Between 27-30 September, 2024, took place at Casa Universitarilor (Str. Dionisie Lupu, nr. 46, Sector 1, 010455, București), UNFINISHED 2024.
Below, you’ll find photos and my notes at the event.
Photos:
Photo album on Facebook – Day 1 »
Photo album on Facebook – Day 2 »
Photo album on Facebook – Day 3 »
Photo album on Google Photos »
Note – these texts below undoubtedly contain mistakes – these are my personal writings (and, likely, contain errors).
My notes:
FROM AWE TO ACTION – JASON SILVA
SIGN-LANGUAGE TRANSLATED BY DENIS BLIDARIU
Jason Silva, Emmy-nominated storyteller and host of Brain Games, kicks off UNFINISHED with his latest work and research right at the intersection of technology, creativity, and human flourishing. Known for blending philosophy and wonder, Jason challenges us to not just envision a better world but to actively shape it. By connecting consciousness, tech, and mental health, he urges us to apply our beliefs through action—turning awe into praxis in an increasingly complex and digitized society. This opening talk, to be continued and deepened each day of #UNFINISHED24, sets the stage for a weekend of deep reflection and transformative ideas.
600M computer a few decades ago vs. today’s computers.
1M times more powerful.
1M times faster.
1,000 times smaller.
Do androids dream of electric sheep?
Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, according to WHO’s latest estimates, published today in “Suicide worldwide in 2019”. Every year, more people die as a result of suicide than HIV, malaria or breast cancer – or war and homicide. (via »)
Where once I was blind, now I can see (“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” – John 9:24-26 NIV – A second time they summoned the man who – Bible Gateway)
In order to go out of your mind, you have to lose your mind.
BODY/TECHNOLOGY – GRACE BOYLE
SIGN-LANGUAGE TRANSLATED BY DENIS BLIDARIU
Join artist Grace Boyle as she takes us through a decade of sensorial praxis, and raises questions about intelligence, our bodies, and how our biological and ecological realities will sit alongside technological futures. Grace will share her stories of creating multisensory virtual reality experiences with Indigenous groups in the Amazon jungle, crafting musical narratives with scent, and using artificial intelligence in human group dreaming sessions in the towers of medieval castles. Grace will also introduce her latest installation, a robotic performance unfolding for the first time at UNFINISHED.
Our sense of smell is one of the oldest senses.
Technology tends to be uniform – black, white, nontactile, rectilian.
The Cartesian duality of the mind-body.
Descartes – how the body works and how we make sense of it.
We have a mind – it is separate, like a soul.
In history, we put a lot of emphasis on this duality.
Seeing is believing. Actually, smell is very important. Also, touching.
We have made biology into technology.
We have neurons in the gut.
Not all thoughts happen in the brain.
The spider’s web is part of its cognition.
The body doesn’t end at the skin.
The skin is not the boundary to our body.
400,000 particles of the skin around a bed.
We are communicating biologically by breathing.
Experiments with lucid dreaming.
What is intelligence?
Instagram account – The Feelies (@thefeelies) • Instagram photos and videos.
THE SOFT POWER OF LONELINESS – MONIKA JIANG
SIGN-LANGUAGE TRANSLATED BY DENIS BLIDARIU
Loneliness isn’t something to be feared or cured—it’s the quiet force that can transform us. In this keynote, explore with writer, facilitator, and community builder Monika Jiang, how our shared experience of loneliness is an invitation to return to what truly matters: our relationships, our interconnectedness, and the deep care that lies beneath the surface in an increasingly isolated world.
Gallup: Over 1 in 5 People Worldwide Feel Lonely a Lot.
Loneliness makes other negative feelings worse.
What is most personal is most universal?
Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy.
Loneliness coping with the gap. Olivia Laing
If you don’t work 996 other will do it – VICE.
996 = working 9 am – 9 pm, 6 days a week in China.
We are all one – the soft power of loneliness.
UNFINISHED LOVE STORIES I: CHOICES – DANIEL JONES & DANA ROGOZ
Live music by Mǎlina Șerbânescu.
Do you ever wonder how does stepping into someone else’s narrative allow us to explore parts of our own? Even though each love story is unique, certain feelings—longing, loss, joy, uncertainty—are universal. Come find the common ground by witnessing the performance of UNFINISHED Love Stories, submitted by members of our community and selected by Daniel Jones. The stories selected for this first sessions focus on the choices we make – that may not always seem right in the short term, but they are often the ones that shape a more fulfilling lifetime. Let’s gather to hear, feel, and reflect on love, which is not an event. It’s a practice.
PLAY AS PRACTICE – DANIEL HIRSCHMANN
Daniel Hirschmann, artist, educator, and founder of Hirsch & Mann, examines how technology and art intertwine to shape everyday experiences. With an eye for blending creative expression and practical challenges, Daniel shares his journey of using interactive technologies to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Join him as he discusses how artistic thinking and technological innovation can reshape how we engage with the world around us.
Idea – What does the data on a USB stick look like when viewed?
SNAP BACK TO REALITY, HERE COMES GRAVITY – TIMMY GHIURĂU
Timmy Ghiurău, innovation leader at Volvo Cars and co-founder of The Point Labs, known as the New Immersive Bauhaus, shares insights into the intersection of design, technology, and human experience. With over a decade of spearheading innovations in XR, AI, and autonomous vehicles, Timmy explores how immersive technologies can reshape the world around us and unlock new ways of life, by hacking our environment and design systems. Discover how futurist thinking and creative technology drive innovation and push the boundaries of possibility.
They hacked Fruit Ninja.
Created eye-tracking devices. Worked with Lego. At some point, they sold a company to Facebook.
You need a box to think outside the box.
Leading the innovation at Volvo
Write a Vision with capital letters.
It’s important to choose what not to do.
How would it be to sleep lying horizontally when the car drives itself?
Squowineck department at Volvo.
Police thought driving with a headset is fine – they thought it was a voice headset.
I don’t need money and budgets from companies – I need the executive’s trust.
If you get money, you have accountability to all the people below the executives.
CROSSING WIRES – DANIEL HIRSCHMANN & TIMMY GHIURĂU IN CONVERSATION WITH LAUREN CELENZA
In this conversation and crossed Q&A, Daniel Hirschmann and Timmy Ghiurău respond to each others’ work, delving into the intersections of immersive technology, human experience, and creative innovation. Connected by Lauren Celenza, this discussion explores how XR, AI, and cutting-edge design are reshaping industries, breaking boundaries, and imagining new realities. From hacking environments to crafting the future with tech, the three of them offer a glimpse into the art of building tomorrow’s world.
DANIEL HIRSCHMANN
It’s important to focus on getting there, not on how to get there.
The challenge is convincing the partners to be brave enough to commit to a process without knowing what the outcome will be.
TIMMY GHIURĂU
The reason why we use a pencil is that it doesn’t have the precision of a sharp pen.
DANIEL HIRSCHMANN
The word prototype breaks the communication. People want finished products not prototypes.
TIMMY GHIURĂU
A work in progress can help you get on the appropriate road map.
WHAT DEFINES HUMANS IN THE AGE OF INTELLIGENT MACHINES? – MARCELLO MARI
As artificial intelligence continues to advance, how do we define what makes humans unique? In this keynote, Marcello Mari will explore the key traits that distinguish humans from intelligent machines and delve into the potential for collaboration between AI and humanity. Can humans flourish in a world increasingly shaped by AI, and what role can decentralized technologies play in ensuring AGI develops benevolently? Through a fascinating journey into two of the most transformative technologies of our time, Marcello will illustrate how they can drive the next phase of human evolution and foster decentralized, open-source communities that empower society as a whole.
AI will have a huge impact on the world economy, more than China and India combined.
Soon AI will have trillions of parameters (input data)
In the future we will have AGI.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that falls within the lower and upper limits of human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of cognitive tasks. (via »)
Artificial intelligence has been developed for about 70 years.
LLMs don’t have empathy on their own. They don’t have empathy on their own. They are unlikely to reach AGI.
He’s a strong believer that the path to AGI will come in a participative way.
In the future, we will likely have an avatar AI for each person.
So many people are using AI to write their posts on LinkedIn. | LinkedIn
Q&A
Since 2017, 10 companies have acquired 100 AI companies.
Whoever controls AGI will have a lot of power.
We need to have decentralized technologies.
Smart contracts – very powerful for transactions.
With blockchain, we can eliminate the need for intermediates like banks and financial institutions.
Today, AI is used a lot for creative purposes. It can be used for jobs that are not pleasant and safe for humans, for example.
Right now, AI is like a white canvas that we can write on top.
We’ll need to educate ourselves. Modern democracies should encourage a digital wallet with personal data.
When you interact with AIs, you will need to take ownership of your data.
AI should not be allowed to make critical decisions.
Humanity should be safe and humans alive – incentives like these should be aligned between humans and AI.
AI might be reaching AGI in around ten years.
We are in the beginning with blockchain.
A wallet is like an extension of a browser.
DESIGN BY NATURE – MARKO BRAJOVIC
When asked for his preferred designer, Marko Brajovic answers, “Nature: a 3.8 billion years old designer, with greatest experience in creating successful and resilient solutions”. Through his projects, Marko blends nature and architecture, showing how a design process mimics natural ecosystems.
Discover how even commercial ventures, like furniture or hotels, or exhibitions and pavilions, can support a deeper connection to nature and create more sustainable environments. This talk invites you to rethink the way we design cities—seeing them as living, breathing forests— and imagine our deepest connection with Nature as a design process, ethical approach and final architectural product.
Wild or domestic?
Mimic processes in biology.
What is a civilization? There is a strange connection between what a park is and what a city is.
Cultural forests.
20-25% of Amazon was planted in the last 100 years.
Culture and nature is not a dichotomy.
Seed is a time capsule. You plant it, and you get results later on.
ancestrality – The condition of being ancestral Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
People don’t use the house 100%. Some people in rural areas might use their spaces 100%.
What is a living system?
City forest.
Forest city.
Inter-connection.
Community.
Adaptability.
Biomimetic.
Collective metabolism.
Multispecity.
We are nature – we are not separated from nature.
You’ll tend to have bugs and spiders if you have an open space.
THE PATH THAT UNITES – ALIN UȘERIU, TIBI UȘERIU IN CONVERSATION WITH RACHEL DONADIO
Join brothers Alin and Tiberiu Ușeriu in a candid conversation with journalist Rachel Donadio. Alin, the visionary behind Via Transilvanica, and Tibi, an extreme athlete and three-time 6633 Arctic Ultra winner, share their incredible journey.
From childhood struggles to creating Romania’s first long-distance trail, their story is one of resilience, and of a deep commitment to connecting people and enabling deep social transformation through nature and community. Explore their world of endurance, adventure, and meaningful change.
TIBI UȘERIU
Îmi este greu să știu cum altfel ar putea arată prezentul meu în alte contexte.
ALIN UȘERIU
Tibi e guru eu sunt gura.
O parte din familie a făcut pușcărie, o parte a făcut terapie.
M-am rugat ca fratele meu să fie prins. Eu n-am vorbit cu el 5 ani.
TIBI UȘERIU
Curtea închisorii unde mă plimbam avea 27 de pași și de aici numele cărții.
Nu mă consider un sportiv. Am un avantaj – mental.
Primii ani mă alimentam din trecut și nu era bine.
Aveam o condamnare destul de mare. Viitorul, m-am gândit, e complicat, pentru că am de executat o pedeapsă lungă.
Prezentul – o zi de închisoare putea fi analizată în 5 minute.
Așa că nu mă gândeam la nimic.
Alergarea a venit târziu. Nu am alergat de la început.
Am citit de un atlet grec care alerga din orașul unde locuia până la orașul unde are loc cursa. Ulterior făcea cursa.
În detenție am făcut meditație.
M-a ajutat enorm partea de mental din închisoare pentru ultra maraton. (Un ultramaraton este orice cursă mai lungă decât cea tradițională de maraton (care are o lungime de 42,195 km). )
6633 Arctic Ultra – coordonate Cerc Polar.
M-a ajutat că nu știam engleză și nu înțelegeam avertismentele.
Trebuia să trec și un test de hipotermie.
M-au ajutat băile de hipotermie.
Ai nevoie de pregătire ca să reziști mental și fizic.
Trebuia gestionat frigul.
Am îmbunătățit permanent timpul de la competiții pentru ca învățam din greșelile mele.
ALIN UȘERIU
Glumă despre Tibi – s-a întors la competiții pentru ca nu-l urmăreau polițiștii în timpul curselor.
TIBI UȘERIU
Nu vreau să răscumpăr niște greșeli din trecut în mod conștient.
ALIN UȘERIU
Am adus numai din Germania 2.000 de tineri.
Am vrut să facem un proiect care nu se bazează pe o emoție negativă despre România.
Organizația nu a folosit emoții negative pentru finanțare.
Când au pornit proiectul nu au avut un sponsor.
Peste 80 de artiști au pus în 4.5 ani borne peste 1.400 de kilometri.
Via Transilvanica: World’s Greatest Places 2024 | TIME.
Nu poate avea Spania El Camino dacă nu îl folosesc spaniolii.
Pentru mine personal e cea mai mare investiție în mine faptul că l-am parcurs
TIBI UȘERIU
Mie îmi place sa port adidași de trial.
Via Transilvanica are drumuri de pământ, drumuri forestiere și puțin asfalt.
ALIN UȘERIU
E nevoie de un ritm mai domol pentru a medita pe drum.
TIBI UȘERIU
Mi-am luat 2 ani de pauză pentru Via Transilvanica.
Mi-ar plăcea să fac curse și pe căldură.
Am avut nevoie de o pauză binemeritată.
Cu singuranță la un moment dat voi mai face ceva (cu referire la curse).
Un amic – orice armăsar la un moment dat ajunge o gloabă.
ALIN UȘERIU
Din 2004 am plantat 1M de copaci.
Avem o rețea națională de voluntariat.
TIBI UȘERIU
Fără oameni pe acest drum acest drum a fost făcut degeaba.
RAISING THE FUTURE: A FAMILY DIALOGUE With BETHANY KOBY
SIGN-LANGUAGE TRANSLATED BY DENIS BLIDARIU
Bethany Koby, co-founder of Fam Studio, dives into the challenges and macrotrends shaping modern family life. Juxtaposing her rich experience and research in education technology to her own personal lens, she’ll explore the complexities families face today, from navigating uncertainty to redefining generational boundaries.
In a special twist, Bethany’s 12-year-old son Ash will join her on stage to ask questions, sparking a candid cross-generational conversation about parenting, technology, and the evolving dynamics of family life in a rapidly changing world.
Montessori education – Wikipedia.
Even little children know things about education.
We created a platform on which children could create their own games.
We should include children as decision-makers.
Parents are treated like wallets. This feels dissatisfying.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
25% of the world population is below 15.
The average child spends around 4h outside.
75% of the children said the future is frightening.
2/5 in 2050 will be born in Africa.
As a parent, the stress is real. It’s hard to raise a child.
There are bright sparks all over the world.
The family is the village that raises the family. There’s always a village.
Our mission is generational.
The system is essentially educating children to be factory workers
Young futures – bringing young people into the speculative futures. Futures literacy – the capacity to think about the future. Not many people ask children what they would like the future to be.
Interspecies play – via this, children think about what intelligence is at all.
It’s not about how much time you spend in nature but the quality of time.
Nursery vs. University learning: Nursery is neglected, there are very few places where it’s free, and there are very different budgets for these two.
There’s an 8 to 1 return on early education.
It’s undeserved.
There are six senses – beyond hearing, smell, touch, taste, hear.
Proprioception, known as kinesthesia, is your body’s ability to sense movement, action, and location. It’s present in every muscle movement you have.
Without proprioception, you couldn’t move without thinking about your next step.
AI is a tool for expression and creativity.
Q&A session:
Technology vs. Smartphone connected to social media – these should be analyzed separately.
The use of technology in creative ways should not be problematic.
In the future, people will likely look at the fact that we are working so hard and say we didn’t prioritize people and family as much as we should have.
GALLERY LAB With JEAN-KENTA GAUTHIER in conversation with RACHEL DONADIO
Jean-Kenta Gauthier and Rachel Donadio explore the evolving role of galleries as experimental spaces, delving into the intersection of art, public space, and social commentary. With a focus on the power of multisensory experiences and the responsibility of representation, this conversation challenges preconceived notions of the art world and reveals how art can transform the way we engage with the world around us.
A gallery is a wrong word. A gallery today could be a platform, not necessarily a physical world. The audience could be diverse and international.
A gallery is a bridge. It’s somehow between a publishing house and a music production company. It’s something about the production and the diffusion.
As a gallery manager, you can have an intuition.
Russian Performance Artist Pyotr Pavlensky Charged After Setting a Bank on Fire in Paris.
Brancusi v. United States: Modern Art on Trial.
A photographer had an exhibit with images that were self-deleting. You pay attention when you know the photos are temporary only.
Nice gallery in Romania: Plan B.
When you’re a gallerist, you need to be able to travel
As an artist you need to read as much as you can, visit as many exhibitions as you can, meet as many people as you can
Home | Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.
Galleries are generally free.
About everything you see in a museum has been shown in a gallery before.
Q&A:
In art galleries, we show the end result but not the context and see what ideas get rejected in a final form. But if you go to a gallery, you can find out things like these
Imagination is visual. When you read a book, you probably hear your voice and then you imagine pictures
When watching an abstract piece of art, there is value in not reading the label and imaging the
GRACE BOYLE in conversation with LAUREN CELENZA
SIGN-LANGUAGE TRANSLATED BY DENIS BLIDARIU
Bring all your questions and reflections to this closing conversation and Q&A session with artist Grace Boyle as she wraps up “RE/SOURCE”, the robotic installation you have witnessed taking shape across the entire festival. Together, we’ll dive deeper into her project and how it challenges our understanding of sensory experience and the future of human interaction with technology. This is your chance to engage directly with her and reflect on the unfolding of her unique robotic performance.
Technology cannot yet replicate the creation of life (a baby) or the growth of skin/hair.
Computer-human communication tends to be visual and sometimes a bit audio. We need more senses
The body-mind duality in the computer world is the hardware and software.
Biology makes babies appealing but not criogenate bodies.
FIRE & FREEDOM With BEN OKRI in conversation with RACHEL DONADIO
Sir Ben Okri, renowned poet and Booker Prize-winning novelist, explores freedom, praxis and the state of the world through poetry, readings from his works, and a conversation with journalist Rachel Donadio. Drawing from both poetry and prose, including poems from A Fire in My Head, Ben responds to the mood and challenges of the times and helps us reflect on the world and on ourselves through his unique lens. This event blends words, music, and dialogue, offering a unique insight into the intersections of literature and societal change.
In slow trains people are friendlier, they try to help more than in fast trains.
You generally write about climate change in two ways – either everyone lives or everyone dies.
Rainer Maria Rilke:
Rilke would have seen the gazelle at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris which had a small zoo; he uses the latin name ‘Dorcas gazelle’ in the subtitle. The sculptor Rodin encouraged Rilke to closely observe the subject of a poem for inspiration, rather than wait for inspiration to arrive of its own accord.
I have to tell one truth in a way that lasts 100 years.
We need culture as much as we need science and technology.
There are two ways of referring to the world: fixed or able to reimagine it.
We have to have the capacity to reimagine the world.
Hope is practical.
Facts in themselves are no more powerful than we are.
It’s easier to go from science to poetry than poetry to science.
We teach kids all sorts of things but not rigorous logic. Science helps with this.
Poetry is not about creative imagination but about seeing connections between unlikely things
Q&A:
The role of the poet in the world – they are like the members of an orchestra – various roles and attributes, but you need to be there.
The fact that we are all alive here – we are called in one way or another to turn the ship around.
When my first child was born – she totally changed my life.
Talking about the long term (about the planet and the ecology) – I didn’t know how much time we have.
I don’t understand what writer’s block refers to. If you are active, there’s so much to write about. The solution to writer’s block is to ask yourself what hurts you. Don’t ask what do you love.
Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Poetry angers us into truth.
Poetry expands what it means to be human.
Poetry makes us children again.
Any revolution without poetry will fail (to produce actual change).
I don’t know too many racist poets.
Poetry changes people.
Poetry changes the world, but don’t put that responsibility into poets’ hands.
If ideology is the only lens you have, it can have very poor results (when you say people are equal you can do bad deeds based on this ideology).
Poetry is a way of looking at life, it’s a dance, it’s not just words on paper.
Poetry complicates everything.
You can’t have a dialogue with certainties.
Ideology insists on seeing the world in a single way. I wish Marx had been a poet also.
BEYOND LONELINESS: FROM ALONE TO ALL ONE – MONIKA JIANG in conversation with LAUREN CELENZA
In this closing conversation, Monika Jiang and Lauren Celenza invite the audience to reflect on the power of connection and community. Together, they will explore the collective experience of loneliness, particularly across Monika’s workshops and installations, have resonated over the past two days. Through shared stories, letters, and audience reflections, this open debrief aims to transform loneliness into a pathway toward deeper connection. Join the conversation as we close out this year’s talks with togetherness and curiosity.
When you ask AI things, you also ask yourself some questions. For example, do we put the same high criteria and standards on ourselves as we expect the AI to have.
When one person in a group opens more and becomes more vulnerable, this all transcends to the group.
Trust is important to relationships.
Trust is a dangerous, precious thing.
Trauma can be written with a capital T or not.
First, you need to give trust to receive it.
Forgiveness is one of the most underrated practices.