The first issue of Humanities, Arts and Society (HAS) Magazine, a journal resulting from the Arts and Society project, has just been published.
The theme covered in this first issue is 'Big Data and Singularities’. Big Data offers tools and opportunities to improve actions and decision-making, serving all fields of development, including government, healthcare, education, employment, economic productivity, communication, security, ecology, and the environment. Yet it also poses concerns related to privacy, cybersecurity, ethics, and labour.
Across fields, data has become one of the world’s most valuable resources, but facing big data resources, individuals seem to be reduced to those providing data. Still, singularities—understood as the unique capabilities of each person to perceive and interpret his or her environment—have enabled progress to be made in producing hypotheses, sciences, cultures, and arts, including the latest major technological advances.
The reader will find contributions that represent a wide range of fields in research and artistic practice, including analytical texts, documentary projects, and creations.
HAS magazine seeks to propose innovative ideas and to open up paths for improving our present and our future. It is a trilingual English-French-Chinese digital magazine that goes beyond the traditional borders of the humanities and the arts through its interdisciplinary approach. It will tackle the most sensitive subjects of our contemporary societies from the angle of "humanity". UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme is delighted to promote awareness on the challenges our contemporary societies face at a local and global level in order to promote positive social change and is committed to promoting global conversation on the arts and humanities.
The next issue will deal with two mental conditions that seem to capture the mind-state of our time, anxiety and hope, and will be released in December 2020.
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Arts and Society was launched in 2016 at the initiative of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme, the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH), and Mémoire de l'Avenir in partnership with the Global Chinese Arts and Culture Society (GCACS). The goal of this project is to establish a global movement of artists whose creative work, in dialogue with the humanities, will demonstrate the impact of the arts and creativity on society, on the understanding of the world and its transformations.
HAS magazine is not a UNESCO publication.