future, had a laugh at the teachers’ expense and seemed to enjoy the show.

If you would like to learn more about the lecture and the Foundation’s approach to addressing the idea of building a society for all ages, we have a free to download White Paper, while the article Longevity: Now Available in Cans! is free to download here. It recounts the development of this performance lecture at the Milan Polytechnic.

The Bassetti Foundation looks forward to continuing the collaboration.