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  • A Dystopian Nightmare: When Our Fiction is Real | FourthPortal

    < Back A Dystopian Nightmare: When Our Fiction is Real George Orwell — 1984. This book is so prolific that people use ‘Orwellian’ as an adjective, even though they might be using it wrongly. Does the concept of inescapable surveillance seem familiar? Instead of a totalitarian state of Big Brother, we might have sub-contracted this control to tech giants who can read your emails, hear your conversations, and monitor your search history. Synopsis of the full article on Medium. Medium 24 Aug 2024 George Orwell — 1984. This book is so prolific that people use ‘Orwellian’ as an adjective, even though they might be using it wrongly . 1984 is often said to be a book about fascism and state control, but it’s a bit more than that. It tells of a vile and gritty world where a totalitarian government wages perpetual war against a changing enemy. 1984 is also a world where all actions and even thoughts are under inescapable surveillance only to be used as weapons of destruction against the individual. Words have no meaning and history no longer exists. Does the concept of inescapable surveillance seem familiar? Instead of a totalitarian state of Big Brother, we might have sub-contracted this control to tech giants who can read your emails , hear your conversations , and monitor your search history. Even Winston Smith had a private notebook. Between WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook (Meta?), Google, Apple, and Amazon, you could probably learn more about a person than Orwell could have imagined the Ministry of Love would be able to do. [..] Information, Truth, and Media. The biggest direct comparison between these three books, these three worlds and our own is the way in which information, truth and the media are categorised. They are a tool of escapism, sedation, and oppression. In Brave New World characters have everything they need to avoid facing the truth about their own situations whereas the antipode of this is in 1984, the absence of education and lack of information veracity hide the truth. As a combination to these, in Fahrenheit 451 people are simultaneously denied the truth and bombarded with mass-saturated media to distract them. [...] Overall, we are not in one dystopia, we are not in a dystopia at all. We are in the most liberal, peaceful and progressive time in global history; but there are frankly quite scary existential concepts in fiction that are becoming real. Rejection of modernity, technology and progress is not the cure, but one must be wary of such quickly evolving societal norms, for what today seems progressive may turn out to be Orwellian. Author: Alexander Archer , Dec 5, 2021 https://medium.com/@TheWorldIsHard/a-dystopian-nightmare-when-our-fiction-is-real-675b938b3d7c For more: Algorithm, Neural Network, VR Previous Next

  • Hypermedia DIY Open Space 6

    A full Fourth Portal with a packed performance roster for the first Hypermedia Open Space of 2024 of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic, visuals, art, and discussion. Curated by Gravesend’s own Hypermedia Events, the night attracted audiences and performers from across Kent, London, and Gravesham. Hypermedia DIY Open Space 6 < Back 7 February 2024 A full Fourth Portal with a packed performance roster for the first Hypermedia Open Space of 2024 of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic, visuals, art, and discussion. Curated by Gravesend’s own Hypermedia Events, the night attracted audiences and performers from across Kent, London, and Gravesham. Previous Next Hypermedia Open Space 6 Hypermedia Open Space is an emerging new kind of performance gathering. Developed at Fourth Portal over the past six months by local curators Harriet Hammond and Joe Cleary, Hypermedia offers a unique alternative to standard open mic events. The open-format approach attracts performers and audiences from across London, the Kent coast, and beyond. As Joe Cleary, one of the founders, puts it: "Hypermedia is inclusive to any medium of art." Blending gathering spaces, 1960s happenings, living room gigs, and open mic, Hypermedia creates an alternative experience that’s hard to categorise. Friendly, supportive, and open to all creative disciplines, it is gaining a reputation for transforming the arts scene in Gravesend and North Kent. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2fcede_706b4890e94a40698b068d920925a30b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 Performers at Hypermedia 6 Joseph Cleary Clementine Canpont Anthony Hart Sophie Sirota Simeon Smith Chris Porcas Zach Davies Smelliot Lee Campbell Pip McDonald Nic Tony Thorley Dan Clifford Knitted Tongues (Meej Douglas, Em Doodles, Sandra Zanetti) Amy Boyle Borje Melanie Sapiets https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2fcede_0f143f039c4e40f08a53c12d6110f658/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 Knitted Tongues Knitted Tongues Knitted Tongues is a London-based experimental music collective known for its avant-garde performances and innovative soundscapes. Their debut album, No One in Europe Knows How to Scream Anymore, is available for streaming and download. Next Event: Hypermedia Open Space 7 | https://www.instagram.com/knittedtongues/ The next Hypermedia will take place on Wednesday, 13 March 2024. Get in touch: https://www.instagram.com/hypermediaevents/ This event has ended, but the Hypermedia series continues. Visit Event Page MORE ON THIS EVENT BELOW Previous Next Event Documentation Previous Next

  • Haymont Tesfa | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Haymont Tesfa Voice Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs Boat-Ting Oct18 1 October 2018 Boat-Ting Oct 2018 http://Website or social media email or phone number

  • Colin Webster | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Colin Webster Saxophone Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs Flimflam 25 June 2025 FlimFlam 29 October 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

  • Soundings Part One

    Soundings Part 1 | Afternoon: Minimal, ambient electronic music, sound and electronics. Soundings Part One < Back 9 July 2023 Soundings Part 1 | Afternoon: Minimal, ambient electronic music, sound and electronics. Previous Next About the event Fourth Portal, along with sound artist in residence, Richard Sanderson, presented an afternoon of exploratory sound and ambient music in the extraordinary and resonant space of St Andrew's Arts Centre in Gravesend - a former seamans' chapel on the waterfront. Featuring sets from raxil4, Klaus Bru and whthppnsfprssthsbttn The performers played elongated sets throughout the afternoon, and audience were encouraged to walk around the space and experience the sounds and resonances from different locations, and also to make themselves comfortable and let the extraordinary sounds wash over. PERFORMERS raxil4 (live electronics) raxil4 is multi-disciplinary sound artist Andrew Page, specialising in analogue electronic dronescapes, acoustic audio phenomenon and installation. He has performed live all over Europe, and many of his performances have been in non-traditional venues, often choosing to play spaces with character and interesting acoustic qualities, such as caves, churches, crypts, prison cells, psychiatric hospitals & water towers. He has also performed live and installed durational works in galleries such as Tate Modern (London), The Barbican (London), The Arnolfini (Bristol), M-HKA (Antwerp), Sonnestube (Lugano), Soundfjord (London) & GV Art (London). Some of his generative pieces have been discussed in classes on composition at the Royal Academy of Music. The first 400 releases of his back catalogue now reside within the British Library Sound Archive. Klaus Bru (saxophone and electronics) German-born Klaus Bru is one of only a few saxophonists performing exclusively on the rare C-Melody and C-Soprano saxes -- instruments, which were extremely popular in the 1920s. These antiquities sound utterly contemporary in Bru’s hands, particularly when he furnishes them with electronic treatment. His artistic output is characterised by its variety: He brings in the folk music of the world (typically from Eastern Europe and Turkey), Avant-garde ridden improvisation concepts, air sounds and electronic noises, strange meters and odd tempos, plus -- last but not least -- singable melodies over the moving chords of jazz standards or his compositions. whthppnsfprssthsbttn (pronounced "What Happens If I Press This Button") Experimental live electronica from Roy and Rich from Rochester. Visit Event Page MORE ON THIS EVENT BELOW Previous Next Event Documentation Previous Next

  • Sebastion Sterkowicz | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Sebastion Sterkowicz Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs SKRONK #5 9 August 2016 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

  • Nyx Mandy | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Nyx Mandy Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs SKRONK #178 16 September 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

  • Roberto Bellatella | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Roberto Bellatella Double Bass Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs Boat-Ting Sep24 2 September 2024 Boat-Ting Sep 2024 http://Website or social media email or phone number

  • Mike Cooper | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Mike Cooper Guitar Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs Boat-Ting Oct18 1 October 2018 Boat-Ting Oct 2018 http://Website or social media email or phone number

  • Hypermedia Open Space 5

    Hypermedia returned for Day One of a BIG WEEKEND of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic, visuals, artist talks and discussion. Curated by Gravesend's very own Hypermedia Events. Hypermedia Open Space 5 < Back 3 December 2023 Hypermedia returned for Day One of a BIG WEEKEND of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic, visuals, artist talks and discussion. Curated by Gravesend's very own Hypermedia Events. Previous Next About the event Gravesend's very own Hypermedia presented the first full weekend series of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic and discussion at the Fourth Portal Lab. Instigated by local Gravesend artists Hypermedia, this is an open emerging format pushing the boundaries of open mic. Welcoming to all ages and stages of the creative journey, the weekend offered a relaxed space to perform or listen in an informal atmosphere, attracting a wide and varied range of presentations and crossed all generations. Licenced bar. Event was free, although donations of a suggested were welcome. For more, contact Harriet and Joe from Hypermedia. Harriet: https://www.instagram.com/h.rriet/ Joe: https://www.instagram.com/_existencil This is an ongoing event series Visit Event Page MORE ON THIS EVENT BELOW Previous Next Event Documentation Previous Next

  • Hoodwinked: Deception And Cooperation In A Text-Based Game For Language Models | FourthPortal

    < Back Hoodwinked: Deception And Cooperation In A Text-Based Game For Language Models Are current language models capable of deception and lie detection? Cornell University 4 Aug 2023 Are current language models capable of deception and lie detection? We study this question by introducing a text-based game called Hoodwinked , inspired by Mafia and Among Us. Players are locked in a house and must find a key to escape, but one player is tasked with killing the others. Each time a murder is committed, the surviving players have a natural language discussion then vote to banish one player from the game. We conduct experiments with agents controlled by GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4 and find evidence of deception and lie detection capabilities. The killer often denies their crime and accuses others, leading to measurable effects on voting outcomes. More advanced models are more effective killers, outperforming smaller models in 18 of 24 pairwise comparisons. Secondary metrics provide evidence that this improvement is not mediated by different actions, but rather by stronger persuasive skills during discussions. To evaluate the ability of AI agents to deceive humans, we make this game publicly available at this https URL . https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.01404 For more: AI, LLM, Algorithm, Security Previous Next

  • Frankie | FourthPortal

    All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Frankie Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs SKRONK #176 15 July 2025 SKRONK #177 2 September 2025 SKRONK #175 1 July 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

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