Upcoming
Human Agency in the Age of AI
Tuesday 24th March 2026
5 - 7pm
2 Esther Lane, Surry Hills
Australia stands at a critical juncture in the global AI transition. This gathering at Esther Lane brings together researchers, investors, technologists, civil society leaders and policymakers to examine how artificial intelligence is being designed, deployed and governed; and what that means for human agency, identity and democratic trust.
Moving beyond technical safety and alignment frameworks, this series focuses on the deeper social, political and economic dynamics shaping the AI era. It explores how incentives, infrastructure and power concentration influence outcomes, alongside the growing tension between convenience and control, scale and dignity, and innovation and public accountability.
The gathering features Michael Casey, journalist, technologist and co-author of Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity and Dignity in a Digital Age, alongside Jess Scully, Executive Director of RadicalxChange, and David Christmas, founder of the Max Browser.
Together with leaders working on digital identity, privacy, trust infrastructure and real-world AI deployment, the panel will examine how Web2 platform dominance, surveillance-driven business models and emerging AI systems risk entrenching new forms of digital feudalism and what decentralised, human-centred alternatives could look like in practice.
The aim of the gathering is to surface critical questions, expose blind spots, recognise emerging patterns and identify strategic leverage points for action, contributing to a more coherent national understanding of how Australia can build technologies that preserve agency, livelihoods and social trust at this pivotal moment.
Convener: Eleanor Gammell
2026 Stella Prize Shortlist Announcement
Wednesday 8th April
6 - 8pm
2 Esther Lane, Surry Hills
The announcement of the 2026 Stella Prize shortlist, followed by an in-depth conversation exploring the six shortlisted books. Presented by Kate Evans, co-host of ABC Radio National’s The Bookshelf, alongside Dr Amy Thunig-McGregor, Gomeroi/Kamilaroi author, academic, and Research Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research. This evening offers insight into some of the most compelling writing of the year.
Image: Patrick Tomasso
Warm Data Lab
Thursday 21st May
5:30 - 7:30pm
2 Esther Lane, Surry Hills
Warm Data comes from understanding not just the parts of a system, but the interrelationships that integrate those parts into a living whole; what Nora Bateson describes as “information that is alive.” Rather than focusing on isolated facts or solutions, Warm Data Labs help us see how contexts overlap and interact in the complex systems we inhabit, from family and work, to ecology, culture, education, technology, and community.
Host: David Johnston, former Managing Director, Weleda Australia
Regenerating: Towards an Australian Rewilding Congress
Date to be announced soon
6 - 9pm
2 Esther Lane, Surry Hills
United by a shared commitment to nurturing Australia’s living systems, gathering around a table will be Traditional Owners, ecologists, farmers, artists, land stewards, investors and others working within capital flows and policy, all drawn to the urgent yet hopeful work of ecological regeneration and exploring the possibility of an Australian Rewilding Congress.
Stories will be exchanged, local projects shared, and common threads woven of place and long-term stewardship. An evening of grounded intentions, seeding the beginnings of a network rooted in support, learning and strategic alignment of resources and coordination toward the restoration of Australia’s biodiverse ecosystems.
This will be the second gathering of its kind to continue deepening the coordination of this critical movement.
Conveners: Simon Harris and Kirsty de Garis.
‘Leviathan’ by Alexander Beiner
Sydney Premiere
Expressions of interest for Second Sydney Screening
6 - 9pm
2 Esther Lane, Surry Hills
Please join us to watch this debut by social commentator and human potential advocate Alexander Beiner.
Leviathan is a feature-length documentary that invites you to journey into the deep code of culture. It explores our current social, economic and technological reality through the lens of psychology, history and myth to bring us face to face with the collective shadows we can integrate to find freedom.
Starring some of the brightest and most heterodox thinkers in their fields, Leviathan investigates why trust in our institutions is declining so rapidly, what social media is really doing to our hearts and minds, and how we can move into a new economic paradigm that chooses life over blind extraction.
Leviathan is a story of collective potential, revealing how we can transform the mindset that drives our broken systems into a source of creativity, imagination and radical hope.
Starring Yanis Varoufakis, Nora Bateson, Douglas Rushkoff, Minna Salami, Josh Schrei, Alexa Firmenich and John Vervaeke.
