MEDIA RELEASE
29 October 2012
Sydney Opera House presents
Relive Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012 online
Sydney Opera House today announced that all talks from Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012 are available to stream, free from the Sydney Opera House website.
Anyone who missed the Festival or attendees who would like to relive their favourite talks can go to sydneyoperahouse.com/play
Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012 took place from September 28 – 30, attracting thousands of ideas-hungry patrons for a dangerous weekend of lively discussion and debate. Over 20k tickets were sold to the 31 events, with over 38% of ticket buyers being first time visitors to Sydney Opera House.
Highlights included:
• Israeli 'new' historian, Ilan Pappe questioning whether Israel is an Apartheid State
• Opening this year’s festival, Sam Harris, neuroscientist, philosopher and one of the 'four horsemen of new atheism' (alongside the late Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett), argued that we need to discard The Delusion of Free Will and change the way we think about morality, religion, ethics and law
• In We Are the Gods Now, Jason Silva examined whether powerful technological advancement has turned humans into gods
• Author and psychology professor, Jesse Bering explored what constitutes ‘normal’ sexual behaviour in We are all Sexual Perverts
• Leading Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg and a panel of speakers from all sides of the debate in Australia considered what it would mean for education in Australia if we were to Abolish Private Schools
• American journalist and ‘The Undercover Economist’ Tim Harford explained why we need to Make More Mistakes
• In Engineer Humans to Stop Climate Change, philosopher Matthew Liao explored a possible solution to reducing our impact on the earth - engineering humans to adapt and prevent climate change
• Germaine Greer joined Australian author and former model, Tara Moss, feminist commentator and activist Eva Cox and author and educator Danielle Miller to discuss the notion that All Women Hate Each Other
• In My Workplace is a Cult , Google’s Tom Uglow and Australian author of The Office: A Hardworking History, Gideon Haigh gave their perspectives on the concept that cult-like qualities have come to characterise work for many Australians
Jonathan Bielski, Executive Producer of SOH Presents, said: ‘More than 20,000 tickets were sold to this year’s festival, showing an insatiable desire from Sydneysiders to engage in discourse and discord at their Opera House. Most pleasingly has been the trend towards patrons buying for four, five, six or more talks each as they immerse themselves in the event experience.’
Ann Mossop, Head of Public Programs at Sydney Opera House and curator of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, said: 'Although the Festival is over for another year, we hope that the conversation will continue as people watch the talks online and catch up with some of the important issues that were covered. The big debates in the Festival on education, China and women for example are not topics that we are going to tire of any time soon.'
KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING AT #FODI
Sydney Opera House’s Thea Dikeos spoke to FODI panelist Germaine Greer exclusively for PLAY. In a side of the formidable Germaine Greer that you may not have seen before, she candidly discusses her childhood, her relationship with her mother and the impact of The Female Eunuch on her life.
DETAILS:
WHAT: Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012
WHEN: Available now
WHERE: sydneyoperahouse.com/play
MEDIA CONTACT:
Alexandra Barlow / 02 9250 7825 / abarlow@sydneyoperahouse.com