When you browse online, search on Google, stream from Netflix, and click “Like” on Facebook, your data is being logged. But what is cultural data collection and how do data crunchers know what makes something popular? Salon’s Andrew Leonard, The Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman, and UVic assistant professor of English and director of the Maker Lab in the Humanities, Jentery Sayers, will explore this issue on Saturday afternoon in “Quantified Culture” at Spur Festival’s Vancouver event.
Although only in its second year, Spur is already making waves in Canada. The inaugural festival grew from three to five Canadian cities in 2014, and now includes Winnipeg, Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, concluding in Vancouver. Spur is a festival exploring the intersection of politics, art and ideas, intending to encourage nationwide, multi-partisan and solutions-oriented change in Canada.
The Vancouver festival kicks off with a free reception and a talk moderated by The Tyee’sfounding editor, David Beers, entitled “This City in Seven Years: My Greenest City”.
The inaugural festival grew from three to five Canadian cities in 2014.
Other Spur Vancouver events include discussions, presentations, and performances on a variety of topics including the changing role of art galleries, public transportation in a “world class” city, and punk rock renegade artists. Spur’s “Books and Brunch” series involves an author, a café, and an audience all sitting down to explore difficult issues and complex ideas. By using literature and narrative, authors can present emotional or problematic circumstances in a more easily accessible format.
Award-winning author Steven Galloway will be having brunch on Saturday, May 24, reading and discussing his new novel, The Confabulist, about the life and death of magician Harry Houdini. The second “Books and Brunch” on Sunday, May 25, features celebrated author Shani Mootoo, who combines her own cultural heritage with a fictional narrative about the complex realities of family ties in Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab.
While a full festival pass at $125 may be out of the range of a student’s budget, tickets are available for individual events. Single event tickets are $10 for students, $15 regular admission, and “Books and Brunch” events are $25 flat rate.
Spur Festival Vancouver runs May 22 to 25 at SFU Woodwards. For more information, visit spurfestival.ca/vancouver.
