Description of This Research Line
The Art Track was established at the beginning of 2023 to facilitate research on the interplay between art and the ethics of disruptive technologies. The track stimulates research on art as well as research in collaboration with artists.
We organize regular meetings, where we discuss work-in-progress or invite external speakers. We also visit exhibitions together and organize occasional reading groups. In the long term, we aim to organize an ESDiT exhibition.
Example research: speculating about the artificial womb
“Monuments for future m/otherhood”. Immersive scenarios about the future artificial womb at Dutch Design Week, 2022. Design: Lisa Mandemaker. Photo: Max Kneevel.
What kind of research is the art track about? This is best illustrated with an example. ESDiT fellows Julia Hermann, Lily Frank, Naomi Jacobs and Llona Kavege, for example, collaborated with speculative designer Lisa Mandemaker, part of the Designlab Twente, and a range of other stakeholders to question the future of the artificial womb. This is an emerging reproductive technology that might allow human fetuses to develop outside of a human’s body in the future. Together with the designer, the researchers created immersive scenarios that raise ethical questions like: what does the artificial womb mean for our interpretation of motherhood or fatherhood? How will it change our relation to children? How will it affect the interpretation of gender-roles? This resulted in the installation “Monuments for future m/otherhood” that was presented at the Dutch Design Week 2022, which attracted over 350.000 visitors.
Do you want to get involved?
Do you want to get involved with the art track? We organize interactive online meetings about the art and ethics of disruptive technologies every 6-8 weeks. Examples of past events:
- June 2023. We discussed work in progress of ESDiT fellow Aafke Fraaije on how mother-artists can help us understand questions of intergenerational justice in times of climate change.
- May 2023. We read and gave feedback on a draft solarpunk screenplay by artists Ingvild Syntropia and Bruno Decc.
- March 2023. We discussed work in progress of ESDiT fellow Lorina Buhr on the photography of glacier retreat as a symbol of the concept ‘finitude’.
Please send us an email if you’d like to stay informed about future events (a.fraaije@tudelft.nl).
Related Projects
Art for Climate Solidarity [2022-2025]
Post-doc: Dr. Aafke Fraaije (a.fraaije@tudelft.nl)
Daily supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sabine Roeser (s.roeser@tudelft.nl)
Co-supervisor: Dr. Julia Hermann (j.s.hermann@utwente.nl)
Project Description
This project will study how artworks can contribute to fostering empathy, care, and solidarity in times of climate crisis.
The idea to be investigated in this postdoc-project is how artworks can contribute to emotional-moral deliberation on climate change, by invoking compassion, sympathy and care, by making crucial contributions to solidarity, and by making the intangible but urgent challenges of climate change more concrete.
Related Publications
Creating room for citizen perspectives in ‘smart city’ Amsterdam through interactive theatre Journal Article
In: vol. 7, no. 1, 2023, ISSN: 2399-8121.
Art for Public Engagement on Emerging and Controversial Technologies: A Literature Review Journal Article
In: Public Understanding of Science , vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 694–710, 2022.
Related News & Media
Aligning traffic with public values is complex—could navigation apps ‘nudge’ drivers to do better?
The Ethics of Artificial Wombs: an interview with Julia Hermann
The programme of the 4TU.Ethics/ESDiT Conference is live
Related Events
ESDiT Art Exhibition at the University of Twente
ESDiT Art Track’s Fellows are organizing the ESDiT exhibition, which will open during the ESDiT/4TUEthics “Rethinking Ethics—Reimagining Technology” conference on 2 October and close on 10 December. The exhibition, hosted by the University of Twente, approaches art as a form of philosophy of technology. Through the exhibition and related conference program, we’re investigating how art raises […]
People Involved
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