From 20 to 24 March 2019, the British Council is supporting the tenth edition of Kosmopolis, the amplified literature fest that gathers more than 100.000 people every two years. The five-day programme will bring together established authors and emerging new voices to address some of the main challenges facing culture and literature under the broadest concepts. With the slogan “Stories that Move the World”, the festival will revolve around the stories of the 21st century that aim to make sense of the world that we have created. Within the framework of "It's time to talk" programme, the British Council will offer an overview of British diversity in the fields of the arts with an eclectic programme generating discussion, exchange and debate about the hottest contemporary issues, such as artificial intelligence in human relationships with Libby Heaney, the evolution of narrative with Laura Bates and Julian Barnes, women in the arts with British composer, Jocelyn Pook,and the activist Helen Hester, the role of science shaping societies with Philip Ball and the power of collaborative economy with Paul Mason.
Libby Heaney is an artist, researcher and lecturer with a background in quantum computing. Her artistic research concerns the impacts of new technologies. She has exhibited in London (including at the Tate Modern, V&A and Christie’s), New York, Peru, and across Europe including as part of the official programme at the 2017 EU capital of culture in Aarhus, Denmark. She has won numerous prizes and commissions including a Sky Arts Art 50 commission for www.britbot.org. Her work has been featured in print and on the radio in the UK and in Europe including the BBC.
Libby will be participating in two activities within Kosmopolis as well as presenting Lady Chatterley's Tinderbot which is an interactive touch screen artwork comprising conversations between an AI Tinderbot posing as characters from Lady Chatterley's Lover and other Tinder users.
Libby is a research tutor at the Royal College of Art since 2014 and a resident of Somerset House Studios.