Dystopie/Utopie-Abend - Innovative Citizen Festival 2024

In the organizer's words:

From dystopia to utopia - shaping futures together

New methods, materials and technologies have always changed our environment and our lives. Almost all new developments have both advantages and disadvantages. Depending on how we use them and talk about them, they can give us hope or scare us. We have invited three scientists from very different fields to present their personal dystopias. Get ready for (entertaining) worst-case scenarios. But of course we don't want to stop there. Together and with AI support, we want to develop positive narratives and motivating utopias from these dystopias in order to start the weekend full of hope.
Drinks and snacks will be provided.

Mascha Gugganig is...
...a social and cultural scientist who researches the role of technology and science in agriculture. From genetic engineering to indoor farming to digitalization, she deals with the question of which technologies and forms of knowledge are being promoted for sustainable agriculture and how actors from agriculture, politics, science and industry negotiate these debates. She also develops art-based research methods and creative participation formats at the interface between science and society.

Indoor Vertical Farming: from urban techno-utopias to feeding the world
Indoor vertical farming is often praised in the media, politics and business as the promising future of urban food production. The possibility of cultivating plants by precisely regulating light, nutrients, water, CO2, etc., while minimizing pesticides and water consumption sounds promising in times of climate change and resource scarcity. But is IVF just another techno-utopian vision of the future, towards even more controlled "mass plant production"? Based on social science research, the lecture will examine the promises of UVF representatives and critical voices in order to ask: whose utopias are being cultivated here and what are alternative visions of future food production?

Price information:

The talk is free of charge. Please register for the event by e-mail: innovative-citizen@fraunhofer.de