Exhibition Designing Hope

NODE17 Forum for Digital Arts covered an extensive exhibition and arts & mediation program for people of all ages. More than 30 artists exhibited and shared their work and knowledge with the audience.

The exhibition around the NODE17 festival leitmotif “Designing Hope” gathered international artists who reflected on hope and its making. Their works confronted us with utopian and dystopian narrations, with investigations into the structures of design processes and politics, with ironic comments on simplistic promises and with promising eccentric hacks into our everyday life. The arts program was complemented with a series of presentations, artistic research projects, performances and educational activities for people of all ages and backgrounds.

 

On Designing Hope

 

Hope fuels our actions to change the present and aspire for a better future. Hope bears transformative power and is in itself a creative and formative force. The hopeful mind does not give up but continues to invent solutions for problems it is faced with. It constantly imagines alternatives for the given, utopias that have the potential of becoming true. But this restless pursuit of the better is what makes hope a bittersweet pill, as it makes us endure the worst just for the sake of hoping that some day things might change, as long as we continue working and fighting for it. Hope is what’s left to humankind after Pandora opened her mythical box. The great evils escaped torturing us from then on – however, hope remained. The question raised is whether hope is the means to challenge all evils or, as German philosopher Nietzsche would put it, the greatest evil of them all? Either way: Hope is a mighty force.

 

This is what makes it so appealing to designers, politicians and advertisers. Hope can be used and abused by stirring up fears or amplifying confidence. The tools for this are the rhetorics of hope which manifest in images and imaginaries or in endless speeches peppered with the adequate keywords and delivered in the right tone. Technologies play a crucial part in this, as they are invented and used to maintain these rhetorics. At the same time they are also subject to our hopes. Although we don’t follow a modernist idea of technological progress leading to a brighter future anymore, we still engineer our world to tackle ecological, political and social deficits.

 

Artists

With worksy by:

ADAM HARVEY, ALACOQUE NTOME, AMELIA MARZEC, AMELIE HINRICHSEN, AWUOR ONYANGO, BENEDIKT GROSS & JOEY LEE, BENJAMIN VAN BEBBER, BURAK ARIKAN, CÉSAR ESCUDERO ANDALUZ & MARTÍN NADAL, EDEN MITSENMACHER, ELSE TUNEMYR, FELIX KOSOK, FLORIAN EGERMANN, GOLAN LEVIN & SHAWN SIMS, HEATH BUNTING, JARED ONYANGO, JEREMY BAILEY, JULES LAPLACE, KATHIA VON ROTH, LAB[AU], LAUREN MCCARTHY, LEO HOFMANN, LILIAN NEJATPOUR & SIMON WECKERT, LUDWIG ZELLER & BERND HOPFENGÄRTNER, MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST & NATAN SINIGAGLIA, MELISA ALLELA, MIKA SATOMI & HANNAH PERNER-WILSON (KOBAKANT), MILAD FOROUZANDEH, MOHSEN HAZRATI, KOLLEKTIV NEUE DRINGLICHKEIT, ONFORMATIVE, PINAR YOLDAS, TEGA BRAIN AND MANY MORE

 
 
 

Funding

 

 

 

Team

Curated by: Alexandra Waligorski & Jeanne Charlotte Vogt
Art Mediation: Alexandra Waligorski, Begüm Inal, Katharina Bitz, Katharina Steins, Marie Trabandt, Martina Sander, Olga Luchanok, Verena Kuni

Hope Lab, Digital Debate Lab and exchange programs were funded by

 

Artist Talks & Workshops and more

Special Projects

Adam Harvey

Alacoque Ntome

Amelia Marzec

Amelie Hinrichsen

Awuor Onyango

Burak Arikan

Benedikt Gross

Joey Lee

Benjamin van Bebber

César Escudero Andaluz

Martín Nadal

Golan Levin

Eden Mitsenmacher

Else Tunemyr

Dr. Felix Kosok

Heath Bunting

Jared Onyango

Jeremy Bailey

Kathia von Roth

LAb[au]

Lauren McCarthy

Leo Hofmann

Lilian Nejatpour

Simon Weckert

Ludwig Zeller

Bernd Hopfengärtner

Marshmallow Laser Feast

Natan Sinigaglia

Melisa Allela

Mika Satomi

Hannah Perner-Wilson

Milad Forouzandeh

Mohsen Hazrati

onformative

Pinar Yoldas

Tega Brain