SDF

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has placed the entire world on unfamiliar ground. At a time when nothing is as it once was, what kind of future should human society be envisioning? Which of our “stories” of the future hold the key to our survival? Yuval Noah Harari, one of the world’s most brilliant minds, brings his gift for big-picture thinking and penetrating, prescient insight to SDF2020 to explore - with boldness and clarity - the new stories that will shape the 21st century.

COVID-19 has upended norms and ways of life once taken for granted, leaving in its wake a growing sense of vague unease that has individuals, companies, and nations scrambling to seek new strategies for survival. The collective message of the SDF2020 Research Team is that our society needs a “new social contract” that will endure through and beyond the current uncertainties. What kind of social safety net and what kinds of policies and systems will be necessary in the post-COVID era given the needs of civil society as well as our changing times? For the last six months, the SDF2020 Research Team have engaged in research and analysis on ways we as a society can move forward through today’s unfamiliar terrain. In this session, they share their insights on the new conditions for survival as we seek to create a more sustainable world.

With COVID-19 already a feature of our daily lives, information on medicine and health is in no short supply. Everyday we are flooded not only with facts but also falsehoods, the worst of which have amplified fears and - even more dangerously - wreaked havoc on our disease transmission control systems. What kind of news and information do people living day to day in the shadow of COVID-19 truly want? With infectious diseases becoming more and more ubiquitous, how do public health systems need to change? CHO Dong-chan is a medical correspondent for SBS who has brought his unique double lens as a medical professional and passionate journalist to his reporting on the pandemic. In this session, he explores questions related to the distribution and consumption of information and directions for public health in a post-COVID world.

The world has seen its share of economic crisis and recession since the inception of market capitalism, but the crisis caused by COVID-19 is unlike any we have ever seen. Even the most basic economic activity has come to a virtual standstill as we prioritize staying safe from the life-threatening virus. Moreover, given the highly contagious and easily mutable nature of coronavirus, it seems highly unlikely that things will ever “return to normal.” On the contrary, the changes wrought by COVID-19 will likely become the “new normal.” In this session, two Bain & Company partners examine from a business and economic perspective how COVID has changed and can be expected to further change our world and the implications for consumers.

The food we eat is determined by policies developed in response to the needs of a given time. In the ongoing search for new ways of survival in a completely changed world, we can’t overlook the question of food - how will the food we eat need to change? For many years, food expert and columnist Mark BITTMAN has grappled with issues concerning food. He argues that what we eat ultimately decides how we live, and that our diets change the ways we live for the better. In this session, Mark tells the story of the past, present, and future of food.

In the post-COVID world, business travel is on hold, working from home has become the new normal, and ideas about the workplace are changing. In this session, Lee Jinha shares the story behind how he founded the AR-enabled collaboration platform Spatial. Connecting from his office in New York to the SDF stage in a firsthand demonstration of remote collaboration, Jinha will talk about how changes to the workplace in a future unbounded by limitations of space or distance are reshaping our values, our capacity for creativity, and our cities and wider environment.

Now more than ever, movement is an important resource for finding joy and strength. Around the world, people who are more physically active are not only healthier. They are also happier and have a stronger sense of purpose. They experience more positive emotions such as gratitude and love, feel more connected to their communities, and are more hopeful about the future. These benefits are seen throughout the lifespan, and are even more pronounced during times of stress and uncertainty. COVID-19 has made the value of movement even more clear. Since the onset of the pandemic, people who have maintained or increased their physical activity report greater psychological well-being and resilience, as well as less depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Health psychologist and Stanford University lecturer Kelly MCGONIGAL will share three powerful ways to harness the body-mind connection through movement. Learn how physical activity can reset your mood and mindset, relieve stress and anxiety, and empower you to face the challenges in your life. Dr. MCGONIGAL will share practical guidelines for harnessing these benefits, both during and beyond the current global health crisis.

COVID-19 has changed everyday life. Global warming is threatening our existence. Disasters are encroaching on our survival. The message in all of these crises is the same: our ways of life must change. In the Anthropocene, a term coined to capture the magnitude of human impact on the Earth since the Holocene, we need a perspective that goes beyond our current human narratives.

It only took one microscopic virus to completely transform our world. In the ensuing upheaval, we have had no choice but to reflect on the 300-year history of human civilization, and in particular, on the need for a “natural contract” to supersede the “social contract” of the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 21st century, societies are evolving based on new contracts that go beyond those between people to include objects, other forms of life, and the environment. And we find ourselves at a major turning point in human civilization, one that demands we confront several important questions: How should we as humans relate to non-human forms of existence? How must we rethink our ideas about society? How can we combine the two vital aspects of eco (habitat) - namely, economy and ecology?

Particulate matter, COVID-19, and heat waves are recent examples of what may be called “air disasters” or “air crises.” Multiple air disasters throw us into anxiety and fear and threaten our “respiratory community,” in which we have shared air to sustain our social relations. What would be a new form of “air relations” that we need to design in the midst of current crises? What would be the role of science and technology in this new condition of air? In this session, JEON Chi Hyung explores new ways of studying and sharing air.

In the COVID-19 era, open broadcast, concerts, forums, and other once common formats for programs and events have become a thing of the past, and broadcasters have had to think outside the box. In this session, producer KWAK Seung-young, the creator of the first contactless online face-to-face concert format to be showcased in Korea, gives us a glimpse of how production is changing and rising to the challenge of a new, contactless world.

What do the artists who used to connect with their fans on stage think of the new contactless era? In this session, EunHyuk and ShinDong, who, in addition to being Super Junior members are also producers, tell the story of what it was like to plan, produce, and perform their Beyond Live concert “Beyond the Supershow,” the world’s first online-only paid concert. Now in their sixteenth year in show business, EunHyuk and ShinDong give their honest take on their experiences on the stage, and how these experiences have continued to evolve over the years, from the analog to the digital and now the online area.

In Some respects, COVID-19 has created opportunities for change. For example, e-learning has eliminated the need for mass gathering of students in one place. Will the schools of the future, then, need to be as big as the schools of today? All the world is now standing at the same starting line. And there are two choices before us. Will we follow in the footsteps of earlier generations who modeled their schools after those of the West? Or will we create new systems of schooling and open a new age of learning? In addition, When we transform our spaces, we can transform our relationships with one another, as well as the cities in which we reside. In this session, architect YOO Hyunjoon explores how his “seemingly inconsequential yet unexpectedly worthwhile” ideas are becoming a reality.

What does a sustainable way of life - good for us as individuals and good for our Earth - look like? COVID-19 has been a turning point for cities around the world to begin to seek ways to move away from the GDP-focused, “growth-addicted” economic model of the city. A primary example is Amsterdam. In the wake of the pandemic, the Dutch capital has decided to become more sustainable through the adoption of the doughnut economic model developed by British economist Kate RAWORTH. How exactly can a doughnut change a city? Ilektra KOULOUMPI, the urban design strategist who designed the new city plans, gives us real-life answers.

With the scope of our mobility and activity severely limited by COVID-19, many are looking for value and meaning in their local neighborhoods, and increasing attention is being paid to neighborhood communities as the center for locally-based living. MO Jongryn, a scholar who has devoted years to the exploration and discovery of the possibilities of “local” life, sees back alleys as potential backdrops for vibrant local economies. He shares examples from inside and outside Korea that demonstrate the value of “local” as a new source of opportunity and a new way of life.

Can the answers to our present chaos and hints to the solutions for our survival be found in the imaginings of free-spirited artists? This is the question that inspired this year’s SDF2020 art project, the product of the collective intelligence of a diverse group of artists, each preeminent in their respective fields. The team’s name is Fermata, which they describe as a reference to the musical symbol that slows or halts the rhythm of movement, or the tempo, in a work of music, whether in the middle or at the end, changing the mood and expression conveyed. When everyone is racing at the same speed in the same direction, someone needs to pause and take a breath, and look for those that all of the others may have left behind. Fermata explores the possibilities latent in sound as a vehicle for reflection and imagination about our future.