C2 Montreal 2018 | Day 2
From Transgender whistleblowers, to augmented reality sensory distorting helmets, Day 2 of C2 MTL continues to deliver on its promise of transforming your view on the direction the world is heading.
There are moments where you gain a deeper understanding of the world you know.
Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was released from a military prison last year after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act by releasing to WikiLeaks over 750,000 classified documents. Her appearance at C2 is a surprise as she was refused entrance to Canada at the Quebec/US border in September of last year for having been convicted of what is the equivalent of treason in Canada. Her speech touched upon numerous areas of cybersecurity, such as session hijacking, AES encryption, IoT, and the implications for the average app user. While the technical topics may have been over the heads of some of the audience her overall message isn’t; there is no such thing as a free app. There is a cost to all these apps, and you pay with yourself.
There are moments where you experience creative interconnection of your society.
Horizons is a contradiction in terms; indoor birdwatching. From and elevated platforms and walkways you take a guided tour of cut-out bird watching through binoculars. The David Attenborough-esque voice guide explains to you some of the more interesting habits of geese and chickadees and eagles The seemingly mundane experience culminates at the end with a group discussion centered around self-identification through one of the birds habits, and identifying people you work with in the habits of others. A raven, one the most intelligent of birds, will leave nuts on the road for cars to run over and break open for them; they are resourceful problem solvers. Geese prefer to work in groups; they are team players. Connecting all these traits together as valuable to the dynamics of a your work environment leads to one conclusion; never judge a bird by its feathers.
There are moments that stretch your view of the world to come.
How would you react if your primary senses you rely on to navigate and understand the world around you were distorted and became unreliable? That’s the question Primal invites you to answer for yourself. By dawning what can only be described as a giant Muppet helmet, you experience an augmented reality that interacts with a makeshift room. Your sight becomes warped through the goggles, sounds are controlled through the headphones, tastes is confused by an awful candy they supply; and then you are free to wander. It is an experience that is at first unsettling but as you surrender to the idea, the lesson becomes clear; embrace change and you will discover how adaptable you truly can be.
Day 3 at C2 Montreal 2018 continues with Snoop Dogg giving a keynote speech and then DJing into the night at the closing Illumination party. Check back at Best Kept MTL for a glimpse of the multifaceted artist that has notched an impressive array of titles!
