Announcing our 21 selected concepts

We are thrilled to announce the 21 concepts chosen as a result of a successful Open Call. The 21 selected concepts present a diverse, multi-geographic understanding of our contemporary moment, and propose new visions for sustainable cohabitation on our planet. Ranging from a variety of geographic and cultural backgrounds, the selected visions propose innovative and prescient ways to deal with some of the most pressing questions of our present moment. Among others, they engage with entanglements between technology and nature, artificial intelligence, circular economy, new modes of production and exchange of knowledge, indigenous knowledge and approaches, and more-than-human perspectives from the bacterial to the interplanetary. Overall, they reinforce perspectives where collaboration and interdependency become essential, determining factors for life and survival on our planet.

“Our selection represents diverse strategies and positionings, from pragmatic to relational, and from speculative to critical. Similarly, the selection includes diverse geographies and perspectives, in constellations that represent a multidisciplinary attitude and a willingness to collaborate and exchange knowledge.
While only 21 concepts can advance to the next stage of Driving the Human, the many inspiring proposals that we reviewed can become connections to be made in the future of all our institutions.”
– Driving the Human jury statement

The 21 selected concepts are:

🜃 i: Towards Earthly Technosymbiogenesis, by Matthew C. Wilson

Dissuasion Engine, by Chris Salter, Erik Adigard and Alexandre Quessy

Do AIs Dream of Climate Chaos, by Iris Qu 曲晓宇

Down to the Economy, by Vienne Chan and Katja Meier

Habit@, by Yasmine Abbas and Dk Osseo-Asare

Habitat Theatre, by Barbara Boss, Damiàn Dlaboha, Maximilian Grünewald, Mira Hirtz and Béla Rothenbühler

Human-Bacteria Interfaces, by Anne-Sofie Belling, Bea Delgado Corrales, Romy Kaiser and Paula Nerlich

Indigenous Language of Taşlıca: Interspecies Communication in Ancient Production Landscapes of Anatolia, by Eylül Şenses

Monsters and Ghosts of the Far North: Towards an Inclusive Cartography, by Andra Pop-Jurj and Lena Geerts Danau

Planetary Personhood — A Universal Declaration Of Martian Rights, by Nonhuman Nonsense

Ripple, Ripple, Rippling, by Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan

RUM_A: Multispecies Urban Refuge in Cluster, by Clara Acioli

Sedekah Benih, by Vincent Rumahloine and Mang Dian

Server Farm, by James Bridle

Superlocal — 0 miles production, by Andrea de Chirico

The Backpack of Wings: Modern Mythology, by Hyeseon Jeong

The Rooted Sea: Halophytic Futures, by Sonia Mehra Chawla, Miriam Walsh (ASCUS Art & Science), Brendan Mc Carthy and Sam Healy (Ray Interactive)

The Tropical Turn — Maneuvers for a Planetary Embodiment, by Juan Pablo García Sossa

Toxicity Distributed — Post-extractivism Economies, by AHORA (Linda Schilling Cuellar and Claudio Astudillo Barra)

TRONS’R’US, by Akwasi Bediako Afrane

Virtual Sanctuary for Fertilizing Mourning, by Eliana Otta

The authors of the chosen 21 concepts live and work in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Italy, Peru, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. 

The 21 selected concepts will be presented to the public at the next Driving the Human event, which will take place in Berlin, at radialsystem, from October 15–17, 2021. The event will combine a physical and a digital dimension, offering multiple entry points to the themes and visions proposed by each concept. 

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