STUDIOTOPIA Day

Co-creating Sustainable Futures through Culture

STUDIOTOPIA — Art meets science in the Anthropocene is an initiative that aims to increase collaborations between cultural and research institutions, academia, innovation centers, creatives and citizens. In keeping with the festival theme, both speakers and audiences of the STUDIOTOPIA Day conference program are challenged to reflect creatively and critically about ecological and sociopolitical implications of the Anthropocene.

Following representatives of current best practice projects on stage are key figures of cultural institutions; initiatives debate designing novel interfaces for gathering and disseminating knowledge as well as their roles in reframing (creative) commons and bringing together stakeholders under the umbrella of nurturing coexistence. A panel by guest curators and 2021 Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity winners Branch Magazine will focus on how the open movement, craft technology and a sustainable and just internet for all supports communities and action in the creation of alternative climate futures.

Finally, discussions turn to exploring how STEAM activates the collaborative and interdisciplinary potential between science, technology, engineering arts and mathematics that is required to navigate the challenges and environmental crises that our society is currently facing.

Moderation:
Geraldine de Bastion (GB/DE)

Timetable

Program

Transdisciplinary Cultures of Collaboration

Andrew Newman (AU/AT), Audrey-Flore Ngomsik (FR/BE), Kat Austen (GB/DE), Mairéad Hurley (IE), Andres Colmenares (CO/ES)

A sustainable future requires integrative, interdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches to engage with the complex interdependencies of human, non-human and more-than-human systems. Can a STEAM approach to education, one that emphasises the value of art in fostering creative and critical thinking, ensure that we have the necessary skills to face this challenge?

Spotlight by Audrey Tang – Free the Future

Audrey Tang (TW)

Audrey Tang is known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell, as well as building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin.

GET.Inspired by Best Practice

Bradly Dunn Klerks (NL/BE), Arisa Kamada (JP), Christoph Pasching (AT), Fara Peluso (IT/DE), Jakob Lambert (AT), Marko Vivoda (SI), Yinan Liu (NZ), Michael John Gorman (IE)

Get.Inspired Talks highlight promising, practical projects in the field of tension between art, technology and science that pursue the central question “But How?” and describe ways out of the planetary crisis.

Hatching the Future of Museums

Michael John Gorman (IE), Olga Tykhonova (UA/AT), Merete Sanderhoff (DK), David Vuillaume (CH/DE), Johanna Eiramo (FI), Lauren Vargas (US/NL)

In the shadow of a climate and ecological emergency that affects all areas of social, political and economic life, the purpose and scope of action of museums must (again) be questioned. How can museums reposition themselves in an age of climate change? Can museums inspire action on planetary crises. Can museums inspire action on planetary crises, and can museal institutions be reimagined for a more diverse, intersectional publics?

Keynote by Carmody Grey

Carmody Grey (GB)

Carmody Grey is a philosopher, ethicist and theologian working at Durham University UK, she researches and teaches on science, economy and environment.

Strategies of Culturing

Alexandra Antwi-Boasiako (DE), Bernd Fesel (DE), Diana Ayton-Shenker (US), Drew Hemment (GB), Tega Brain (AU), Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza (NL)

In this panel discussion, protagonists specializing in AI research, transdisciplinary and critical art, cultural economy, philanthropy and organizational development come together to debate strategic culturing and the tools for building cultural narratives that inspire and inform change.

Urgent Crises, Slow Solutions: A Conversation about the Open Movement, Craft Technologies and a Sustainable Internet

Babitha George (IN), Camila Nobrega (BR/DE), Luis Felipe Rosado Murillo (BR), Shannon Dosemagen (US), Persephone Lewis (US)

What potentials do open practices, craft, and community knowledge have, to imagine different climate futures? How can the open movement with its values, communities and action support the creation of these futures? And how do we actively build a sustainable and just Internet for all? Though the current crises are urgent, we acknowledge the solutions may be slow.

Welcome by European Parliament

Christian Ehler (DE)

Christian Ehler, Member of the European Parliament, welcomes the participants of the conference.

Biography

Geraldine de Bastion (GB/DE) is a British/German political scientist with over 18 years of experience working with net activists, governments, startups and non-governmental organisations around the world. Her research and work focuses on digitalisation, innovation, and human rights. She is a co-founder and CEO of the consulting firm Konnektiv (2013). Konnektiv advises a wide variety of clients on digital transformation, including the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).Geraldine is also the founder of the Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), a global network of grassroots innovators, social enterprises, makerspaces and innovation forges. In 2018, she scripted and hosted the Arte documentary “Digital Africa,” which captures many of the innovators activities in the GIG network. Since 2012, she has been part of the curatorial team for the re:publica, Europe’s largest conference on the topic of the internet and society, and regularly organizes and curates events in the field of politics and digitization. In 2018 she organized the first re:publica in Accra, Ghana with over 2000 participants and over 260 speakers from across Africa. Geraldine has been a member of the BMBF Zukunftskreis since 2019. Furthermore, she has been named by the City of Berlin as a member of the City Lab Advisory Board and a member of the Smart City Strategy Advisory Board. Since 2021, Geraldine is also a part of the Development Service and Humanitarian Aid Committee for Brot für die Welt.

Studiotopia — Art meets science in the Anthropocene and is co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.