Binary Being Symposium
by Afshin Jalalian, Board Member
In the fall of 2005 I got a call from Dorit Winter to ask if I was interested in helping her organize a conference called “Binary Being.” The theme of the conference was to explore the effects of computers on our meditative life. Being in the computer industry, most of it in front of a monitor for over twenty years, the topic was very close to my own heart, so I agreed.
For me, those early all day meetings with other conference coordinators to brainstorm what was to become the format and content of the conference are quite memorable.
On the evening of July 26, 2007, at UC Berkeley’s historic International House, the first Binary Being Symposium was attended by over 30 technology professionals, educators, and artists from around the world. Christopher Garvey’s dramatic presentation “Characters, Sonnets and Songs — a journey through Shakespeare’s imagination,” kick-started the event.
For the next two and a half days these people came together every morning and stayed together through most of day and into the night, and immersed themselves in speeches, presentations, arts, and conversations around the theme of “Staying Human in the Computer Age.”
We started each morning at 8:30 at the I-House Homeroom singing with Master singer Christiaan Boele, followed by a keynote speech. Ernst Schuberth spoke on “The Relationship between Human Thinking, IT, and Reality.” Americ Azevedo brought us “Being Wired, Being Human,” and Dorit Winter gave a speech on “Where am I? Language and Art in Cyberspace.”
For the rest of the day we broke into smaller groups and participated in artistic activities (painting with Chris Guilfoil, form drawing with Van James, speech with Christopher Garvey, singing with Christiaan Boele) and conversation groups around such topics as:
• The impact of virtual reality on our experience of nature. Are we losing our senses?
• How to maintain moral judgment in cyberspace.
• Computer addiction: impacts and implications.
• Pre-packaged choices versus individual initiative.
At the end of each afternoon we came together for a panel discussion to review the day and to give everyone an opportunity to share their impressions or questions from the activities of that day.
Our second evening event took place on Friday night and was titled “Inner and Outer Image.” Stefan Klocek gave a multimedia presentation and led the group through a number of interesting exercises.
It was a warm and cozy group which quickly bonded from the very beginning. We came from Australia, Germany, England, Hawaii, Colorado, and all around California. I wondered how often the different perspectives of technology professionals, educators and artists are shared in conversation.
At the end of the conference, one did not come away with a set of resolutions to the problems at hand (although some were suggested) but rather with some new thoughts, feelings, or perhaps even more questions to ponder during the rest of the year and beyond.
