Description of This Research Track
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 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
ESDIT on the Dissenter Podcast
“The Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies; An Introduction” – New Open Access Book
Just Perceive: How Phenomenology and the Arts Can Guide Us in the Tech Era – seminar recording now available
Related Events
Just Perceive: How Phenomenology and the Arts Can Guide Us in the Tech Era – Online Seminar
Within the ESDiT (Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies) project, the working group on “Just Perceive: How Phenomenology and the Arts Can Guide Us in the Tech Era” as part of the series “Attending as practice in the attention economy”.
People Involved
Coordination team
Participants
| Caroline Bollen |
| Dr. Lorina Buhr |
| Dr. Matthew Dennis |
| Dr. Aafke Fraaije |
| Dr. Lily Frank |
| Dr. Andrea Gammon |
| Alessio Gerola |
| Dr. Nolen Gertz |
| Dr. Janna van Grunsven |
| Dr. Julia Hermann |
| Dr. Michaela Honauer |
| Maaike van der Horst |
| Dr. James Hutton |
| Prof. dr. Wijnand IJsselsteijn |
| Dr. Steven Kraaijeveld |
| Dr. Elizabeth O’Neill |
| Anna van Oosterzee |
| Patricia Reyes Benavides |
| Dr. Birna van Riemsdijk |
| Julia Rijssenbeek |
| Prof. dr. Sabine Roeser |
| Dr. Steffen Steinert |
| Dr. Chris Wareham |
