From February 10 to April 9, 2021, Driving the Human invites designers, artists, scientists, initiatives, and agents from any fields of expertise from anywhere in the world, to join us in shaping sustainable and collective futures that combine science, technology, and the arts in a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach. The Open Call invites proposals that critically engage with the present and propose alternatives to current developments and disruptions, reflecting on what makes us human, and reexamining our relationship with society, the planet, and life itself.

Proposals may connect to larger themes, such as the social impact of climate change, energy cycles and our current technological acceleration, the mirror between the biosphere and the technosphere, contemporary processes of exchanging values and objects, and/or the impact of collective decision-making. Driving the Human welcomes proposals that embrace notions of urgency and radical openness as much as curiosity, interconnectedness, and new modes of collectivity across scales. Similarly, we encourage proposals that ask fundamental questions about the predominant narratives that we exchange about the world and our role in it.

After a series of crisis, from the economic to the pandemic, it is evident that humanity and its way of living on planet earth are endangered. Fundamental questions about issues such as mass consumption, factory farming, and mass tourism need to be reflected upon. We welcome new constellations for working and thinking together, connecting diverse knowledge and varied disciplines.

Selected applicants will be invited to interact with the expertise and multidisciplinary know-how of the Driving the Human partner institutions—acatech, National Academy of Science and Engineering; the mentoring program Forecast; the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design; and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe—in order to develop future-proof concepts and bring them to fruition as prototypes. Ultimately, the process and outcomes of Driving the Human become tools that enable new worldviews and open the doors to alternative ways of coexisting.

The application deadline is Friday, April 9, 2021, at 11:59pm CET. Applications should be submitted in English, using this form in the website.

About the project
Driving the Human – Seven prototypes for eco-social renewal

From 2020 to 2023, the scientific and artistic collaboration Driving the Human becomes a catalyst for experimentation, shaping sustainable, and collective futures that combine science, technology, and the arts in a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach. Driving the Human will produce seven tangible prototypes responding to complex contemporary scenarios, relying on an expanded expert and knowledge network. The project had its kick off event with the Driving the Human Opening Festival in November 2020.

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.

For more information: drivingthehuman.com