Pop cultural utopias is the topic of the Zukunft Pop conference on December

This year's conference poses the question of future perspectives in pop music and addresses the topics of gender and diversity, music in Namibia and artificial intelligence.

One panel will discuss the topic: "Power relations within popular music -no future without equality" The guests will be Laura Lato (musician), Pamela Owusu-Brenyah (AFRO x POP, Music Women Germany), Deborah Kelleher (Director Royal Irish Academy of Music), moderated by Shanti Suki Osman (Humboldt University Berlin). Laura Lato will also address sexism in the music industry in her keynote address and Pamela Owusu-Brenyah will present perspectives of women in the music scene in Africa.
Another panel will revolve around "Music in Namibia." The Namibian singer Lioness, Angelika Schröder (Director College of the Arts Namibia), Jens Cording (Music in Africa) and Udo Dahmen (Artistic Director Popakademie Baden-Württemberg) will discuss. The moderator is Thorsten Schütte (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg). In her keynote address, Namibian curator Aino Moongo will provide an overview of historical and contemporary developments on the topic.
In the panel "Utopia or Reality: AI and Music", Jovanka von Wilsdorf (musician, AI Song Contest DIANA), Moisés Horta (artist) and David Stammer (Project Manager Digital Innovation Popakademie Baden-Württemberg) will discuss current developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in music. Andrea Götzke (curator and cultural producer Music Pool Berlin) will be the moderator. In her keynote, Jovanka von Wilsdorf will provide insights into the topic of equality in the context of Artificial Intelligence.
A conversation between Betina Quest (musician) and Pamela Owusu-Brenyah will also shed light on the situation of musicians:inside in Ghana. Betina Quest and Engin will close the conference with a concert.

The live stream of the conferencewill be available on Saturday, Dec. 04, starting at noon.

The Popakademie's conference format was initiated in 2009 by Prof. Udo Dahmen and is supported by the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg.