Human life in a digitised society

At Explore the North, Adriaan van Dis, Maxim Februari and Hanna Bervoets will be engaging in discussion on what it means to lead a life as a human being in a digitised society. The subject is one that all three authors often address, each from a different perspective. Adriaan van Dis has created a multi-faceted oeuvre which has reaped many awards, including the Constantijn Huygens Prize, the Trouw Public’s Choice Prize and the Libris Literature Prize. His latest novel In het buitengebied (In the outskirts), published in 2017, begins with the story ‘Akiko’, in which a man falls in love with a robot – or rather with intelligent software – which slowly develops into the ‘ideal’ partner. Maxim Februari based his 2017 book Klont (Lump) on his worries about the ‘datafication’ of society. Dutch daily De Volkskrant proclaimed it the best Dutch novel that year. Februari writes novels and essays, as well as columns for Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. Hanna Bervoets studied Media and Culture, made her literary debut in 2009 with the novel Of hoe waarom (Or how why), and has also written for many publications, including Volkskrant Magazine. NRC labelled her books ‘laboratory literature’.