The Death of Events and Festivity?: Covid-19 and a Transhuman Future.

Clearly #coronavirus , or covid-19, is a pandemic that has got the world spooked. The political, economic and socio-cultural landscape is in turmoil as businesses and entire fields collapse or find themselves in an existential crisis. Events and festivity are just such a field. Actually, as those within the events and festivity industry struggke with the wreckage of the Covid-19 tsunami, it is unsurprising that many are asking - is this the death of events and festivity?

Well the simple answer is No! We are not witnessing the death of events and festivity but we are witnessing the emergence of a 'new' discourse with a dual power. Covid-19, while not killing events and festivity, has unmasked a discursive clash between the old discourse of events and festivity and an accelerating 'new' discourse. I should point out that I'm using 'discourse' in the Foucauldian sense. So discourse here refers to the socio-cultural, political, historical conditions, or arrangements, 'whereby knowledge is constructed and so ‘produce a particular kind of social subject’ (Frew, 2007). However, while I argue for a socio-theoretically informed futurology (which is often underpinned by post-structuralist thought such as Foucault), I will try and avoid this article becoming too heavy. So, firstly, what do I mean by the 'old discourse'?

Covid-19 and the Old Discourse of Events and Festivity

When coronavirus struck the world, for the most part, as slow to respond. On January 30th the World Health Organisation declared that coronavirus, or Covid'19, was now a?"public health emergency of international concern"? (PHEIC). Even though many pointed to the growing impact of an inevitable pandemic there were many organisations and governments that struggled to prepare for the coming covid-19 crisis. Interestingly, and have written about covid-19 and its impacts myself back in February , the warning and words of Dr Richard Hackett (CEO for Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation) are powerful and ominous:

‘I’ve been working on epidemic preparedness for about 20yrs. And completely dispassionately, without elevating the temperature or speaking hyperbolically, this is the most frightening disease I’ve ever encountered in my career. And that includes Ebola, it includes MURS, it includes SARS. ’

Today the UK, now in various states of lockdown with mass deaths, an economic depression and growing health concerns , the realisation is sinking in. The old discourse of events and festivity, like everyone else, is in a 'search for the new normal '. Actually, I argue that part of the 'new normal' will be a 'new discourse'. As said Covid-19 has unmasked a dual power one that shows the frailties of the old discourse of events and festivity while accelerating a 'new discourse that produces and new power-knowledge-subject triad or new world, 'said and seen' of events and festivity with a new transhuman or trans-event consumer or 'subject'. You see for years much of my academic focus was on the field of events and festivity and, again for years, I'd been arguing about the integrated power and potential of transformational DARQ* technologies. Covid-19 simply reanimated these past debates. So in a recent post I pointed to the old discourse of events and festivity and how such 'live events' are predicated on 'collective co-created and emotive experience' and 'needs people, emotion and co-created experience to #LIVE ' This being exemplified by Glastonbury below:

Actually, while the above video is fine, there are a number of other aspects of the 'old discourse' that need brought to the fore here. Events and festivity are ephemeral in nature and liminal spaces that serve as transitory markers that sanction cathartic and alternative behaviours. They offer moments of experiential co-creation where the dynamics of desire are released and mix to produce a collective cacophony of voices and sounds that weave in and out of a embodied entity with an aura, life and energy all of it own. Interestingly, the 'cave scene' in the movie the Matrix provides a good illustration (age restriction will kick in so jump to YouTube if want to see what I mean):

Again the old discourse of events and festivity function as a classic markers of historical time. Points along the journey of life that can be woven into the tapestry of identity. The importance and power of this function of the old discourse is often understated as events and festivity provide defining moments used to shape and claim authenticity or provenance of personal, family, community, organisational or even national identity (Tomlinson and Young, 2006; Wodak, 2009). Interestingly, this is part of the problematic of events and festivity. This old discourse is so embedded in a geo-psyche that its taken for granted, a 'given' that is too easily dismissed. Funny enough academics and students of events and festivity often suffer this problematic from the general public and other 'professionals' who questions the legitimacy of this field, profession or academic rigour (Harris, 2004). Actually, and for me, its like digital, social and transformational technologies - everybody’s got an opinion! The very fact that events and festivity surround us and are embedded in our life story brings the old 'familiarity breeds contempt'.

Of course, and as Covid-19 illustrates, people tend to wake up to the 'givens' and how importance they are when they have been taken away. Even more so when the economics hit home. Events and festivity are at the heart of the experience economy (Pine and Gilmore, 2011) and with Covid-19 the old discourse has been decimated. Now the co-created experiences and emotion of the physical, embodied and 'live event' are pretty much gone. Moreover, as events and festivity provide the ideal 'Trojan horse' of corporate capitalism the 'whispering dream' and 'sugarcoated stories' (Frew, 2013) of brand lie silent, which has huge economic ramifications.?

In the UK alone lockdown has seen everything from weddings, community events to the live music and festivals circuit practically wiped out. As illustrated by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) '92% of its members saying they face costs that could ruin their businesses '. Covid-19 is a geo-problem that has virilly infected events and festivity on a pandemic scale. As illustrated in a 'plummeting' U.S. economy' this old discourse is a 'tenuous?ecosystem' that, while recognised as playing 'a vital role in shaping the American cultural landscape' it 'may also be uniquely ill-suited to getting back on its feet again once this is all over' . So if this is the current sutuation for the old discourse what of this 'new' discourse of events and festivity?

Events and Festivity: A 'New' Discourse

Undoubtedly, Covid-19 has unmasked the fragility of the old discourse of events and festivity and, in turn, opened or accelerated a discursive shift to a 'new' discourse. The old discourse of events and festivity was tied to an experiential and emotive physicality; the heat, bodily contact, sweat and sensation of collective gatherings. Now while recognising this, and the attraction of this old discourse, I have long argued that, in this age of acceleration, events and festivity (and tourism) are in a discursive shift. By this I mean we are witnessing a 'transhuman e-volution...whereby technologies are, increasingly, challenging time, space and subjectivity. Our techno-future is one at overcoming those physical laws and, most importantly, frustrations with the embodied state.' (Frew, 2017).

Simply put the confines of time, space and our subjective embodied state are restrictive. The 'new' discourse refers to the integrated power and potential of digital, social and, in particular, transformational DARQ* technologies and future metaverse. Interestinlgy, while I speak of a 'new' discourse this is technically incorrect. For, while the term 'Metaverse', while coined by Neal Sephenson in his 1992 book Snow Crash, actually this 'new' discourse has been growing or e-volving for decades and is all part of a traceable techno-culture and transhumanism (Kaku, 2016; Kurzweil, 2014; Inayatullah, 2013). Moreover, its reflected or echoes with tons of popular culture from Metroplois, Star Trek, Lawnmore Man, Matrix, Minority Report, Transcendence, Ready Player One to Free Guy.

However, this 'new' discourse is marked by the acceleration of transformational DARQ technologies and, over the past few years, the buzz of the metaverse. Of course when Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta and announced the Metaverse the world woke up. Again Zuckerberg really got the jump on many companies (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Disney, Nike, Epic, Gucci, HSBC) and while Zuckerberg speaks an 'embodied internet' defining the Metaverse is tough. Ball (2021) provides a 'Framework for the Metaverse' which give a deeper discussion. A key point is, ideally, the Metaverse is an E-volution or infinae ecosystem of worlds. So it’s more rhizomatic, decentred, co-created and convergent. A persistent, technologically interoperable and endlessly evolving ecosystems of interconnectivity where our physical, technological and biological being and worlds will, increasingly, blur. Ideally, we will not so much go into the metaverse rather it will be woven in and through the fabric of our life; surrounding and saturating us. As such it will challenge and change our notions of ‘reality’, time, space and subjectivity.?

Point is we are in a moment where DARQ and the Metaverse showcase a future where we can see the integration and advances in areas such as virtual, augmented, mixed to extended reality, haptics (simulated sensation or feeling) brain-to-computer-interface (BCI) and artificial intelligence. Increasingly, we can now create, recreate, reboot or relive events, experiences, places and even reanimate people. We are at a time where techno-cultural dreamscapes are no longer a fantasy future they are here and now and will become, increasingly, sophisticated. Covid-19 merely accelerated this 'new' discourse, which is illustrated by Meta's Horizon Worlds:?

Undoubtedly, covid19 has and will accelerate the shift to a new sociality that is beyond the physical. Like Horizon there are many companies that are in this space from Venues, Engage to Spatial which is reimagining how we work but can easily be applied to the area of events and festivity.

Actually I have argued this within my field of higher education. Interestingly, having started my academic career in events and festivity, I proposed the concept of a virtual university back in 2000. No prizes for guessing that was rapidly rejected with the usual sighs and eye rolling I have become accustomed over the years. You see, there are parallels here, as higher education mirrors many holding to the old discourse of events and festivity. Like events and festivity, higher education is bound to a pedagogy that has hardly changed since the 19th Century and privileges face-to-face or embodied presence. I argue that higher education needs to embrace this age of acceleration and 'transhuman e-volution'. If interested you can find some of this in 'Reflections on Coronavirus: Futurology, the Transhuman Condition and Higher Education' or this might help:

Actually that video, and the Accelerated and Immersive Education approach it advocates, builds on years of cloud based, co-created cybergogy where the teaching and learning is fun but alos visual, vibrant and viral. Funny enough you would think this applies perfectly to the world of events. Again the point of 'instant teleportation' to spaces, places or events anywhere, the 'cybertrip', has been taken to the next level with what we call 'EdXR'. Here is an example and as you see the learning expereince integrates an 'adventure event' of a wingsuit flying into Dubi:

The key point is that Covid-19 merely accelerated this 'new' discourse, which has compelled many in events and festivity, and across many industries like higher education, to reflect and look for that 'new normal'. Interestingly, while we see a number of events and festival practitioners moving 'online' engaging in 'virtual' or 'simulcasted' (simultaneous streaming across multiple social media and sites) gigs, festivals and conferences, this is basic, 'dipping the toe' into the cyberspatial pool of possibility. This level of 'virtual event' actually serves to reinforce all the qualities, characteristics and desire for the old discourse of events. Just like lockdown they place you in a 'glass cage'; always the little Matchstick Girl looking in, watching rather than experiencing. Again this accentuate the old view of 'paradox of proximity' or that fact of being digitally near but physically distant, unable to 'feel and touch'. In so doing we yearn for the old days or old discourse. So, and again you hear this in higher education, we get the 'when we get back to normal'. Meaning - the old discourse!

However, in this age of acceleration, transformational DARQ technologies and future Metaverse we are witnessing a new discourse that enables us of move beyond the confines and restrictions of time, space and self. This new discourse reimagines events and challenges the false binary of virtual Vs the 'real'. It smashes the glass cage and, for me, reworks the paradox of proximity. While a concept linked to Heidegger, Turkle (2011) and Kolb (2013) I don't see the paradox of proximity as centred on friends, closeness, care or connectivity.

The paradox of proximity is not so much about how we can feel distance from someone who is physically right next to us or feel close to someone on otherside of the world. Rather the 'paradox' is in the 'feeling'. In terms of the power and potential of transformational DARQ technology, now accelerated by the metaverse, its about the intimate immersion and presence expereinces and emotion beyond time, space and the biological self. Now we can shift beyond our biological being and to 'feel' deep intimacy by co-creating and engaging in a multiplicity of experiences. Today the drive is about intensifying that feeling of 'presence' of truly being there caught up in and of the moment. As the boundries of extended reality are pushed, increasingly, the sense will be saturated problematising our very conceptions of 'reality'. Of course, conceptualised in this way, the paradox of proximity opens a Pandora's Box of 'othering' possibilities.

With DARQ or in a deep Metaverse of XR space, time and self dissolve as you are liberated from the restrictions of distance, opportunity and, interestinlgy, a biological identity weighhted by the structures of?age, physical ability and aesthetics, relidion, ethnicity and gendered identity. In essence a paradox of proximity takes us down the post and transhuman futures where what and how to 'be human' is up for grabs. Again this unleashes to utopian and dystopian debates. For me it appears logical that DARQ to deep Metaverse XR will be contaminated or infected by the discourses, ideologies, cultures and capitals of the historical and physical 'real'. The 'real world' performative construct leaking into and being encrypted within a?DARQ to deep Metaverse XR; a new construct with a cncoded cyberperformativity that we reinscribe in the feeling and living.

Nevertheless, the ability to create deep intimacy, presence experiences and in a multiplicity of ways is highly seductive. In the 'new' discourse of events and festivity age and ability no longer matter as you can go back, relive the past, climb that mountain, dive that wreck, visit that beach, gig, festival or sporting experience. Time falls away as it can be done anytime, space is irrelevant as billions can get to the event, festival, experience the gig, performance, enjoy the exhibition, wild adventure or sensitive landscape. Airports, flights, hotels, cost, carbon footprint and environmental damage - gone! Interestingly, and way before the buzz of the Metaverse, I wored and developed a concept and project called DigitalSelf. While not fully realized, and the clue in the title, you can see the an early intimation of current and future metaverse developmets:

Of course, and as central to socio-theoretical futurology, there are critical counterpoints here (some below). However, rather than get bogged down in the 'Aye, but!' I merely want to outline some core points on the old to 'new' discourse.

The key issue is that this new discourse of events and festivity, in challenging time, space and subjectivity, allows us to overcome those physical laws and, most importantly, frustrations with the embodied state. However, and like the old discourse, the 'new' performs a similar function as it allows us to suspend the 'everyday' even the 'self' and, for a moment, become 'other'. Of course there will be many screaming 'but its not real'. Actually this 'new' discourse, just as the old, unmasks our notions of 'reality', being' or how the world of the 'everyday', with all its structures and regulations, is a construct that we 'perform'.

The old discourse of events, in providing a moment to suspended or cathartically escape the 'real world', actually serves to legitimate that same real and all its discursive and institutional arrangements. The fantasy of events and festivity function as a 'fantastic supplement' (?i?ek, 1989; Frew, 2013) reinforce and legitimate the 'real world'. Of course this 'real world' is as much a construct as the ephemeral event or festival. Again as we perform those 'other' behaviours that are 'sanctioned' in the fantasy spaces of events and festivity we, in turn, sanction those we perform back in the 'real' of the everyday. So, I'd argue, whether old or 'new' discourse, events and festivity perpetuate and reinvigorate a deeper power and politic.

Interestingly, and while I may be seen as a champion of this 'new' discourse, in this 'new' discourse we will see a subject effecting a technology of the self and unquestioning level of docility that make me uncomfortable. As this 'new' discourse accelerates, our experiences will be heightened, our sensations saturated to the point these dreamscapes will 'feel' like a multi-verse of possibilities. While such dreamscapes will deliver or promise unlimited freedom they will be, with Nietzschean echoes, an abyss (?i?ek and von Schelling,1997) of Spectacle. In the 'new' discourse the consumer capitalism will be reanimated where 'whispering dreams' and 'sugarcoated' stories of brand will be subtly 'burned into the deepest recesses of the brain.' (Frew, 2013:114) of a most docile and dazzled subject.

Of course the 'new' discourse of events and festivity, like any discourse, will produce its own resistance. Where there is fantasy there is dark fantasy and it will take many forms. Recently I highlighted this in a keynote I delivered to the International Action Against Stalking Conference, 2019. Having worked on a project for Action Against Stalking with my friend and colleague Theo Tzanidis I was arguing for that age of acceleration transhuman shift. However, this was a 'dark shift' as I was pointing to a new mode of iPredator one that is already in cyberspace and will move to dreamscapes of virtual reality. Interestingly, all through the keynote Theo was simulcasting along with a social media campaign, demonstrating the hybridity and viral nature of the event. Moreover, such was the digital reach that the conference's virtual twin drew in national TV coverage and bigger audience, which, even at this level of digital disruption, serves to illustrate the weakening old discourse of privileged physicality. Of course, an just like those holding to the old discourse of events and festivity, some at this conference found this hard to hear. Regardless, and to illustrate, I highlighted this shift by contrasting the 'bubblegum world' and fantasy dreamscape of Facebooks Horizon with more DARQ Dreamscape that draws on the movie Gamer:

So in finishing, I will argue that Covid-19 will put the old discourse of events and festivity under a critical gaze and continue to accelerate this 'new' discourse. Undoubtedly, there will be those who will argue that these Dreamscapes will accentuate the desire for the 'real' of the old discourse. The point will be made that post-Covid we will see a boom in events and festivity as people flock to work and reanimate that co-created experiential emotion and embodied dynamic. Actually, and assuming a vaccine is found, I think that is a rational and future probability. The old discourse will return along with all its restrictions. Meantime the 'new' discourse will continue to develop. Actually, it’s not a either or scenario. However, as we search for our new normal this transhuman e-volution will accelerate. It would be folly to deny or ignore this 'new' discourse. Then again as Hegel said:?

'The only thing?we?learn from history is?that we?learn?nothing from?history'

* DARQ - Distributed ledger systems, artificial intelligence, virtual, augmented, mixed to extended reality, quantum computing

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