“There is no one brushstroke answer for what the word culture means. It is contextual, something that we respect, participate in and relate to – not something you observe or view from a distance” - Acyde
Facilitating discussions on the past, the present and the future, Forefront’s 2018 Anticipating Future Culture summit brings together culture-focused global thought leaders from a variety of fields, in pursuit of new ways of thinking and revivified attitudes. Key speakers include Acyde (No Vacancy Inn), Gary Aspden (Adidas), Elizabeth Jens (NASA), Jake O’Leary (YouTube Music) and Margaret Zhang (Background), and attendees are invited to participate in the discussions around media, arts, music, technology and fashion, as well as activism, innovation and sustainability – and comment on their direct relationships to both change, culture and the future. Sharing progressive ideas and fostering connections amongst a global gang of like-minded people, this new style of summit champions different perspectives around culturally relevant conversations.
“I think at the very heart of it, humans need to connect and relate to each other,” says Acyde, the multihyphenate co-founder of No Vacancy Inn, DJ, consultant and marketing guru. “The way that we relate to each other ends up being a culture … when kids in New York in the late 70s wanted to express themselves though graffiti art just to talk about who they are and where they are from. On one hand it’s vandalism, right … but you know, that was a culture and you have to really be a part of it and be ready to take your life into your own hands, go down to the subways and do all of that. So for me, it’s just the way those guys relate to each other, they recognise each other from the fact that their clothes are covered in paint. Paint wasn’t even created for painting on walls, it was paint that was made for painting on metal, or recolouring cars, or whatever, and they appropriated that and turned that into a tool that becomes part of the culture too – and I think, that’s really, in a very pure form, how culture works. It has to be a way of people having to relating to each other. It’s like a language.”
Forefront takes place this Thursday, July 19, at Sydney’s The Four Seasons Hotel from 3pm, with an afterparty to follow. Tickets available here.
