Theme 2026: Reimagining Autonomy
In a world shaped by platforms, data flows, apps and devices that mediate our lives, autonomy is under pressure and ready to be reimagined.
Concerns about autonomous technologies, addictive algorithms, and dependency on big tech are increasingly shaping public debate. Autonomy is often framed as the ability to think and act independently, free from external influence. But in practice, our actions are always embedded in social, technological and ecological systems.
At the Society 5.0 Festival 2026, we approach autonomy as a relational practice – not something we possess individually, but something shaped and sustained collectively through our relationships with others, technologies, and environments. Autonomy, in this sense, is not a fixed state but an ongoing collective practice of safeguarding the personal freedom of interconnected individuals.
We invite creatives, researchers, educators, technologists, and citizens shaping our future, to explore autonomy as a relational and situated practice. What does it mean to act autonomously in a world of intelligent systems? How can we design for autonomy while acknowledging interdependence? And what role do education, research and creative practice play in shaping these perspectives?
Through talks, workshops, installations and performances, the festival creates space to critically examine and collectively experiment with new forms of autonomy. Forms that balance control and care, resistance and responsibility.
At the Society 5.0 Festival, we explore new ways of working to shape a desirable future society. During this two-day festival – filled with workshops, performances, installations, and talks – creatives, researchers, citizens, technologists, educators, designers, students, and (policy)makers come together to access, generate, sense, and reclaim our hybrid future.
The Society 5.0 Festival is organised by the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation (CoE CI), an impact network for the creative industry, in which the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Mediacollege Amsterdam, and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences collaborate.
Meet the partners making this year’s festival possible: VPRO Medialab, The Social Hub, and EIT Culture & Creativity.