While the declamatory voice of Vincent Cellucci — poet, writer, and curator of the TU Library — echoes through the theatre café of Theater De Veste, I see visitors lifting their legs, dancing, or waddling like penguins. They are dancing on a poem, generated by themselves in interaction with AI. Next to him stands the gigantic tripod: a towering structure composed of 800 rings, where, alongside artworks, large language models are being trained to use more inclusive language — informed by feminist and ecological theories and indigenous philosophy.
This is a scene from the For Love of the World festival — the annual event organized by Studium Generale and Theater De Veste. On the 29th of March, hundreds of visitors filled every corner of the theatre.
For Love of the World is a festival that refuses to accept the status quo — a world dominated by power, control, exclusion, capital, and war. Can we use technology, art, and philosophy to offer a hopeful, inclusive, and just perspective in which all earth-dwellers — human and non-human — can feel at home?
There were remarkable speakers, such as Shivant Jhagroe, who, in light of the climate crisis, advocates for more radical changes than electric cars or solar panels — which, according to him, serve more as status symbols than as real contributions to a fair and sustainable planet. Or John Bosco Conama, Director of the Centre for Deaf Studies and keynote speaker, who spoke about patterns of linguistic hegemony and linguistic imperialism that marginalize Irish Sign Language.
But perhaps most remarkable were the dozens of students who voluntarily showed up a day early to saw, hammer, and build a range of installations. Students from various student associations (Argus, Vox, Hesiodos, Debating, Kaleidos) — or those who simply wandered in to lend a hand. On the day it self they participated in poetry, writing and so much more.
No one can convince me that Gen Z is cynical or inward-looking. The world concerns us all, and even small actions can eventually have a great impact. Even in dark times. Do not go gentle into that good night.
Photos © De Schaapjesfabriek