Future of Inclusion Lab

American Arts Incubator (AAI) is a creative exchange program that utilizes community-driven digital and new media art projects to instigate dialogue, build communities, bolster local economies, and further social innovation. Each incubator addresses a relevant social or environmental challenge such as economic equity, youth empowerment, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Since its inception in 2015, incubators have been held in 27 countries on five continents.

This year’s incubator in Austria was hosted by Ars Electronica and led by U.S. artist Rashin Fahandej. Fahandej ran the Future of Inclusion Lab, a series of co-creation workshops that consisted of listening/witnessing sessions, field research, and story and data collection activities. The workshop participants produced immersive experiences using emerging technologies and created poetic reflections on the state of social inclusion from a diverse array of perspectives.

Rashin Fahandej is an Iranian-American multimedia artist, filmmaker, and educator. Her projects center on marginalized voices, and the role of media, technology, and public collaboration in generating social change. Her methods take on the lens of “Art as Ecosystem,” creating a network of collaborations with a multiplicity of narratives that investigate social systems and occupy public sites as a critical discourse. The workshops explored social inclusion by investigating new media literacy and by providing access to cutting edge tools and technology to co-create prototypes for immersive and poetic reflections and experiences.