towards slow future | Crafting Futures Lab

WORKSHOP | Hauptplatz 6 (ground floor)
Anna Blumenkranz (DE)

We live in a fast-paced world in which we invent technologies to make our lives even faster. The latest developments in artificial intelligence only seem to reinforce these processes by generating a large number of finished works within a few seconds. But what happens when we consciously turn to a “slow” design material and try to slow down the creative process? In this workshop, the participants will learn to design with textile materials in connection with handcrafted electronics, and invent, narrate, and create their own visions of alternative futures. Together we will speculate about the technologies of the future and experiment with the different methods of crafting electronics, which enable an unusual way of creative self-expression and play with our inner sense of time.

Crafting Futures Lab

Thinking through material, touching new ideas, crafting futures – as part of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival, the Crafting Futures Lab invites you to explore formats for material-based, physical interactions. We understand material processes as a form of inquiry and access to knowledge about matter, forms of production, and connected personal and situated contexts such as social, ecological or political questions. Investigations include individual and collective creations, reflecting past and present conditions, as well as diverse imaginations of futures. In an open lab setting, students, artists, and researchers present experimental, critical and innovative approaches and confrontations with and in our environment. Visitors are invited to become a part of the lab, to interact, discuss, and participate in workshops.

CONCEPT: Monja Hirscher, Julia Moser, Irene Posch
WITH WORKS BY: Anna Blumenkranz, Monja Hirscher, Lukas Hofpointner, Alyssa Kamoun, Michael Kramer, Julian Kraus, Simone Lichtenberger, Julia Moser, Valerie Moschner, Lilo Viehweg.