Latest Press Release
THE TRUTH ISN’T OUT THERE - THE ERA OF CONSPIRACY THEORY.
Altered State’s 6th talk takes place at 7.30pm on Wednesday Sept 11th in the Hen & Chicken, 210 North St, BS3 1JF.
Tickets, including student discounts, and more information is available here.
Conspiracies are rife again today. We will ask why, what powers conspiracy theories and what effect they have on our communities and our understanding of the notion of truth. We will investigative their sometimes highly problematic nature and ask what this says about us. But some conspiracies are true: there were no weapons of mass destruction, VW did lie about their emissions and not all truthers are hate speech propagators. Many come from a place of seeking to help others or expose wrongdoing. We’ll also look at the effect of the traditional media gatekeepers being usurped by the newly democratised means of digital information flow.
Altered State host Rudy Millard will be joined by an authoritative panel.
Brent Lee is a Bristolian who has come to national attention as a former conspiracy theorist who now campaigns to expose conspiracism and to help people gravitate away from the truther movement. Brent spent 15 years obsessively seeking to uncover what he thought were harmful facts ignored by a complicit mainstream media and state institutions. He started to question the ‘crisis actors’ narrative pushed by Alex Jones of Info Wars about the Sandy Hook school shooting. By 2018 Brent had moved away from conspiracies to seeking to expose them and helping people who had shared his worldview regain perspective.
Sian Norris is the senior investigative reporter at openDemocracy and author of Bodies Under Siege: how the Far-Right Attack on Re-productive Rights Went Global. Sian has written human rights and social affairs stories for The Observer, Times, Guardian, The I and The New Statesman. Sian said “My book and research explores how far-right conspiracy theories bring together racism and misogyny in order to restrict women’s rights.”
Dr. Alessandro Miani from Bristol University’s School of Psychological Science is an expert on the language and proliferation of conspiracy theories. Alessandro says “Conspiracy theories become more popular during societal crises as they fulfil important existential, epistemic and social needs. While they do not necessarily promote anti-science, they can be used to justify anti-science attitudes”.
Al Farquhar from Altered State says “conspiracies have always been with us, but powered today by the way we now digest news, they have gravitated from the naive and eccentric to being often widely accepted, occasionally with problematic and hateful baggage”. Al’s Altered State partner Patrick Irwin adds “we’re teetering on the edge of an era of weaponised misinformation and there is a lucrative market for conspiracies. We need to talk”.
The audience will be able to ask questions at the end of the talk and as with all Altered State events, the evening will conclude with ‘the toolbox’ where the panel will give their most considered thought on the issue for everyone to take away and spread the word through their networks.
Look out for The Altered State, a monthly podcast that features the highlights of our previous talk with Masha Alyokhina and Olga Borisova of Pussy Riot, with added commentary by Patrick and Al.
Altered State support Freestyle Bristol, who set up opportunities in the city’s creative industries for young people from the more marginalised communities.
Previous Releases
FROM RUSSIA WITH PUSSY RIOT. Altered State invite Masha Alyokhina and Olga Borisova of Pussy Riot back to Bristol to talk about preserving precious democratic freedoms at 7.30pm on Wednesday June 26th in the Hen and Chicken, 210 North St, BS3 1JF.
The sense that democracy is under siege is acute. Nationalist and populist movements in the free world seem set on curtailing hard won freedoms whilst one party states and dictatorships are on the march worldwide. We’ll ask what happens to democracy when there’s no opposition, no free media and a servile judiciary. And with the USA approaching a MAGA fork in the road with their election this November, we’ll think the unthinkable and ask: it couldn’t happen here could it? We need to cherish our vote and our freedom of expression while we still have them.
Host Rudy Millard will be joined by Masha Alyokhina and Olga Borisova of Pussy Riot, the anti-Putin feminist art collective. Imprisoned for their notorious punk prayer in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which protested against the RussianOrthodox Church’s compliance with Putin. Pussy Riot have continued to speak, perform and stage happenings that give a voice to LGBTQ+ and other minorities and the litany of groups persecuted and trampled on by Putin. Masha says “Democracy is not handed down to people forever by God, but was fought for by people who lived before you. Without your continuation of this fight and without your respect for its importance, it can easily collapse”. Al says that “Pussy Riot are no strangers to Bristol, having performed here several times and we’re thrilled to bring them back for an intimate conversation”. Patrick adds: “Pussy Riot continue to attract attention for their artistic actions across the world and we are delighted to get behind the balaclavas with two of their most prolific members”.
The audience will be able to ask questions at the end of the talk and as with all Altered State events, Masha and Olga will conclude the night with ‘the toolbox’ where they will give their most considered thought on the issue for the audience to take away and spread the word through their networks.
AI - IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (March 2024 Press Release)
Join Graphcore founder and CEO Nigel Toon and others in a grown-up conversation about AI, with Altered State, on 24th April 2024 in the Hen & Chicken, Southville.
Following the success of their first two events that discussed the landscape for protest and the state of Britain’s rivers, Paddy Irwin and Al Farquhar continue their Altered State series of talks with AI - IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. “We want to hear the positives, how AI can better our health outcomes and if climate change can be tackled” says Irwin, but “there’s fear out there about what an unregulated tech sector might deliver that can’t then be put back in a box”, adds Farquhar, “communities want to know what this much vaunted 4th industrial revolution is going to do to their jobs and elections, its impact on reporting and the very notion of truth”.
Following the success of their first two events that discussed the landscape for protest and the state of Britain’s rivers, Paddy Irwin and Al Farquhar continue their Altered State series of talks with AI - IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. “We want to hear the positives, how AI can better our health outcomes and if climate change can be tackled” says Irwin, but “there’s fear out there about what an unregulated tech sector might deliver that can’t then be put back in a box”, adds Farquhar, “communities want to know what this much vaunted 4th industrial revolution is going to do to their jobs and elections, its impact on reporting and the very notion of truth”.
Our panel comprises:
Nigel Toon, founder and CEO of Graphcore, Bristol’s largest AI company. Nigel is a global leader in the AI sector and sits on the board of UK Research and Innovation, a public body that directs £8 billion annually.
Heather Child, award winning author of speculative and short fiction. Heather’s debut novel ‘Everything About You’ concerned data seemingly coming alive in the form of a missing loved one.
Colin Gavaghan, professor of digital futures at the University of Bristol. Colin is a specialist in the ethics, law and regulation of emerging technology.
As well as likely changes to our core ways of life and the political process, we will talk about the balancing act between innovation and regulation, the many ways that AI can actually help us and hopefully meet the doomsday scenarios head-on.
The evening will be hosted by Rudy Millard and will include time for the audience to ask the panel questions. Each Altered State ends with THE TOOLBOX, where panelists give the audience their most succinct piece of advice concerning the issue. The event will be recorded and a podcast distributed by Altered State.
OLD McDONALD’S HAD A FARM - THE POLITICS OF FOOD is on May 16th. The talk will examine the lack of sustainability in the UK and global food supply chain, the impact of that on the climate crisis, how to enable ethical choices and look at the diet and obesity issue coming down the tracks that’s headed straight at our creaking NHS. Paddy says ”Food is an increasingly politicised subject – over a quarter of UK adults are considered obese and farmers are under pressure to farm ethically, but is ethical eating the privilege of the elite? We want to look at how some of these issues can be tackled”.
Host Louise Leigh will be joined by a panel comprising:
Catherine Withers of Yew Tree Farm. Catherine provides organic produce is a sustainable way from the city’s last farm whilst fighting a high profile campaign to save a hay meadow from destruction.
Johnathan Napier, Science Director at Rothamsted Research. Johnathan’s research centres on food security and nutrition, with a focus on equity and utility.
Joy Carey, author of Who Feeds Bristol and a director of the Bristol Food Network, who aim to make the city’s food supply sustainable.
Al adds “as with all Altered State talks, we hope to accentuate the positives and give our audience a toolbox to take away with them so we can move towards a more holistic ‘good food’ approach”.
Altered State have launched a monthly podcast The Altered State which features highlights of their talks with their own commentary added. It can be downloaded here.
They support Freestyle Bristol, who provide opportunities in the city’s creative industries to young people from the more marginalised communities.
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