Sinnema at the Republica 2018 – on climate change in the digital world

From the 2nd to the 4th of May the Who’s Who of the Digital Scene met again this year in the Station in Berlin. Sinnema was also at the start this time. With a pitch to our current VR project “The Matriarx”. Why the Republica has become such a huge event and why we are digital victims explains Nora The Explorer.

Together lonely: Homeoffice on the # rp18
I walk through the entrance to the Berlin station to pick up my speaker accreditation. It is 09:55, at 10 o’clock open the gates to the sacred digital land. Around me slick hipsters and IT starlets who strap on the latest tech-gadgets like uniforms around their bodies. Selfie Sticks, IPhone X and 360 ° Cams – I feel like a Nokia 5110 in the Apple Store on Friedrichstraße. Exactly, pretty out of place and unsexy. It is not just the mass of people that paralyzes me a bit, but the passive, almost asocial behavior of the Repulicans irritates me: everyone seems to be so busy with themselves and their external communication via social media, that the environment hardly is perceived. The virtual isolation seems to work, because the media attention for the Republica is huge.

During lunch break, I sit outside in the sun in the networking area. It’s loud because the DJ on the food truck has obviously slipped on his knobs. Next to me, a woman is sitting on the beer bench, I sit with my back towards her. We are alone. I hear her say something and turn me over to her. Obviously she asked me something, I think. What a fatal mistake! In fact, she was about to record a story for Snapchat, which I have now destroyed. Annoyed, she looks at me and moves a little further away from me. The message was probably only intended for their followers, because the pay eventually with likes and commitment.

The digital nomads are moving the office to Station Berlin. Between Workshop, Meetup and VR Corner, the latest experiences with the right hashtags are hectically tweeted, posted and put on Snapchat. There is hardly any time for social interaction with the real people on the ground. Digital retard instead of digital nomad.

From the nerd meeting to the influencer net party

The digital conference Republica took place for the 12th time. The first time in “Kalkscheune”, the audience was still small. Just at the beginning there were many nerds, like local programmers, to run a little network policy. 12 years ago there was no Facebook. It depended on Myspace, StudiVZ and Co. The topics of the Republica are now quite diverse, so it appeals to many people. Today, the Republica is huge. A show for digital hipsters. Here’s a lab, think tank, working space and chill networking area. And of course there was a ball pool for the two kids who got lost on the grounds of the station.

POP is this year’s theme of the Republica. POP stands for POPularity, POPulism and Power Of People. The word leaves a lot of room for interpretation. In addition to the arrival of the AFD in the German Parliament and the current refugee problem, the list of topics is long. However, the organizers have a special focus on the “Internet for everyone”, ie social technology and the humanitarian side of Web 2.0. placed. However, the message that runs through this year’s program is clear: Beware the data privacy and save the planet with digitalization!

The Matriarx – A VR-Projekt from Sinnema
Exciting for me was the large VR offer. At almost every corner there was a booth with VR kit and interesting games, simulations and VR movies. Even if the rush was great, the wait was all the more worthwhile. In the afternoon Sinnema then presented its own VR project, funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg. Inspired by the research for our current documentary film in Juchitan, a place in Mexico, which runs according to matriarchal structures, Sinnema develops the idea for a new VR experience:

Imagine a world in which togetherness is dominated by women …
in which the economy is socially oriented ..
and lived differently within the family …

In the VR project “The MATRIARX” we experience what that could be like, in a parallel Berlin, in a parallel VR world. It tells a world in which it goes without saying that women go their ways. The focus is on the experience. For each. Whether female or male users.
The project is at the beginning of its development. The local experts, who provided feedback to all projects right after the pitch, were convinced that Sinnema had an exciting project in the making and was curious about more. We continue to report on the development of the project. It will then be presented in a year at the Republica 2019. You may be curious. And we diligently.

 
In which society do we want to live?

In times of big data and the latest Facebook scandal around Cambridge Analytica, we have to ask more and more who we want to share our information with on the internet. Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are monopolies in the US – they control humans cybernetic and can manipulate their needs. This problem has been taken up by numerous speakers. The philosopher Richard David Precht says: “What we need now is a debate about what kind of society we really want to live in”. In his new book “Hunters, shepherds critics: a utopia for the digital society” Precht outlines the images of a desirable future in the digital age. For Precht, it contains the opportunity to live more fulfilled and self-determined in the future. But we must now set the course and change our social system consistently. Because to work, to shape something, to realize oneself lies in the nature of man. Not sitting in an office from nine to five and getting paid for it!

Photo: Uwe Völkner

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