Holitopia 2023: Program

16.15–16.45

Madeleine Schwinge
Curator and futurologist (founder of re:future Lab)

Creative Intelligence in Epochal Shifts

There is no doubt that we are living in times of major flux. Shaken by polycrises, we find ourselves in the midst of an enormous transformation process. Is there any hope at all? How do we find new orientation, creativity and the courage to build viable alternative futures? Madeleine Schwinge, urges us to install a multi-faceted alliance between art (image), design (form) and architecture (space), forming a united frame to dialog with humanities, natural sciences, and technology. Her stance is to go beyond disciplines and disseminate a holistic model of ‚Creative Intelligence‘, conveying fundamental drivers of radical change: serendipity, symbiosis, interplay, fiction, flux. While bringing together post-disciplinary practice, experimentation, process and the tearing apart of verticals, HOLITOPIA stands as a space of interconnection, co-creation and flux.

17–18.30

Ayumi Paul
Artist and composer

All Eyes Hear

All Eyes Hear is grounded in the artist's continuously expanding archive of rituals and practices of wholing. The shared practice invites participants to explore the fractal dimension of our realities and the non-linearity of time to co-develop languages that elevate our states of sensitivity. Recognizing our bodies as interfaces that connect beyond matter, the edition created specifically for the symposium is dedicated to the birch tree and its tongues and includes a concert and practices such as lucid dreaming and a participatory ritual-performance. In Paul's work co-shaping in the invisible realms is manifested as an artistic practice of creating relationships. It asserts that the 'intelligence of the we' must be recognized, and can only be transmitted through the experience of it. Inventing and being invented simultaneously.

18.45–19.30

Chloe Piene,
Madeleine Schwinge,
Prof. Lukas Feireiss

We are the revolution

Art is a proposal to re:think! The artist and the public conceive their practice of art as a constructive creative activity. This is the exercise of a poietic power. Aesthetics experience can lead to symbolic action. Art can exert a whole range of norm creating effects in society. Thus, Art in the 21st century is more than ever a social practice—and a call to act!

10.15–11

Ian Erik Stewart
Neuroscientist, PhD researcher
(Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Biology, Berlin)

Optimistic Synergies between Art and Neuroscience

Science and art have reinvented themselves over and over in the last decades, and in doing so, more and more reinvented our lives and their meanings. The impact of neuroscience on our (self-)understanding as individuals and in society looms large. How can we steer towards an optimistic outcome, and how can synergies between art and (neuro)science bring us forward? From the perspective of a societal impact, what prospects and concerns emerge from commercial applications of neuroscientic knowledge? How can art exist in a synergistic feedback loop with science, to achieve the need for inclusive, transparent and experiential scientific promotion?

11–11.45

Prof. Dr. Joanna Bryson
Anthropologist, professor for ethics and technology
(Hertie School-Center for Digital Governance, Berlin)

The Incredible Algorithmaticity of Being

Life is the algorithm that perpetuates itself—all our sociality and phenomenology come down to this. We can trace through the utility of cooperation, competition, emotions, perception. So what separates us from machines? Can machines have a place in the human social order?

11.45–12.15

Jan Berger
Strategist, Founder Themis Foresight, Berlin

Zero-carbon Ecologies

By 2030 zero-carbon solutions could be competitive in sectors accounting for over 70% of global emissions (United Nations). This implies fundamental spheres such as energy, transport, built environment, and resources. Yet, severe issues remain to harness bio-fuels, deliver safe cycling routes, scale-up workplace retrofitting, develop green spaces and streets. While in megalopolis such as London, Paris or Berlin, zero-carbon is inscribed in the mayoral term, how to convert potentialities into realities?

11.45–12.15

Prof. Dr. Joanna Bryson,
Jan Berger,
Ian Erik Stewart

Human-Nature-Machine-Interplay

‘Even if humans become to machines what domestic animals are to humans, they will still live. Man will probably be better off in the domesticated state than in the wild state in which he now finds himself.’—Samuel Butler (Erewhon, 1872)

14.15–14.45

Prof. Sigurd Larsen
Architect, professor for Interior Architecture & Design
(Berlin International University of Applied Sciences)

Creating in Complex Environments

Architect literally means “master” (arkhi) “builder” (tekton). In highly turbulent and unstable contexts, architects can no longer ignore the environment, they now inscribe their practice into a composition in interaction with space and nature. In times of restriction, precaution and frugality, the new generation of architects is taking on a new thought-provoking role: (re)composing and (re)building. What if scarcity was a source of inspiration? How to renew in times of restoration?

14.45–15.30

Prof. Pelin Celik
Professor for Industrial Design, and System Design
(HTW University of Applied Sciences, Berlin)

System Design, a model to world-building

System designers do not solve problems, they manage messes! Interdisciplinary at its core, System Design seeks to create desirable and sustainable changes in behaviour and form, of individuals, systems and organisations. It embarks on the extension of design skills in non-traditional territories, thus resulting in non-traditional outputs (new roles, systems, or policies). Even though ideation and decision-making are a tricky task when operated in unexpected and unpredictable situations, such situations can be sources of opportunities.

15.30–16.15

Ludwig Engel,
Johanna Seelemann,
Thanos Petalotis

Matters of Co-Habitat in Vertical Sociotopes

‘Cohabitation, characterized by mutual help or fragile truce, can result in symbiogenesis, the appearance of new bodies, organs, and species—in other words, evolutionary novelty.’ Lynn Margulis (Symbiotic Planet: A New Look At Evolution, 1998)

There is great value of transforming urban landscapes. We spend over 80% of our time indoors. The enrichment of our work, education, retail and civic spaces offers benefits to both people and business. As well outdoor, living walls are proven to reduce air pollution, aid biodiversity, uplift people, and meet sustainability targets. This panel brings together a futurologist and urbanist, a conceptual designer, and the co-founder of a sourdough bakery that focuses on natural fermentation and local sourcing to discuss vertical communities in a cohabitation perspective.

16.30–17.30

Collect and Reflect

Debate and discussion

17.30–18.00

Chat and network

Open end