Crafting Futures Lab

Irene Posch (AT), Monja Hirscher (DE), Julia Moser (AT)

The Crafting Futures Lab was initiated to provide a platform for research and design practice and education that inquire into the social, technological and aesthetic interactions of crafts and (digital) technologies. It serves as a place for associated teaching, research, and collaborations.

For the fifth time, we are opening our lab to the public as part of the Ars Electronica Festival. We invite visitors to explore our work through an archive of samples that document evolving processes, conversations, and collaborations in the lab. Annotated experiments and the collaborative annotation of experiments offer insight into ongoing inquiries and propose divers ways to engage with research, researchers, and artefacts.

Contributors: Karin Altmann, Anna Blumenkranz, Eva Bullermann, Natascha Burk, Vera Dittenberger, Tim van der Loo, Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer, Manfred Grillnberger, Viktoria Heinrich, Lisa Hofer, Katrin Kober, Judith Eszter Karpati, Valerie Moschner, Magdalena Orland, Katharina Sand, Esteban de la Torre, Petra Vicianova, Lilo Viehweg, Lisa Wübbeler

Events

Crafting Futures Conversation with: Karin Altmann
Carrying Vanishing Craft into the Future

Karin Altmann, Julia Moser

Language of the event: EN
Date: Wednesday 03/09/2025, 17:00–18:00
Location: Hauptplatz 6, Lichthof West, EG, Crafting Futures Lab Exhibition

A conversation about the continuity and innovation of textile heritage and material knowledge, the future of craft, the craft of the future and the crafting of futures.

(Ex)Sample Making
Electromagnetic-Driven Movement in Textiles

Irene Posch

Language of the event: EN
Date: Thursday 04/09/2025, 14:00–16:00
Location: Hauptplatz 6, Lichthof West, EG, Crafting Futures Lab Exhibition

A workshop to probe the concept of programmable movement within textiles. We propopse a platform to explore how textiles can respond to electromagnetic forces as a starting point for individual explorations and discussions about visual, physical, and functional aspects of the material – as well as how these might hold space for new narratives, educational approaches and connected artefacts to evolve. Workshop participation and materials are free of charge. Please register here: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/9cW6dPZN5k

Crafting Futures Conversation with: Katharina Sand
Archiving the tangible and the intangible

Katharina Sand, Julia Moser

Language of the event: EN
Date: Thursday 04/09/2025, 17:00–18:00
Location: Hauptplatz 6, Lichthof West, EG, Crafting Futures Lab Exhibition

A conversation about the crafting of pasts and futures, the crafting of the commons, and libraries as a living practice.

Radical Crafting Salon

Anna Blumenkranz

Language of the event: EN
Date: Friday 05/09/2025, 14:00–16:00
Location: Hauptplatz 6, Lichthof West, EG, Crafting Futures Lab Exhibition

We are hosting a radical crafting salon as a conversational space for a collaborative stitch action. In this session, we welcome everyone to join a round table with invited scholars and e-textile practitioners in a cooperative, subversive, and anti-efficient stitch action, to mess with words, yarns, and sparks. Come and take your electric needle for a walk!

Salonnières: Anna Blumenkranz, Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer, Lisa Hofer, Katrin Kober

Crafting Futures Aperitif
Edible Traces–A Sensory Encounter

Julia Moser, Monja Hirscher

Language of the event: EN, DE
Date: Friday 05/09/2025, 17:00–19:00
Location: Hauptplatz 6, Lichthof West, EG, Crafting Futures Lab Exhibition

Edible Traces invites you to explore the hidden connections between food and colour. In this sensory food happening, we offer a series of small bites and drinks whose preparation leaves behind richly pigmented traces–peels, skins, soaking waters, and other organic remnants–that hold potential for natural dyeing. Beyond tasting, you can look forward to interactive moments of exploring colours, and are invited to reflect on how these subtle leftovers can become part of circular making processes that honour transformation, care, and multisensory experience.

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