new CIVIC

Humboldt Futures offers a globally accessible co-creative gaming platform for exchange and participative collective production in order to negotiate dystopian and to envision positive cultural futures.
Humboldt Futures is an experimentation space for ideating the future of museums.
Humboldt Futures is a collaboration between gamelab.berlin and Hybrid Space Lab.

Dinner Humboldt Futures @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin 11 January 2024
Workshop Ideation, Presentation & Discussion Humboldt Futures @ Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 12 January 2024

festCITY consists of a radical, situated approach to embed festival and cultural events into the city. It entails a process-oriented think-tank to sustainably integrate festivals and festival designing and making into the environment, with a crossover, hybrid approach that combines Berlin’s (bio)diversity leveraging unexpected encounters and combinations from the cultural and tech fields.

Lecture FESTcity, Town Hall Meeting #1 @ betahaus, Berlin, 22 March 2023

Animal Club connects creatives, ecologists, biologists, artists, philosophers and other experts with professionals from the club scene to generate new concepts and develop new business models for a sustainable future of clubbing and culture.

Presentation, Workshop, Panel, Party @ Amsterdam Dance Event @ SEXYLAND World, Amsterdam, 16.00-24.00, 2022

Animal Club connects creatives, ecologists, biologists, artists, philosophers and other experts with professionals from the club scene to generate new concepts and develop new business models for a sustainable future of clubbing and culture.

Presentation, Workshop, Panel & Party Animal Club, Co-Hosted by VibeLab @ Amsterdam Dance Event, SEXYLAND World, 1 Noordwal, 1021 PX Amsterdam, 20 October 2022

The notion of a circular city has taken to occupy center stage as a main concept for sustainable zero-waste urban futures. And yet, as one takes a closer look, the circle expands in multiple ripples and loops, revealing the sheer complexity that envisioning – let alone developing – circular cities entail.

Presentation & Workshop Cities in the Loop: Re-coding the Circular City @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 1 July 2022
Presentation & Workshop zirkularKIEZ @ Bits & Bäume 2022 Conference for Digitization and Sustainability, Technical University Berlin, 2 October 2022

What are engaging, inclusive, and sustainable hybrid formats and spaces for art and culture?
For the German Federal Cultural Fund Hybrid Space Lab developed a workshop on the hybrid future of culture.

Hybrid Workshop “The Future is not Digital. Hybrid is the Future!” @ Kulturstiftung des Bundes, HoloLab – dive in Program for Digital Interaction, Halle an der Saale, Germany 14 October 2021

Focussing on rereading the cityscape, granting visibility and recognition to voices and histories previously silenced, the program focuses on fostering memory-making and processing through the development of innovative, participatory methods that do not physically touch the spaces involved.

Lectures & Workshop Resignify City @ Media Architecture Biennale 2021, Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 24 June 2021

Club Futures is an international laboratory with the aim of developing new perspectives for the club and cultural scene.

Exchange, Ideation, Research, Panels, Parties, Prototyping, Workshops @ Club Futures, Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin & Amsterdam, 2022~2023

Hybrid Platforms develops con­cepts and ideas for new cultural formats and is organized and curated by the NRW KULTURsekretariat and Hybrid Space Lab.

Workshop Hybrid Platforms @ Next Level Festival for Games & NRW KULTURsekretariat, Kokskohlenbunker, Zeche Zollverein, Essen, Germany, 14 November 2020

What is the relationship between city visions and urban concepts from the past and today’s Smart City narratives?

Lectures & Discussion Visions, Concepts and Narratives for the Networked City @ Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, 20 February 2020

Climate City explores how digital technologies contribute to addressing climate adaptation and develops digitalization strategies that take urban sustainability into account. Climate City focuses on digitally supported participatory climate adaptation and is committed to the idea that a smart city should be a climate-conscious city.

Lectures & Discussions Climate City @ Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, 20 November 2019

Kiez Lab is a hybrid (combined physical-digital) low-threshold cross-sector neighbourhood lab with inclusive co-creative formats to permanently bring local perspectives and civil society experiences into the digital transformation of the City of Berlin.

Publications, Presentation, Lectures & Workshops @ Alliance Digital City Berlin, Marlowes Online Magazin for Architectur and City, Berlin Science Week, Mein Berlin,Utopolis Federal Association for Social Culture, Academy for Media Arts, Berlin Cologne, Stuttgart, 2019-2022

We are experiencing a structural change in the function of diplomats due to the changing role of the nation state in our globalized and increasingly digital and networked world.
Future Diplomacy Lab creates an inspirational space to speculate on possible diplomacy applications by projecting onto diplomacy innovative digital solutions from numerous fields.

Lectures & Workshop Future Diplomacy Lab @ Diplomacy Camp, Embassy Kingdom of the Netherlands, Brussels, 7 February 2019

Water is the necessary resource for life. Human settlements have always been dependent upon access to clean water and its relative scarcity – freshwater makes up only 2.5% of water available on the earth – has awarded it the name ‘blue gold’. If world population increases as expected, hitting the 9 billions threshold by 2050, will water resources be sufficient?

Embassy Lab Water Conscious Fashion, @ Neonyt, Kraftwerk Berlin, 16 January 2019

What’s the future like? For professionals in the exhibition business this is a very relevant and difficult  problem. Because the future does not give us any objects yet.

Lecture Future Heritage Szenografie Colloquium 2019 @ DASA, Dortmund, Germany, 23-24 January 2019

Hybrid Biotope, a temporary co-working camp taking place at the Raketenstation Hombroich in spring 2019, explores the coming together and merging of nature and artefact and of artificial and organic life. The program focuses on developing speculative ideas for strengthening the Raketenstation Hombroich’s potential as a transdisciplinary intellectual-artistic laboratory, a Hybrid Biotope.

Research & Concept @ Rocket Station Hombroich, Germany, 1 April 2018

Fast-paced advances in technology are creating diffuse and volatile conditions in which international actors operate. Disruptive innovations such as machine learning and big data analytics are changing governments, NGOs, the media, businesses, and in some cases entire industries. New and unexpected players entering the field are putting pressure on the traditional division of roles between politics, business, journalism and civil society.

Lectures & Workshops Digital Diplomacy @ The Hague Digital Diplomacy Camp 2018 Un-Conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, The Hague, 2 February 2018

Hybrid Diplomacy designates the combining of traditional diplomacy and innovative diplomacy. Hybrid Diplomacy includes the collaboration between state and non-state actors in a network diplomacy that involves next to traditional diplomats and governments, also civil society and NGOs, businesses, international organizations, and other players. Hybrid Diplomacy addresses also the multiple hybridizations in the diplomatic field, including diplomatic practices that combine communication in physical space and social media, that deal with crossover issues, and that mediate in the interaction fields of different cultures.

Lectures, Workshop & Discussions Are You A Hybrid Diplomat ? @ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate-General for European Cooperation (DGES) & Innovation Team DARE, The Haag, The Netherlands, 18 January 2018

Recent developments such as Internet of Things, Big Data and Machine Intelligence will algorithmically organize life, including urban nature. These developments in technology and media are supporting the development of a new hybrid architecture where architecture and nature fuse.

Lecture NatureTecture @ V2 Institute for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, 9 April 2017

Accelerating international tourism is contributing to the global prosperity and enabling intercultural exchange. Tourism is also causing congestion at its destinations, increasing the global ecological footprint, threatening local cultural traditions and upsetting established companies with flexible ‘asset-light’ digital disruptive models and start ups.

Research & Lecture Fu-Tourism @ ARTez, Arhem, The Netherlands, 10 November 2016

International interdisciplinary lab researches the potential of curating as co-creating with the public as well as the transformations of the role of the expert curator.

Lectures, Discussions & Workshops Embassy Lab Co-Creating the City @ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, 14 October 2016
Ikarian-Cretan Dinner @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 18.00-23.00, 14 October 2016

Our current geological age is being described as “anthropocene”, as the epoch during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
But we do not need to consider a “longue durée” historical approach, giving priority to long-term historical structures over events.
Todays’ world is witnessing an unforeseen acceleration of environmental changes with a growing human influence on biodiversity and ecosystems with species extinction and climate change.

Exhibition NatureTecture @ Beijing Media Art Biennale, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, 24 September – 30 October 2016
Lecture & Workshop NatureTecture @ Beijing Design Week 2016,  Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 30 September 2016

Embassy Lab Future Diplomacy brings together experts from the Harvard J. F. Kennedy School of Government, the Académie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris, Global Diplomacy Lab, the German Federal Office, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, international diplomats, creative professionals, and other experts.
Digital tools enable and support participative practices and networks, trespassing all borders. In our globalized world, a whole range of transnational webs perform independently and often with no connection to the traditional channels of diplomacy.

Lectures, Discussions & Workshops Embassy Lab Future Diplomacy @ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, 7 October 2016

Highly innovative, creative and pragmatic Dutch approach to develop technology solutions for global challenges at the Hannover Messe 2014.
The Netherlands, this year’s partner country of Hannover Messe, will present the Holland Smart City House as part of the Metropolitan Solutions trade fair from Monday 07 April to Friday 12 April 2014.

Television Program: Interviews, Lectures, Talks & Discussions @ Hannover Messe, Hannover, Germany, 7-10 April 2014
Urban Screening Smart & the City @ Hannover Opera, Hannover, Germany, 7-10 April 2014

CRISISdesign innovates in and for situations of change and crisis for communities that need new infrastructures for daily life.

Lectures & Discussions Embassy Lab CRISIS design @ Metropolitan Solutions, CityCube, Berlin, 22 May 2015

The complexity of urban systems demands the involvement of different stakeholders at a very early stage, in order to identify the challenges and define objectives.

Public Lecture Program Embassy Lab Smart City Governance @ Metropolitan Solutions, CityCube, Berlin, 21 May 2015

Mobility+ investigates the synergies between Smart Mobility and the different systems of Smart City and addresses mobility in all of its dimensions, incorporating topics such as Urban Service Design, Smart Tourism, Smart Retail, Healthy & Smart Cities, and Clean Tech.

Public Lecture & Workshop Program Embassy Lab Mobility+ @ BMW Welt, Munich, 25 February 2015

Embassy Lab Co-Operative is a one-day program for the Berlin visit of the Dutch Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ronald Plasterk, February 23rd 2015.
Next to his meeting with the German Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Barbara Hendricks, Minister Ronald Plasterk visited Berlin urban initiatives, cooperatives and participation movements to discuss them the potential of urban co creation.

Discussions & Visits Embassy Lab Co-Operative @ Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Berlin, 23 February 2015

A workshop focusing on the revitalization of the generic Greek modern apartment buildings “polykatoikies” was organized by the Athens Municipality and curated by Hybrid Space Lab within the framework of the Co-Creating Athens project.
The workshop was opened by Athens Mayor Yiorgos Kaminis and the Dutch Ambassador Jan Versteeg.

Lectures & Workshop Rebooting Athens @ Co-Creating the City, City of Athens, 14 December 2014

Co-Creating Athens is a field trip for international city-makers to visit and exchange with Athens urban initiatives.

Lectures & Workshop Incubator City @ City of Athens, 13 December 2014
Lectures & Workshop Workshop Co-Creating the City @ City of Athens & Pakhuis de Zwijger, Athens, 10-13 December 2014

Copying is the strategy of cultural evolution.
Cross-fertilization, borrowing other’s ideas and incorporating elements of other’s culture into one’s own is crucial to cultural development.

Lecture Co-Thenticity @ Dutch Design Institute, Beijing Design Week, Beijing, 28 september 2011

3D printing has developed from a specialized industry to a low cost technology that everyone can use to produce objects.
The digital blue prints of the machines and objects are designed in 3D software and can be shared via digital networks.
3D printing allows industrial production on a desktop scale enabling autonomous production for individuals and designers.

Workshop & Lecture Prosumer Technology Hybrid Design @ Beijing Design Week 2011, Building 5 No.4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China, 27 September-1 October 2011

Design culture is obsessed with authenticity.
Copying is often deemed reprehensible, and borrowing another’s idea or incorporating elements of his or her work into one’s own is viewed as a sign of creative impoverishment. But is this right?
Hybridization is an evolutionary strategy of cumulative, dynamic cultures that are based on intercultural connections and fostered by cross-fertilization.

Lecture Hybrid Culture @ Beijing Design Week 2011, Dutch Design Foundation, Symposium Copy Culture, 798, Beijing, 27 September 2011

The workshop focused on hybrid space and its notations.
Participants included architects, urbanists, landscape architects, software and hardware engineers, philosophers, theatre makers and media artists. The workshop tackled the hybridity and complexity of urban environments, relying on a wide range of fields of expertise and artistic approaches.

Publication, Workshop, Installation & Lectures FuTourism @ Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, Poland, 3 April 2011

Is there no security in the global world? The longing for more certainty in an increasingly complex world – and innovative solutions for coping.
Trust and certainty play an increasingly important role for people in the globalized world.

Publication, Research & Lecture Architecture of Succession @ European Forum Alpbach, Austria, 1 August 2006

For a week, from 8 till 15 October 1999, a boat descended the Rhine, the archetypal symbol of the connection between Germany and the Netherlands, as reBoot a floating media-laboratory, from Cologne on its way to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Concerts, Screenings, Broadcasts, Performances, Projects & Research, Art & Media Lab reBoot @ KUNST NRW.NL, Motor Boat Carolina, The Rhine, Cologne~Amsterdam, 8-15 October 1999