Free Thinking - The Digital Age & Boyhood

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2014

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Linklater filmed the actor who stars in Boyhood over 12 years from a 6 year old to a college youth. Matthew Sweet and author Toby Litt review the project and discuss growing up. Artist Cory Arcangel talks about his book composed from tweets and working in digital media. He also explores the themes explored in Digital Revolution at the Barbican Centre, which brings together film-makers, artists, game developers and musicians. As state schools across England prepare for the introduction of coding to the curriculum, journalist Aleks Krotoski and Benjamin Southworth - digital entrepreneur and former deputy chief executive of the government's Tech City initiative, join Matthew to discuss how - if at all - we should be preparing for the 'digital age'. Plus we hear another column from one of this year’s New Generation Thinkers, Jo Cohen, who asks whether we need to rethink the American Constitution, as the country recovers from its Independence day celebrations.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:34.0	The digital revolution is here. And when I say here, I mean exactly where I'm standing now in the Barbican Centre in London,
0:42.3	that great cathedral of textured concrete and carpet tiles,
0:46.3	where technology dependent on code has taken over the galleries.
0:50.5	But what does that phrase mean the digital revolution?
0:53.9	Is it just an expression we use to make us feel that we think we know how to ride the tide of our particular historical moment?
1:01.2	Or does it really represent a revolt against something, the shining path to a new way of living?
1:08.5	We may have already decided once the summer holidays are over, state schools across
1:13.6	England will find a new element in the curriculum, coding, to equip our children for the digital
1:19.6	age, perhaps as bronze age children were equipped for the Iron Age.
1:23.6	This program, of course, is dependent on digital technology. It's what allows you to hear me
1:29.2	talking here in the Barbican Centre telling you that we'll be debating these questions tonight
1:34.0	and to tell you that we'll also be considering an extraordinary film shot over 12 years with
1:39.8	similar know-how. It's boyhood. It's by Richard Linklater and the novelist Toby Litt has been
1:45.5	to see it for us. But listen now because you may be able to hear the ones and zeros fizzing as I'm
1:52.4	quietly filed away in some corner of the BBC computer and you're rerouted to the studio where my
1:59.0	guests are assembled and so am I.
2:07.5	Well, I'm pleased to report that there was no error message and we're all here.
2:11.8	Poised to run around this room, eating cherries and energy pills and buzzing ghosts,
2:16.5	are the journalist Alex Kratoski,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.