Program

Complex challenges need collaborative action. Man made climate change challenges established divisions and professional certitudes. CityClimate meets CreativeCoding started over a year ago by inviting collaborations on a cross-professional and international scale. For the Festival we have sought another collaboration with the Centre for Urban Science and Policy at Delft University of Technology. In the opening panel we discuss what can happen at the intersection of art and science in a time of crisis, what expectations we have and what challenges we face and why transdisciplinary research is crucial for urban transformation in the face of the climate crisis. 

   
Speakers:Sebastian Brünger, Carissa Champlin, Maria Oiva
Moderation: Hilke Marit Berger

What if city planning was automated according to local climate data? What if urban development prioritized trees over cars and the health of the ecosystem over human comfort and the economy? How would city planning change if we relinquished control to non-human actors? What trade-offs and compromises will we have to make in the face of the climate crisis?

The City Robot Lab HIATUS team have considered these questions and implemented a unique and radical proposal. The HIATUS robots move autonomously through Hamburg planting trees wherever they find urban heat islands, re-greening the city.

City Robot Lab are: Rico Herzog, Ieva Jakuša, Carolyn Kirschner, Maria Oiva, Robin Price, in consultation with GERICS: Gaby Langendijk and Vanessa Reinhart

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Waking the Giants was developed by Egyptian visual artist Aya Tarek and Swiss musician Simon Petermann as a multimedia installation exhibition in Cairo in 2022 to accompany the UN-Climate Conference COP 27. For CityClimate meets CreativeCoding Festival the artists have developed a lecture performance based on the original exhibition.

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Egyptian visual artist Aya Tarek and Swiss musician Simon Petermann present their own artistic perception of climate change by a melodic translation of data collected from the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, accompanied by an interweaving visual portrayal of flashes from societal collective perception of the apocalypse, transporting their audience to a reality whose formulation is no longer discreet. 'Waking the Giants is the envisioning of a reality concocted by scientific graphs and charts, a sneak peek on an alarming future in the making. 
 

By Aya Tarek & Simon Petermann

Produced by B’sarya for Arts, with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Egypt, Pro Helvetia Cairo - Swiss Arts Council, Swisslos – Kultur Kanton Bern, Kultur Stadt Bern, Fondation SUISA, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung. B'sarya for Arts is supported by AFAC through the ACE programme 2022. Media partner: NFTYScene

THE SHAPE OF US is a journey into your own past, present and future. A tale of loss and hope. A reminder of our connection with all living things. In a synthetic reality.

THE SHAPE OF US was developed by the German Lab for Soulful Civic education HeartWire in collaboration with Monobanda and funded by Robert Bosch Foundation with the aim of providing hands-on data on VR and educational practices. Scientific Partner: Institute for Art & Art Theory, University of Cologne

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Creative Lead and Emotional Design: Anna Mauersberger // Director VR: Niki Smit // Technical Lead: Wijnand van Tol // Storytelling: Anselm Maria Sellen // Coding & Planning: Charlotte Madelon // Original Soundtrack: Alex Simu // Sounddesign: Andy Mooney, Paradoxical Recording // Voice Mother Earth: Jennifer Sarah Boone // Conceptart & 3D Design: Aleksandra Bokova // Additional Coding: Rik de Rooij, Niels van Duivenvoorden, Lukas de Jonghe // Research Lead: Marie Schwarz, Embodied Learning Lab // Sound design installation: Lukas Ullrich // Set design installation: Sarah Wenzinger // Concept & project management: HeartWire.

https://www.heartwire.org/cases/theshapeofus

Visual Utopias are short animated films of the transformation of car-dominated streets into human-friendly places. Playfully and emotionally engaging, the films make urban transformation both concrete and creatively inspiring. With his artistic work, the Hamburg artist would like to contribute to a different way of looking at our world. May the changed view translate into action.

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By Jan Kamensky

https://visualutopias.com

Autonomous urban robots are starting to appear in European cities, with delivery-, scanning-, cleaning-, advertising-, security-, or waiter- robots being just some examples. Current development of most such robots is driven by commercial interests, with limited consideration for their impact on cities, communities, and ecosystems. In the Cities of Things Lab 010 (https://citiesofthings.nl), we take a different approach by treating urban robots as future co-citizens and advocating for their integration into democratic society and local civic communities. We've created a low-cost kit (www.hoodbot.nl) for co-prototyping neighborhood robots with input from citizens. Resulting prototypes show how robots can become part of and contribute to local communities. In the workshop, we will prototype climate-focused neighborhood bots for Hamburg's streets. We will explore the opportunities and risks posed by robotics developments in our cities, communities and ecosystems, and we will investigate how such robots can become enablers of bottom-up systemic change.

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By Tomasz Jaśkiewicz and Iskander Smit

Over 9% of the total area in Hamburg is designated as nature reserves. None of the wind turbines in Hamburg are located north of the river Elbe. Approximately 240 different beetle species inhabit the green roofs of the city. The non-material waste from the refuse of Hamburg's 1.8 million residents is incinerated 100% in two waste-to-energy plants and not deposited in landfills. Various data of the Hanseatic city can be accessed through the Urban Data Hub and other open data portals.

In this workshop, the Hamburg-based urban art artist Tasek, along with the participants, creates a data mural: Various data from the city of Hamburg are related to a design and implemented in the workshop using typical tools from urban art forms.

 At the end of the workshop, an image will aesthetically represent the data of the city of Hamburg.

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By Gerrit Peters/ Tasek

We are looking for the Urban Digitope! What does it look like? Big, small; ex- or inclusive, stingy or generous?

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The Urban Digitope is a game between digital and physical space of the city. An inexhaustible source of urban processes. The game narrates the climate crisis and its possible results in cities. Its aim is to raise awareness for such challenges and create collaborative practices to find solutions by learning to switch perspectives, discuss beyond your discipline and find consensus through practice.

A Serious Game developed by the City Science Lab Hamburg

Different professions often speak different languages and professionals from climate science and art might look and hear things differently. We use the occasion of this meeting of the worlds of science and art to invite some of our guest experts to a feedback session, to articulate and discuss their viewing experiences and interests during the Festival.

A panel talk with art historian and curator Anja Heitzer, Gaby Langendijk, climate scientist at DELTARES in Delft/NL and Grit Martinez, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institut in Berlin where she teaches Environmental Policy.

Moderation: Jan-Philipp Possmann

On the last day of the festival the artist Anne Schneider and her colleagues Franziska Pierwoss and Iris Minich invite us to a workshop-parcours to reminisce and reflect the past days in a series of playful and discursive  interactions.

By Anne Schneider and MischPULK
https://www.intervisions.info/

Citizen AI explores a possible near future, where the climate politics of Hamburg is transferred to a citizen council advised by scientists, an AI and a system dynamics model. Governments worldwide have prioritized the short-term gain of industry and capital at the expense of environmental health and the survival of countless species – could an AI and a scientifically informed citizen councilset new standards for a humanist politics?

The work consists of an intervention in public space with a poster campaign claiming that an AI will take over Hamburg's climate policy and a performative installation where visitors can discuss proposed measures against climate change, select a set of measures and evaluate their effectiveness. The project is a provocation, an experiment and a search for a way to deal with the massive failure of human politicians in responsible climate policy.

Thu. 05.10.2023, 15:00-17:00

In addition, on the second festival day Mikala Hyldig will invite audiences to engage in conversation with the ECO-ORACLE, an AI persona driven by a deep commitment to the preservation of our planet. ECO-ORACLE stands as a testament to the convergence of technology, ecological consciousness, and the urgent need for systemic change.

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Concept: Birk Schmithüsen, Mikala Hyldig Dal, Nina Maria Stemberger

System Dynamics: Rico Herzog

Climate Scientist: Gaby Langendijk

Stage Design: Anna Satu Kaunisto

​Images and Videos: Mikala Hyldig Dal

Web Programming: Jakob Wierzba

AI programming: Daniel Franke

Production: Isabella Jahns

Documentation: Alfonso Morales

Concept and programming ECO-ORACLE: Mikala Hyldig Dal and Daniel Franke, with support by ArtesMobiles (Birk Smithhüsen and Nina Maria Stemberger)

In the year 2050, the emergence of a new species is noted in the HafenCity area of Hamburg. What conditions enable its growth? What will its impact be? Has rapid environmental change and the rising waters helped or hindered this invasive new species? 

This guided tour takes you through Europe’s largest urban development project and investigates invisible relations in its unique ecosystem. It enables an imaginative near-future vision of Hamburg, as it experiences a climate crisis. By combining artistic and technological approaches GOOD BYE HAMBURG integrates a pipeline of state-of-the-art AI models, site-specific storytelling and climate data.

Immerse yourself in a visual narrative that unveils a potential future, revealing how your surroundings might be dramatically transformed by the climate crisis. Witness the power of innovation and exploration as we embark on this extraordinary journey of discovery together

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Fabiola Kuonen: Directing, Text & Performance

Ilja Mirsky: Dramaturgy, Project lead

Meredith Thomas: Creative Technologist

Jakob Wierzba: Design & Code

Julius Gervelmeyer: Technical concept

Sean Keller: Outside Eye

Lorin Brockhaus: Music

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Asunder responds to a growing interest in the application of AI to critical environmental challenges by situating this approach as a literal proposition, combining state of the art climate and environmental simulation technology, a 144 CPU super-computer and Machine Learning image-making techniques. The result is a fictional 'environmental manager' that proposes and simulates future alterations to the planet to keep it safely within planetary boundaries, with what are often completely unacceptable or absurd results. In doing so, Asunder questions assumptions of computational neutrality, our increasingly desperate reach for techno-solutionist fixes to planetary challenges, and the broader ideological framing of the environment as a system. 

For CityClimate meets CreativeCoding Festival the artists have combined the original three channel video into a single projection. 

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By Tega Brain, Julian Oliver, and Bengt Sjölén

Commissioned by the MAK for the VIENNA BIENNALE 2019. All exhibition views above from UNCANNY VALUES. Artificial Intelligence & You, MAK Vienna, 2019

https://asunder.earth/

We advocate more functional use of roof spaces in the city of Hamburg. 

The goal of obenstadt is to promote more roof uses in Hamburg as a habitat for all living things. In order to draw attention to this potential in our everyday lives and at the same time make it accessible to everyone, obenstadt e.V. organizes a wide range of activities and (cultural) events for the general public and experts.

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https://obenstadt.de/

By the year 2070, parts of Rotterdam will experience frequent flooding caused by rising sea levels and intense heavy rainfall events. This hands-on exhibit presents the dilemmas of people living in a Rotterdam neighborhood who are grappling with an uncertain future for their community. Through the use of embedded AI, we show how participation can be done in the future to include values and local knowledge in urban planning and decision making. The installation aims to highlight the flow of citizen-generated data from neighborhood buzz into a high-stakes municipal board room. The installation consists of three experimental devices, each demonstrating novel forms of collection and use of citizen input in a city planning process.

The participAIte project was developed by Delft University of Technology Masters students in the Interactive Technology Design course. It serves as an extension of Citizen Voice, an open-source platform for public participation and citizen engagement that aims to ensure all voices are heard in decisions that shape the future of cities.

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Exhibit coordinators: Juliana Goncalves, Tomasz Jaśkiewicz, Carissa Champlin 

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Students from Interactive Technology Design course: Betsie Loeffen, Joris Dietz, Robin Smits, Maartje Roggeveen, Ryan Tsai, Virginia Facciotto, Valentina Guadagno, Kumsal Kurt, Sander Aalbers, Charlotte De Jonghe 

Additional support: Willemijn van Hagen (graphic design), Mert Akay (map design)

Organisms Democracy is a model project currently running in three cities to bring all species together on equal terms within a political system. During the workshop, methods and techniques of practicing empathy, representing and debating in the name of more-than-human species will be offered, discussed and tried out by the participants of the workshop. Issues of urban development, globalization and climate crisis will be addressed from more-than-human perspectives.

Is there a way to imagine a city of which all living beings are equal citizens? By what right have more-than-human city dwellers been deprived of any civil rights so far? And what kind of results has this exclusion generated in terms of quality and resilience of the city ecosystem? What would change in urban planning and in everyday urban life if the Chinese Mitten Crab, the White Poplar and the Mud Dauber Wasp were allowed to have a say in how the ecosystem of Hamburg should evolve? How could it work to make the realities and needs of other living beings part of the political process?

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By Club Real

https://organismendemokratie.org

With city temperatures reaching upwards of 70C, we are cooking our cities well done (CNN, 2023). Dealing with intensifying heat in our cities requires broad participation and solutions must be evidence-based. From designing methods for citizen engagement (metaplanning) to co-creating interventions for cool streetscapes (microplanning), experience how the principles of mixing-and-matching, gamification, co-creation and scientific knowledge come together to make the planning of resilient urban cities and spaces more feasible, desirable and engaging.

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By Carissa Champlin and Alina Kaiser / Centre for Urban Science and Policy at TU Delft

Humans are playful creatures. All the basics that we’ve learned to live, thrive and grow as individual beings we gained through play. There is simply no good reason to stop playing games. Gaming increases your motivation, knowledge and skills. A good design can foster cooperation as strangers team up to tackle wicked problems or it can challenge players to compete against each other. But games can also be boring, over complicated and turn peoples minds off the task or the topic for good.

This panel discusses the positive effects, and the challenges on how to use serious games as a research tool.

With Johanna Fischer, Carissa Champlin, Juliana Gonçalves, Rico Herzog

Moderation: Hilke Marit Berger

The film program presents selected archival and current films which focus on cities’ struggles with rising sea level and floods. The films present different ways to raise public awareness and less academic strategies to cope with spatial transformations and their impact on everyday life: They celebrate ambitious technical solutions against flooding, mourn about abandoned cities or call for the sea to be understood as a new habitat. This comparative view on communicative aspects of water-cities’ strategies invites us to discuss the connection between climate change, technical solutions, and the impact both may have in the future on space and society.

By/with Luca Iourio, film archivist and doctorate in urbanism at TU Delft, Janina Kriszio, visual anthropologist and researcher on potentials of documentary film in urban planning processes, Kristin Siebert, freelance film director and author for TV-documentaries and Jan-Ph. Possmann, cultural researcher.