UN_CTRL – Festival for Convivial Technologies and Arts

What technologies do we need – and how do we use them?

Every day, we use technologies that have a major impact on our lives. Yet they are often not developed with the goal of serving societal interests or taking ecological considerations into account. Instead, their development is most often driven by the interests of a few corporations. As users, we accept terms of service, generate data, and train systems – without having a say in their direction or being involved in their design. Yet these technologies shape our perception of time, they structure our work, our daily lives, and our way of being in the world. With the UN_CTRL Festival, the ZKM | Karlsruhe aims to explore how these technologies shape communities and how they can benefit them – in the spirit of living together in solidarity. The festival focuses on a participatory and open program featuring workshops, keynote talks, panel discussions, and performances designed for exploration and collaborative experimentation.

What defines technology?

Technologies are embedded in a social cosmos. Their useability depends on what we understand by community, progress, and knowledge – and the very term ‘technology’ itself is situated and context-dependent. We therefore want to think of technology in broader terms than just the digital realm, thereby inviting us to expand our toolbox. There is no single technological solution to global problems; what is needed is a diversity and plurality of technologies and tools that serve the interests of specific communities and fields of research. In doing so, we broaden our perspective beyond humans: What would technologies look like that are designed not only for us humans but in collaboration with other living beings – such as forests, rivers, fungal networks, and animals? We ask which knowledge systems – collective, local, indigenous – are made invisible by dominant technology platforms, and how art and research can make them visible.

Technologies for communal interests?

Artists, researchers, and community organizations worldwide are developing models that enable transparency, accountability, and fair access to technological tools. In dialogue with them, we explore the communal and creative use and repurposing of technologies and resources. How can economic systems, production, and cultural practices surrounding technologies be designed to be open-source, sovereign, and accessible – beyond capitalist structures and the pressure to increase productivity? Drawing on concrete projects, we present solidarity-based economies, sensory self-determination, and post-extractivist land use.