SEVEN
PROTOTYPES FOR ECO-SOCIAL RENEWAL
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.
From 2020 to 2023, the scientific and artistic collaboration Driving the Human develops and produces seven tangible prototypes responding to complex contemporary scenarios. The project is jointly led by four partner institutions – acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Forecast, the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe – and relies on the expert knowledge and skills of their combined networks. Together, these partners will work to enrich the various developments and outcomes of the initiative.
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Following its first public presentation in November 2020, Driving the Human launched an open call, inviting several participants – designers, artists and other multidisciplinary agents – to engage with these knowledge networks and multidisciplinary know-how, in order to develop future-proof concepts and test them as prototypes. The seven final prototypes can materialize in different ways: from walk-in room installations to designed objects, architectural mock-ups to interactive games, video works to performances, and many others.
Throughout 2023, 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.
