Free and Open to All—Register here!
The International Conference will be conducted in English
Participants:
- Stanley Qiufan Chen 陳楸帆 (Hong Kong)
- Iris Long 龍星如 (London/Beijing)
- Bahar Noorizadeh (Amsterdam)
- Clara Che Wei Peh 白其薇 (Singapore)
- Sophie Penkethman-Young (Sydney)
- Charis Poon 潘雋希 (Hong Kong)
- Winnie Soon 孫詠怡 (Hong Kong/London)
- Ziyang Wu 武子楊 (Hangzhou)
- Günseli Yalcinkaya (London)
- Liam Young (Los Angeles)
If the future feels unchangeable, how can alternate worlds open up to other possibilities?
Para Site’s 8th International Conference convenes globally renowned artists, thinkers, and creatives to explore how speculative practices are reshaping our understanding of a technologically mediated present. Over the course of a full-day programme, audiences are invited to unsubscribe from any and all versions of the future and reimagine our relationships to the technologies that surround and shape us.
The programme brings together alternate perspectives on the ways in which technology is far more than a neutral tool. Driven by a relentless pursuit of innovation and corporate interests, everyday digital systems—from predictive algorithms to platform networks—are reorganising the ways we think, communicate, and orient ourselves towards our futures. When participation is no longer a choice and the terms of our reality are defined by megastructures, we are left with little space to collectively negotiate what is to come.
The artists and cultural producers presenting as part of Unsubscribe All! each locate sites of friction and absurdity within dominant narratives, prompting us to evaluate the promises that technologies proffer. Rather than merely offering solutions, their speculative artistic and storytelling practices construct alternate worlds using myths, toolkits, and methodologies. Dislodging assumptions of a singular and inevitable future, they reveal just how fragile dominant narratives can be to suggest that there are a multitude of ways to inhabit the present.
The Para Site International Conference is free of charge and welcomes anyone interested in imagining diverse ways of living with—and through—the technologies shaping our lives today. The morning session considers how practitioners and digital subcultures employ language systems, storytelling, and worlding strategies to actively intervene in and reshape the cultural realities woven into technological advancement. The afternoon session turns towards questions of access, agency, and collective action, highlighting practices across the Asia-Pacific that draw on open-source cultures and collaborative networks to cultivate more equitable and accessible ecosystems.
The 2026 Para Site International Conference is convened by Yuanyu Li and Stefan Luk.
Schedule
Morning session
10:30 – Introduction
10:50 – Bahar Noorizadeh: Technofictions, or Future as Mode Collapse
11:20 – Günseli Yalcinkaya: Myth as Medium
*** 11:50-12:00 Break ***
12:00 – Ziyang Wu: From Systemic Contingencies to New Silk Frequencies: Pre-enactment and Planetary Computation
12:30 – Stanley Qiufan Chen: The Making of Myths Yet Unborn
13:00 – Liam Young: New Planetary Imaginaries
13:30 – Charis Poon: Respondent
*** 13:45-15:00 Midday Intermission ***
Afternoon session
15:00 – Introduction
15:15 – Iris Long: Speaking Nearby Infrastructures: Curatorial Methods for Technoscientific Research
15:40 – Winnie Soon: ^(Coding|Publishing)( Otherwise)$
16:05 – Sophie Penkethman-Young: A personal take on a digital praxis
16:30 – Sunday Chatroom: Iris Long, Winnie Soon and Sophie Penkethman-Young (moderated by Clara Che Wei Peh)
17:30 – Audience Q&A and Concluding Remarks