Are we entering the new age of orality? 💬 Join us on Saturday, 16 May, 13.30–18.00 CEST at Tolhuistuin (Amsterdam) and online.
Are you still reading this? Good. Because the ability to do so might be rarer than you think. Come explore the rise of a new oral age during our first Symposihmm of the year, taking place at Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam, and our online event space The Inbetween, Saturday 16 May, 13:30 –18:00.
Since the early 2010s, measured declines in literacy, reasoning, and have been showing up in studies across the globe. At the same time, short-form video is displacing text as the primary way we share and process the world around us. What does that mean for how we think, learn, and understand each other?
On Saturday 16 May, The Hmm hosts Symposihmm: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺, a full day programme dedicated to exploring this pivotal moment. Are online platforms (and AI) chipping away at our ability to read and understand? Are we entering a new oral age of immediate, emotional, and performative communication, and what are the implications? Are there productive ways to push back, or should we seek more meaningful ways to navigate these new modalities?
With talks, workshops, and performances from the likes of Kevin Munger, Maria Mombers, Max, Jonas Lund, Elise Swart, and more.
💬 Programme
13:30–14:45 〰 Welcome and introduction ⧽ Elise Swart on literacy and online platforms ⧽ Kevin Munger on the new orality
15:00–16:15 〰 Parallel sessions (onsite only, ) ⧽ Make Your Own Slobject: workshop by Maria Mombers ⧽ Video Exchange Trading Spawner Dopamine Hitting Point: activity by Max ⧽ More TBA
16:30–18:00 〰 Reginold Royston on podcasting, new orality, and the African mediascape ⧽ More TBA
✦ Performance by Jonas Lund throughout the day
Stuff you should know
📅 Date: Saturday 16 May 2026
🕗 Times: 13.30–18.00 CEST
📍 Location: Tolhuistuin, IJpromenade 2, Amsterdam & online via our online event space The Inbetween
🎟 Tickets: €27.50 on-site / €20 student / €7.50 livestream
Feel free to reach out to us at info@thehmm.nl for some solidarity tickets we have available.
You can find information about physical accessibility at Tolhuistuin here.
This programme is kindly supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL and hosted by Tolhuistuin.
Further reading…
Recent discussions have increasingly explored the idea that we are entering a new era of orality. Want to go deeper before the day? Here's what we've been reading or listening to:
📚 We Used to Read Things in This Country – Noah McCormack, The Baffler
🗣️The Orality Theory of Everything – Derek Thompson, The Atlantic
🔡 Politics after literacy – Sam Kriss, Jacobin
Thanks for reading. Hope to see you soon!
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