Artificial Intelligence (A.I) is here. It's been here far longer than you would expect and more integrated into your daily life than you know. Ranging from hyper-personalisation advertising such as 'you should see this…' based on your google searches to task automation which are replacing human-filled roles currently as a result of health and safety or for the pursuit consistency and productivity. The question is not what will we do when the machines come, but rather what is distinctly human that sets us apart from technology. 

So, what happens when all the diaspora are called back?We are joined by Kirstie Kwarteng, a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London researching migration and development, African diaspora populations, second-generation immigrant identity, and transnationalism to discuss Ghana’s Year Of Return agenda.  Without a doubt, the fantasy comes head-on with reality, in a candid discussion on how it was received and what happens next.

The great equaliser arrived (Covid-19) and the relationship between artists, venues & the government changed. All of the venues closed, creators, for the most part, adapted and leant on the internet; reformatting their work, produce new outcomes with social and financial gains.  The question is, will the power balance reverse when / if the world learns to manage social distancing. Time will tell.

With life experience in, Hong Kong, UK and Canada, Mo-Ling takes a more personal insight into the official ceremony linked to the rise of capitalism surrounded by communist ideals and its impact across generations. Together we discuss cultural; adaptation, resilience, resistance as a result of the residual presence of the British Empire in the upcoming bi-centenary of the handover in 2047. 

With insight from Nine Yamamoto; Artist, Researcher and Activist, we delve into the surprising global allyship of non-black and brown people from around the world echoing #BlackLivesMatter. Scepticism is rife, there is a demand for action not just pacifying words of affirmation and retweets of support. We get a preview into why this uprising will not be forgotten. 

In our most recent Manoeuvres with Nigel Stewart, Founder of Centre of Pan African Thought, we discuss the 5th Pan African Congress’ mobilisation of grass-root initiatives, the 1963 Organisation of African Unity, the African Union’s 2063 agenda, and the consequences of a Union of African States within the contentment and to other nations. Independence is a process, we discuss its stages and challenges.

This year Facebook turns 16 years old,  the legal age of adulthood. Oliver Conner, graced us with his ethnographic insights into how the internet and social media changed has impacted our behaviour and set legal grounds in data privacy. 

This episode Mikael Calandra Achode, Founder of Crudo Volta, independent designer/filmmaker within the music industry and Lecturer on BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design course at Central Saint Martins joins us to discuss to funerals of possibly Ivory Coast’s most notable figures; Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Stéphane Doukouré.

On the back of developing his most recent project, Circa.Solar, an antidote to our modern obsession with time, Ted takes us back to 1765, when John Harrison won the Longitude prize for his ‘H4 marine timekeeper’, an invention which would change the world forever. For the first time in history, humans were able to link space and time together, which would later lead to the standardisation of time and the establishment of the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). 

There is no better way to kick off the series than with Philip Howe, an independent writer and researcher, who breaks down the build-up to one of the most contentious murders of a journalist in the past decade.