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Will Self and Rev Ian Paisley to appear at Free Thinking 08
Free Thinking, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Merseyside's festival of ideas, returns to Liverpool, European Capital of Culture, for a weekend of debates, talks, films, performance and conversation from Friday 31 October to Sunday 2 November 2008.
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Author and columnist Will Self opens Free Thinking 08 on Friday 31 October with the Free Thinking Lecture examining the way in which the mind is represented in the novel.
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Does literature represent the mind as we really experience it, in all its terror, exhilaration and confusion?
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Also on the festival bill is the Rev Ian Paisley, one of the most prominent figures from Northern Ireland's history and a key player in the peace process.
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The former First Minister of Northern Ireland and Democratic Unionist Party leader will be onstage to discuss his writings, his faith and his long and often controversial political career.
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Other contributors across the weekend include philosopher John Gray, who asks: "Are current green policies pointless or even dangerous?"
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Architect Hans van der Heijden, who worked on the renovation of Liverpool's Bluecoat Arts Centre (recently shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards), discusses how public and private space have become confused.
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Writer, lecturer and broadcaster Susan Blackmore explores the 21st Century brain and there are also about the US constitution, privacy and the value of experience. Ìý
Mark Haddon, Whitbread Award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and A Spot of Bother, will be hosting Books At Breakfast, the festival's own book club held in association with The Reader.
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There will also be a new drama production by Bafta award-winning dramatist Tony Marchant, 24 Weeks, exploring the current abortion debate.
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Now in its third year, Free Thinking presents leading thinkers from the arts, science, politics, philosophy and technology in front of a live audience for interactive discussion and debate.
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The festival programme also includes audience workshops, live performance, music and drama, with almost every event broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 during November 2008.
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The main theme of this year's festival is Human Futures, joining with the overarching 2008 theme of the festival's main venue FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology).
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Free Thinking 08 will look in detail at:
- The 21st Century Brain – exploring how advances in neuroscience are questioning the way we think about ourselves
- The Value of Experience – examining the importance of age in a society where people are living longer whilst the gap between experience and outlook of the young and old seems to be growing ever wider
- Private Lives, Public Spaces – looking at the meaning of public and private space today, from the internet to the city.
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Other events will include poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan hosting Radio 3's cabaret of the spoken word, The Verb, and overseeing one of the festival's most entertaining and popular events, Speed Dating With A Thinker, in which festival contributors try to seduce members of the public with their ideas in one-on-one encounters.
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This year's Free Thinking writer in residence, Angela Clarke, will explore the generation gap with groups of Liverpudlian teenagers and over sixties.
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Radio 3's Words & Music returns for an evening of live music, poetry and prose themed around the seven ages of man.
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There's also a chance to join the Citizen's Jury or vote for the People's Manifesto. Ìý
A complete programme of event will be published nearer the festival.
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Free Thinking will be held at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Bluecoat Arts Centre, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Merseyside's performance space and the recently refurbished Small Concert Room at St. George's Hall.
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Notes to Editors
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The first Free Thinking festival was held in Liverpool November 2006, with contributions from Brian Eno, Phil Redmond, AS Byatt, Howard Jacobson and Linda Grant.
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Last year saw up to 3,000 people attend the festival in Liverpool for a range of talks, discussions, workshops, drama and live performances. Contributors included Albie Sachs, Mike Figgis, Mark Ravenhill, Alan Bleasdale, Anne Owers and Gwilym Simcock.
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