HOLITOPIA FESTIVAL FOR ARTS & FUTURES ++ 20-22 September, 2024 ++ HTW Campus Wilhelminenhof, Berlin ++

Symposium

Holitopia 2023

Symbiotic Politics

HOLITOPIA 2023: Symbiotic Politics Chapter I. What Can Art Do for Us? Chapter II. How to Unlock Futures? September 7–8, 2023 re:future lab / Spreehalle, Berlin

An immersive symposium fusing art, practice-based research, sciences, technology and futurology to design alternative futures.

This year’s theme—Symbiotic Politics—will focus on urban and biological speculations, digital governance, ethics and technology, zero-carbon societies, and queer ecologies. It anchors the intersection of all our Research Clusters.

The narrative stream

September 7: What can Art do for us, amidst cultural shifts and unprecedented upheavals? How to expand our imaginations and create positive narratives?

September 8: How to unlock futures, exploring life at the edge of time? How to form reliable knowledge in the age of AI (human-machine co-habitat)? How to reconnect with nature and green our work, educational and civic spaces (human-nature hybridization, restorative design, new urban realities)?

The line-up

Ten distinguished artists and experts from the ﬁelds of science, neuroscience, anthropology, technology, economics, design, architecture, visual art and music will share their ideas, visions and expertise unfiltered. Unpredictable interventions may happen along the journey.

Jan BERGER (futurologist, Themis Foresight, Berlin), Prof. Dr. Joanna BRYSON (Ethics and Technology, Hertie School—Centre for Digital Governance, Berlin), Prof. Pelin CELIK (Industrial Design and System Design, HTW University of Applied Sciences, Berlin), Ludwig ENGEL (futurologist, urbanist, Sandberg Insituut, Amsterdam, ETH Zurich), Prof. Lukas Feireiss (artist, curator, author, lecturer; Transdisciplinarity at FU Berlin; Master "Radical Cut-Up" at Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam), Prof. Sigurd LARSEN (architect, Sigurd Larsen Design and Architecture, Berlin), Ayumi PAUL (artist, composer, Berlin), Chloe PIENE (visual artist, New York, Vienna), Madeleine SCHWINGE (curator, futurologist, facilitator, founder of re:future lab, Berlin), Johanna SEELEMANN (conceptual designer, Leipzig), Ian Erik STEWART (PhD-candidate, Max-Delbrück Center, Freie Universität, Berlin).

The venue

HOLITOPIA 2023 will be held at Spreehalle, a converted industrial building located on the site of former AEG transformer plant, an impressive industrial complex on the Spree River. It was renovated by London-based architectural bureau FeildenCleggBradleyStudios, receiving in 2018 the Otto Borst Prize for Urban Renewal and nominated for the BDA Architecture Audience Award.

An event hosted by the re:future lab, and curated by Madeleine Schwinge, re:future lab’s founder. Panel moderation. Kimberly Bradley

Location. re:future lab / Spreehalle, Berlin (Germany)

In-presence