This event will be held online via Zoom – meeting details will be provided before the event.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annwn-sgwrs-ar-gymroddyfodolaeth-discussion-on-welsh-futurism-tickets-158566471585

Panelists:
Rhodri ap Dyfrig
Miriam Elin Jones (chair)
Ani Saunders
Hefin Jones
Bedwyr Williams

This event, delivered in the Welsh language, brings together five panelists to discuss the theme of Welsh Futurism. Simultaneous translation will be available for non-Welsh speakers.

Coordinated by Ty Pawb with the newly formed Youth Advisory Board (YAB), the event forms part of the public programme for Ty Pawb’s current exhibition, Annwn.

The YAB have been developing a manifesto to represent their vision for Ty Pawb, which the exhibition encompasses. Annwn (Welsh for The Otherworld) focuses on the Board’s chosen themes of folklore, futurism and escapism.

The Board are quoted as saying:

“Bridging both the future and the past, we question the potential to re-imagine Welsh culture by creating our own world – the Otherworld of Annwn.”

The five panelists have been brought together due to their participation in the exhibition and/or their association with the themes set out by the Board.

Rhodri ap Dyfrig: Rhodri ap Dyfrig is S4C’s Online Content Commissioner, blogger, and Welsh-language social media expert. He is listed by Aberystwyth University as among the 50 most influential people in Higher Education who use social media in Wales. He recorded the history of the sci-fi genre in an article called ‘Cymroddyfodoliaeth’ (Welsh Futurism) on the ‘Medium’ website in November 2014, which uses the hashtag #cymroddyfodol (#welshfuturism) on Twitter to address this genre in Welsh. He is also one of the founders of the Welsh information technology group Hacio’r Iaith (Hacking the Language), which he founded jointly with Carl Morris and Rhys Wynne on 30 January 2010. His Welsh Web History timeline, published in 2014, records some of the important milestones in the history of the web.

Miriam Elin Jones: Miriam Elin Jones studied Welsh science fiction literature as part of her PhD degree from Aberystwyth University, tracing the development of the genre and analysing its images and taking an interest in what future portraits have to say about the present. Miriam is also a creative writer, a member of Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s New Playwrights Group and part of the crew who founded literary magazine Y Stamp.

Ani Saunders: Ani Saunders is a well-known artist – a designer, photographer and an electronic pop musician and producer who performs under the name Ani Glass. Her most notable recent work is her debut album Mirores, described by Buzz Magazine as “A triumph from one of the leading figures of the Welsh-language pop-music boom”. Originally from the Riverside area in Cardiff, she now lives in the neighbouring community of Grangetown, which borders Butetown and Cardiff Bay.

Ani was raised in both Cornish and Welsh, and, along with her father and sister, is a member of Gorsedh Kernow. She graduated from John Moores University, Liverpool with a degree in fashion and design, and in 2018 returned to higher education to complete a Master’s degree in the Department of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University. She is currently working on a doctorate looking at how old-industrial towns in Wales are changing and developing. Ani is very interested in contemporary, cultural and linguistic issues.

Hefin Jones: Hefin Jones is a designer living in Wales, working across wider national and international localities. Hefin often works with public, cultural and educational institutions as part of collaborative research and design projects. Recent projects and collaborations include the Wales Millennium Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging, National Theatre Wales, and Crafts Council.

Bedwyr Williams: Bedwyr Williams is an artist working across various media including video, performance, sculpture and text, often bringing them together as larger installations. He is interested in the friction between the deadly serious and the banal aspects of modern life. Often he satirises the role of the artist and that of the curator against this backdrop creating cruel, absurd scenarios for them to appear in.

Bedwyr Williams’ solo shows include Barbican Curve Gallery in London, Limoncello in London, The Whitworth in Manchester, g39 in Cardiff, the Welsh Pavilion for 55th Venice Biennale, IKON in Birmingham, and an upcoming exhibition, Milquetoast, at Tŷ Pawb in July 2021.

—

The event will include presentations from each panelist, screenings of films by Hefin Jones and Bedwyr Williams, and closes with an open discussion.