(Re)Imagining Freedom of Expression in Postdigital Societies
Event series in cooperation with Austrian UNESCO Commission and the Vienna School of International Studies
The series “(Re)Imagining Freedom of Expression in Post-Digital Societies” explored how freedom of opinion and expression is changing in the context of digital transformation, and what implications this holds for culture, education, and democracy. The shared aim was to discuss the consequences for cultural freedom of expression, to make power relations comprehensible, and to identify room for action for stakeholders from culture, academia, activism, and politics. Three public events – “Memory & Identity”, “Youth Cultures”, and “AI & Creativity” (with the Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab) – directed attention to diverse perspectives on memory, youth cultures, and the implications of AI in the arts and culture sector.
Together with the Austrian UNESCO Commission and the Diplomatic Academy Vienna, we conceived and delivered this three-part series. Through our Managing Director Anke Schad-Spindler, who chairs the UNESCO Expert Advisory Board on Cultural Diversity, we were able to bring our experience at the intersection of culture, education, and policy to bear. By bringing together our respective networks, we designed formats with our cooperation partners that enabled inspiring exchange and fostered active participation.
The events drew on short input presentations, moderated conversations, and open discussions in which participants shared their experiences and jointly developed approaches to protecting and promoting cultural diversity and freedom of expression. In this way, a space emerged from which concrete ideas for a democratic shaping of post-digital public spheres arose from a range of different positions.
The series made clear that while digital technologies open up new possibilities for expression, they simultaneously intensify inequalities, exclusions, and dependencies. It sharpened awareness of the fact that freedom of cultural expression must be continuously and actively negotiated. Through its video recordings as well as its content, the series offers snapshots and opportunities for reflection at a time of rapid digital transformation.
- Memory & Identity (7 April 2025, 6:30 pm @ Diplomatische Akademie Wien)
- Youth Cultures (2 June 2025, 6:00 pm @ Diplomatische Akademie Wien)
- AI & Creativity (8 October 2025 @ Postsparkasse/ÖUK)
3. AI & Creativity
Diversity and freedom of cultural expressions in post-digital societies
8 October 2025, Austrian UNESCO Commission/Postsparkasse
This event brought together experts from the fields of art, culture, academia, and activism to discuss key-questions such as: How can we protect the diversity of cultural expression in post-digital societies? How can we strengthen transparency and access? What does creativity mean in the context of artificial intelligence? Should attributes such as intelligence, self-determination, and freedom be exclusively attributed to human beings? How can artistic intuition and subjectivity be represented in algorithms?
Guests – Input Talks:
- Magdalena Reiter, expert in network policy and cultural worker
- Clemens Apprich, Vice Rector for Research and Digitality, and Head of the Department of Media Theory and the Peter Weibel Research Institute for Digital Cultures, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Panel „Hybrid Realities“:
Carina Zehetmair, Ali Nikrang, Eva Fischer and S()fia Braga, moderated by Giulia Pelillo
2. Youth Cultures
2 June 2025, Vienna School of International Studies
Young people are powerful voices in the fight for human rights and against injustice, advocating for peace and taking action against climate collapse.
Members of Generation Z and Generation Alpha are native to both digital and analogue spaces, forming global connections and vibrant youth cultures. Despite their crucial role in shaping the future, they are often excluded from current decision-making processes and face political and social neglect. At the same time, today’s youth are growing up in a world marked by ongoing crises and educational inequality. This combination arguably poses one of the greatest threats to the future viability of our societies.
This event explored the diverse, creative, artistic, and innovative ways in which young people voice their concerns, engage with societal challenges, and influence decision-making—while also addressing the limitations, exclusions, and discrimination they continue to face.
Discussion with:
- Anahita Neghabat (Social anthropologist and artist)
- Aron Weigl (EDUCULT)
- Cäcilia Regner (Youth Representative, Austrian Commission for UNESCO)
Moderation: Anke Schad-Spindler (EDUCULT)
1. Memory & Identity
7 April 2025, Vienna School of International Studies
This event explored the relationship between freedom of expression and cancel culture by discussing how these terms are invoked to instigate culture wars and stifle dissent in relation to political struggles over public memory, identities and belonging.
Dessy Gavrilova looked at freedom of expression in the context of the current political developments both in the USA and in Europe. How does the dramatic political change that we witness today in the USA and the new regime’s utilization of the topic redefine the battle ground for freedom of expression? Does the frontier of the battle for freedom of speech need to be reframed today, and if so – how? How do progressive agendas affect the politics of freedom of expression? And can culture survive in the context where “cancel culture” is normalized?
Giulia Pelillo explored the historical and cultural roots of both the term cancel culture and the practice of cancelling. She elaborated on cancel culture as a cultural product of technological, economic and cultural developments that originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and have been dramatically affected recently by the digitalisation and datafication of communication. Against this background, the talk looked at the politics of cancelling to discuss how freedom of expression can be safeguarded to promote social cohesion rather than polarising societies.
