21 Visions for Eco-social Renewal

From October 15–17, 2021, the hybrid event Driving the Human presents 21 new visions for sustainable cohabitation on our planet, both through an on-site event in Berlin and an online broadcast. Ranging from a variety of geographic and cultural backgrounds, these concepts suggest innovative and prescient ways to deal with some of the most pressing questions of our present moment. Exploring entanglements between technology and nature, artificial intelligence, circular economy, new modes of production, indigenous knowledges and approaches, and more-than-human perspectives from the bacterial to the interplanetary, they reinforce perspectives where collaboration and interdependency become essential, determining factors for life and survival on our planet.

Hosted by Forecast at radialsystem in Berlin, Driving the Human: 21 Visions for Eco-social Renewal develops across dimensions: on the one hand, it manifests as an experienceable and memorable in-person experience; on the other, the event becomes a digital broadcast and an online platform for exchange. The event is conceived to offer a variety of formats, creating multiple occasions for encounters and various points of entry to the themes explored by each of the presented projects. In addition to the project authors, the event also invites several international experts to explore in depth the multiple narratives and approaches brought together on this occasion.

Event participants include: Yasmine Abbas, Clara Acioli, Erik Adigard, AHORA (Claudio Astudillo Barra and Linda Schilling Cuellar), Akwasi Bediako Afrane, Anne-Sofie Belling, Barbara Boss, James Bridle, Vienne Chan, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, Andrea de Chirico, Bea Delgado Corrales, Lena Geerts Danau, Dance is Politics (Luis Bautista Harris, Pablo Castillo Luna, Ernesto Ibáñez Galindo and Héctor Suárez González), Mang Dian, Damiàn Dlaboha, Maximilian Grünewald, Mira Hirtz, Hyeseon Jeong, Romy Kaiser, Gilly Karjevsky, Katja Meier, Paula Nerlich, Nonhuman Nonsense, Dk Osseo-Asare, Eliana Otta, Andra Pop-Jurj, Iris Qu 曲晓宇, Alexandre Quessy, Ray Interactive (Sam Healy and Brendan McCarthy), Béla Rothenbühler, Vincent Rumahloine, Chris Salter, Eylül Şenses, Jaime Sevilla, Sonic Acts of Noticing (Julia Udall, Alex De Little, Jon Orlek, Joe Gilmore and Richard Cook), Juan Pablo García Sossa, Rosario Talevi, Miriam Walsh (ASCUS Art & Science), Matthew C. Wilson, Chen Zhan, among others.

The full program and participant list will be announced at the end of September at drivingthehuman.com.

About Driving the Human
From 2020 to 2023, the scientific and artistic collaboration Driving the Human becomes a catalyst for experimentation, shaping sustainable and collective futures that combine science, technology, and the arts in a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach. Jointly led by four partner institutions—acatech, National Academy of Science and Engineering; the mentorship programme Forecast; the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design; and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe—Driving the Human will ultimately produce seven tangible prototypes responding to complex contemporary scenarios, relying on an expanded expert and knowledge network.

The community of participants, experts, and the larger audience that Driving the Human brings together will explore diverse phenomena such as the social impact of global warming, energy cycles and technology-driven disruptions, the impact of collective decision making, and contemporary processes of exchanging values and objects. The results of these explorations will be shared and communicated over the project’s three-year duration, and will deploy strategies for action in the form of physical experiences, with a strong individual and collective impact. Ultimately, they will create tools that enable new ways of envisioning and inhabiting the world.

For more information, visit our website. 
For media enquiries, please contact: press@drivingthehuman.com