Chances are that you have heard about NFTs the last couple of years. People were restricted to their homes looking for leisure in new places. The pandemic gave us all infinite time behind our laptops. We started to appreciate digital experiences as it was the only alternative. NFT activity grew as CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks and NBA Top Shots were minted, traded and sold. Interest soared to a full-fledged hype in March 2021 when practically all media outlets worldwide reported on the sale of The First 5,000 Days. Mike Winkelman, better known by his artist’s name Beeple, sold this artwork as an NFT for 69 million dollars. Soon after Yugalabs minted their Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of 10,000 unique illustrations of monkeys. They promised to “shape the future of web3 through storytelling, experiences and community.” More skeptical people thought they were just overpriced ‘jpegs’ of monkey cartoons.

How many people would never experience live music in their entire lives? How many would never be touched by being connected to a performing artist? Or, to cite the British sociomusicologist Simon Frith, “who [would say] they loved particular performers but had no desire to see them live?” (Frith, 2007). Obviously, live music is of great importance in the lives of many.

Over the past few years, the Experience Lab has evolved into a truly BUas-wide platform for BUas R&D staff, and projects have been initiated and completed in all of BUas’ knowledge domains: leisure, tourism, hospitality, hotel and facility, mobility, games and media. The basis for all of the measurement tools used at the Experience Lab (neuroscience tools and more traditional quantitative and qualitative research tools) is formed by the notion that emotions are crucial in shaping memorable experiences. Therefore, in order to objectively measure whether an experience is memorable, researchers in the Experience Lab track emotions in (real) time as people are engaging in leisure, tourism, mobility, hospitality, media or game experiences.

The perspective of teachers Alain van Duren, Bertine Bargeman, Felix Rietbergen, Marijke Hoekstra, Youp Selen and Dafne Foet,on the future of leisure.

From the start of the preparation of the conference, it was clear that being together and utilising the experiential expertise should become the starting point for the inclusion programme. In order to outline a future, determine strategies, or reshape the design of cities, the public domain and leisure time, the participation of a diverse society was desired from the principle of "universal design". For everyone, by everyone. Not a conference merely talking "about" inclusion, but at its core striving for inclusiveness itself.

For many libraries it is not an easy task to reach young people, but in Antwerp it is getting better and better. Permeke, Antwerp's central library, has had an Urban Bib since 2016, which attracted many young people. At that time youth worker Dries Decru brought hip-hop culture into Permeke, and the young artists and partners who committed to Urban Bib laid the groundwork for a new youth library where young people are given as much space as possible to develop themselves.

The joint industry associations in the cultural and creative sector presented the Diversity & Inclusion Code (CODEDI) on 1 November 2019, a broadened version of the Diversity Code developed in 2011. The content of the CODEDI is in line with the Culture Governance Code and the Fair Practice Code, the two other codes of conduct as instruments for self-regulation within the cultural and creative sector. These three codes of conduct reinforce each other.

“I thought we would get an inclusive society!” That was the cry from the heart of a participant at a conference on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2018. The Netherlands ratified the Convention in 2016. Since then, in the perception of many people, little has been achieved to make the country more accessible and inclusive.

In the context of our work in the fields of inclusive education, research and design, we sat down for a chat with Koen Deweer, founder and director of Konekt (www.konekt.be). Konekt radically champions a world in which persons with and without disabilities live, learn and work together. The goal is clear: to allow people with disabilities to live fully in an inclusive society. In doing so, Koen and Konekt focus both on developing individuals’ full potential and on making the environment more inclusive. The origins of his drive lie in his own school experiences, as well as those of his son. Both times he observed how everyone is pushed through a system which is the same for everyone and therefore not set up to utilise personal talents. When someone is not good at something, it may lead to biased advice from teachers: “Something with psychology and pedagogy is probably beyond your depth. Maybe becoming a forester is more suitable.” When Koen noticed the same thing happening to his son, he felt: now we really have to change things.