Keystone
What position do artwork and design play in a digitalized world? And the way can we stay human within the face of fast technological developments? The Refresh Competition in Zurich addresses these questions.
An island nation is sinking into the ocean – and needs to turn out to be a very digital nation. Self-driving automobiles exchange drivers – and are steered by human design. Expertise can curb local weather change – and is driving it on the identical time.
These contradictory developments are preoccupying us in the present day. To get nearer to them, artists and designers are giving an perception into their work on the sixth version of the Refresh Competition. Zurich College of the Arts (ZHdK) is opening its doorways from October 2 to five. The overarching theme is “Futures of Uncertainties” or unsure future prospects.
Of island states and automobiles
Marina Otero Verzier, an architect who teaches in New York, will probably be speaking in regards to the unsure way forward for the island state of Tuvalu within the Pacific Ocean. It can quickly be uninhabitable on account of rising sea ranges. The federal government is now preventing to protect Tuvalu, at the least digitally. This interface between digital infrastructure and local weather disasters is Otero Verzier’s space of experience.
The artwork collective Fragmentin from Lausanne additionally operates at an interface. On the Refresh Competition, it will likely be exploring the position of design within the age of automation. As a result of even when techniques equivalent to self-driving automobiles are automated, they solely perform by human guidelines, coaching and supervision – and are subsequently nonetheless formed by design selections.
Guests fascinated about know-how may also enter right into a dialog with ZHdK graduate Marcel Rickli. He’ll present how know-how can assist the struggle in opposition to local weather change, but additionally the way it must be critically scrutinized. His venture revolves across the controversial matter of geoengineering, for instance the deflection of daylight or the elimination of CO2 from the ambiance.
An area for dialog
“Amongst different issues, this 12 months is about how information and know-how form us as people and as a neighborhood,” says Maike Thies from the ZHdK, who co-founded the pageant, in an interview with the Keystone-SDA information company. However she additionally desires to point out how the humanities and design can actively form the longer term.
The Refresh Competition is an initiative of the Design Division and the Immersive Arts House at ZHdK. The curator is anticipating round 2,500 individuals over the following few days of the pageant, as within the final version. “We do not wish to get a lot larger than that,” she says. In spite of everything, it is crucial that guests can trade concepts with one another and with the worldwide company.
The occasion is subsequently meant to create house to debate the urgent problems with our time. In recent times, this has appealed to high school lessons, college students, households, older individuals and artistic professionals from throughout Switzerland.
“We wish to carry collectively as many goal teams and generations as doable,” says Thies. And one factor is obvious: so as to overcome the risks and challenges of local weather change and advancing technologization, new initiatives from the fields of artwork and design are additionally wanted.
