Shaping Hybrid Realities
Amsterdam, 15 oktober 2025
Welcome to the Society 5.0 festival. A fully sold-out edition, as you can see.
My name is Esther Hammelburg, and I am a senior lecturer at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and director of the Society 5.0 festival. It is a great pleasure to welcome you all here on behalf of the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation.
I am so happy that we can share our work here with you in the coming two days. This festival is collaborative work, and it is always great to see it all come together. It shows what our universities have to offer – in sessions by our own lecturers, researchers and artists – and gathers guiding and inspiring voices that we have invited as speakers and performers.
A special welcome to the deputy mayor, Wethouder Digitale Stad, Alexander Scholtes, to the deans of our faculties, and to the many partners with whom we collaborate in projects, both at this festival and in our research and educational programmes. Scanning through the list of attendees, it is so great to see everyone involved. So, make sure to chat with someone you don’t know yet. I’m certain that you will meet interesting new people.
At Society 5.0 Festival, we come together with technologists, researchers, artists, lecturers, philosophers, and creatives, and we look ahead. Not following the newest tech trends but envisioning possible and desirable futures. Futures that are driven by societal, human, and planetary values. And taking our responsibility in shaping the future.
This year, our main theme is shaping hybrid realities, and to kick off the festival, I will briefly introduce this theme.
Our lifeworld is becoming increasingly hybrid.
Take a second and think of the latest thing that you saw or did on your phone… Did you read a worrying email, secure a date for tonight, get a message that your colleague didn’t make it on time (again), see troublesome news, or a cute picture of your nephew? And how does that impact your reality right now? …
I, for instance, decided not to look at the news today to remain focused and in this bubble that we are creating here, which, I find important to address, is a privilege that I only have because I am lucky enough not to be at the centre of the hardships that we see in that news day to day.
Our lifeworld is becoming increasingly hybrid. This means that the world as we experience, understand and move through it is increasingly a blend of digital technologies and the physical environments that we are in.
And because digital spaces are often highly personalised, sharing a physical space no longer necessarily means that we share one reality.
There is no longer one single reality; there is a multitude of hybrid realities.
It is tempting to think that this only applies to others. To youngsters who get absorbed in the manosphere, to those on the other side of the political spectrum (whatever side that may be) who seem caught up in propaganda, to the naïve, the less educated, the non-tech savvy, the blind through privilege. And this all might be the case. But if there is one thing that we can achieve with this event, I hope that we can make you realise that the realities of all of us are partly constructed in the digital spaces, apps, and platforms that we use.
We all live in hybrid realities. It is important that we recognise this, so that we can weigh what we experience, and see these realities for what they are.
And for us – as researchers, technologists, creatives, lecturers, and artists – this is especially important as we play a key role in shaping hybrid realities. We create the apps, videos, articles, mixed reality experiences, news items, and games that shape people’s lifeworlds. And, through our art, we can show people what might not be apparent, envision futures, and invite reflection on the impact of technology on our lives. We can question how hybrid realities are shaped and play our role in shaping them in a way that serves the people, the planet, and our society. And that is exactly what we aim to do at Society 5.0 Festival.
We see hybrid realities impacting our personal lives, our professional lives, and our public lives. And this raises questions about access; about new ways of sensing and the value of the physical; about ownership and how we can reclaim spaces from big tech; and about how and what we generate.
Just to highlight a few elements in our programme:
On the level of our personal lives there will be a fishbowl on AI-human companionship with Derk Wijkamp of Filosofie in actie, a session on connection in digital public spaces with Lilian de Jong of STT, and a workshop on the use of VR in youth work by Virtual Decisions (who are also on the expo floor for all of you to try out, I can really recommend).
Concerning our professional life, we have a panel on the use of virtual humans in journalism and marketing with various experts from these fields, a workshop on future scenarios for the media sector with Media Campus NL, and a panel with artists speaking on artistic use of immersive technology, of which we have an incredible example for everyone to try out called Otherworlds.
Our public life is, for instance, addressed in a session with Marleen Stikker on shaping the internet, a session on hybrid public space by two of our own (AHK) professors, and a workshop focused on designing for collectivity.
I hope that this festival brings you a new perspective on technology and society. That you discover new topics, meet new people, learn a new craft. And, that the festival opens your eyes to see how your own reality is constructed, and what your responsibility is in shaping the hybrid realities of others.