Three-day festival – seven visions of the future

Munich, 12 December 2022

A joint celebration of experimentation and discussion: this was the idea behind the festival for the project Driving the Human, which took place from 25 to 27 November in silent green in Berlin. So what does an event that brings together art and science look like? Let’s see.

Driving the Human is a catalyst for experimentation, shaping sustainable and collective futures that combine science, technology, and the arts in a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach. The result is seven prototypes around which the festival revolved and which were presented in the form of an installation, architectural model or a video game.

They show new ways of interaction, both with other humans and with animals and plants. The prototype Do AIs Dream of Climate Chaos?, for example, shows how artificial intelligence could mitigate climate change instead of hastening it. The project The Backpack of Wings reflects in a short film on how humans turn animals into instruments using geotracking technology. And the prototype Monsters and Ghosts of the Far North is a video game that enables visitors to experience the Arctic from the point of view of a bird or a bacterium.

Workshops: grasping the future

In addition to the exhibition of the seven prototypes, a lot of tours, discussions and performances took place. For example, visitors could build and programme a device for measuring their environment. They also learned how to communicate complex scientific topics in a short and snappy way on TikTok. In another workshop led by acatech member Vera Meyer and hosted by acatech, children and adults were able to experiment with fungi and make materials or art objects out of them. The participants were instructed by a group from Berlin, who has been working with fungi and wood waste at the interface of science and art for a year. Appropriately enough, the workshop was called Remains of What Remains.

And the programme offered more: The visitors could also attend a number of readings and talks. For example, Sandra Fendl, scientific advisor and coordinator of Driving the Human for acatech, discussed how art and science can collaborate. Her panel members were the two projects Human-Bacteria-Interfaces and The Backpack of Wings. One conclusion was that both disciplines can complement each other because a less constrained process can facilitate unconventional questions and approaches. This synergy can inspire and drive innovation.

About the project Driving the Human

When the project launched in 2020 hundreds of people were motivated to combine art with science to rethink the future. Out of more than 1,000 submissions, 21 were shortlisted and then seven projects were selected for development into actual prototypes by November 2022. To conclude the project, they were presented to the public at the three-day festival. The event was hosted by the mentoring platform Forecast, one of the co-initiators alongside acatech. The other partners were Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) and the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM). The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.