How, and for what, should life be optimised? Is the growing culture of optimisation leading us towards the homogenisation of culture?
These days we're using technology to help us write, make decisions, as well as augment, biohack, sculpt and transform our bodies, inside and out, to look and feel younger and fitter. As we seem to optimise virtually every aspect of our everyday lives, do we somehow end up creating more labour and inefficiencies?
The pursuit of human development and self-improvement is a perennial subject of fascination and study, from Aristotle’s eudaemonia to Confucian ethics, Maslow’s theory, and now, in a form familiar to many: self-help. What does it signal though, when the dominant messages of the marketplace today, and the markers of success and progress of experience, are defined by terms like efficiency and maximum engagement?
Marking the year-end – and with a new year around the corner – we're examining what it means to optimise life. Hear hot takes from Infinite Scroll 荧屏沉溺 curator and creative technologist Thea-Mai Baumann, philosopher Emily Hulme, comedian and writer Alex Lee and computer scientist Elliot Varoy. Hosted by Steph Harmon, Culture Editor of Guardian Australia.
Join us for an evening of fun talks and chat, and continue the conversations over light refreshments to cap off what will be a merry time and our final Sydney Ideas event of 2025.
| When | Wednesday 10 December, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm |
| Where | Footbridge Theatre, University of Sydney Camperdown campus |
| Entry | Free and open to all with registrations essential. UPDATE: Please note this event is now booked out. You can join the waitlist or sign up to get notified for when on-demand catch-up is available. |
Thea-Mai Baumann is an artist, creative technologist, and cultural leader of Vietnamese–Swiss heritage, currently Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Prior to joining 4A in 2023, she held senior leadership roles at Creative Australia, where she co-designed the International Engagement Strategy 2021–25 and oversaw strategic investments across Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific.
From 2012–2019, she founded and led the holographic beauty-tech company Metaverse Makeovers® / 超宇美人®, pioneering early metaverse and augmented-reality innovation from Melbourne, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Her work spans art, technology, and cultural diplomacy – centring emerging artists, intercultural exchange, and experimentation across digital and physical worlds. She 'grams from @metaverse.
Emily is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, specialising in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Her research interests include Plato’s epistemology and ethics, philosophy of language from Parmenides to the Stoics, and women in Greek philosophy.
Alex is a writer, television presenter, comedian, and actor, with a background in journalism. Alex has been a guest host of Network Ten’s The Project and is a writer/presenter on the news series WTFAQ (ABC), and hosted ABC’s news quiz show Win the Week. Recently, Alex launched the podcast Baby Shoes which she co-hosts with Humyara Mahbub.
Elliot is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney. Elliot is interested in designing educational tools using emergent technologies and supporting personalised learning at a large-scale, both within and outside computing.
Steph is Culture Editor of Guardian Australia. Prior to the Guardian, Steph was the founding editor of Australian pop culture site Junkee. She tweets from @stephharmon.
Header image credit: Getty Images via Unsplash