Category: News

Edited Volume out now!

We are pleased to announce the publication of “Making Media Futures. Machine Visions and Technological Imaginations” by Routledge. The book is edited by KHK c:o/re team members Phillip H. Roth, Ana María Guzmán Olmos, Alin Olteanu and Stefan Böschen.

Making Media Futures offers a multi-perspectival exploration of how imaginaries and knowledge of the future are constructed in and through various media.

The volume addresses the discursive dimensions of imaginaries and future visions as well as the impact of technological, material, and cultural conditions on the propagation of future discourses through media. Providing both theoretically detailed and empirically rich investigations, the contributions offer a wide range of cases spanning the century from the end of World War II until today and looking at examples from the Southern Hemisphere as well as the Global North. Bringing together scholars in media studies, science and technology studies (STS), and the history and philosophy of technology, the chapters discuss future visions and imaginations of quantum computing, the uncertainty and impact of AI-based text-to-image generation, the ideology behind 5G telecommunication standards, imaginaries of the Internet of Things, transmedia strategies in global and local climate protests, how broadcast radio was implicated in the evangelical mission imaginary, and how early visions of automating scholarly information management shaped standards and ideals of academia. The volume thus complements existing approaches and analytical frameworks for the study of imaginaries and futures discourses with perspectives that are sensitive to the plurality of media-specific conditions and technologies.

The book will interest students and scholars working in media studies, STS, history and philosophy as well as at the intersection of engineering, humanities and social sciences, on matters such as sustainability, ethics, and responsible innovation.

Have a look at the book on the publisher’s website here.

Second Funding Phase for the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re)

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has renewed funding for the KHK c:o/re at RWTH Aachen University for four more years.

The KHK c:o/re team, photo by Christian van’t Hoen

The KHK c:o/re is an international Center for Advanced Studies in philosophy, sociology and history of science and technology and the first Käte Hamburger Kolleg based at a technical university. Since 2021, it has explored the transformation of research cultures in science and technology and develops a methodological approach to strengthen the integration of the various disciplines in science and technology studies. This takes place in a close exchange between the humanities and social sciences and the life, natural, technical and engineering sciences.

Beginning in May 2025, the center will start its second funding phase under the direction of Professor Gabriele Gramelsberger and Professor Stefan Böschen with continued support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

“It’s just wonderful that the KHK gives us a platform that allows us such unusual freedom in our research,” says Gabriele Gramelsberger. “This has to do with a number of important boundary conditions. On the one hand, generous funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research allows us to invite a large number of fellows from all over the world every year to work with us on fundamental questions in science. Second, we have a great team that not only supports the work but also enables us to work together on our research goals. Finally, we receive exceptional support from the Rectorate of RWTH Aachen University, which regards the work of the Kolleg as an important asset for its strategy for excellence.”

The overall aim of the center is to investigate the impact of digitalization and globalization on contemporary research cultures, and to develop a theory of “cultures of research” from a situated, historical, and comparative perspective.

In the second funding phase, the basic research question is to what extent digitalization and globalization as universal drivers of transformation set in motion dynamics of standardization of science and “research cultures” – or whether the diversity of research cultures and the varieties of science are not increased precisely by digitalization and globalization. To address this question, the central concepts of “digitality/complexity,” “globality/varieties of science,” and “expanded science and technology studies” will be explored in three research lines in collaboration with international fellows.

“We can look forward to four more exciting years,” says Stefan Böschen. “We will certainly cultivate even more freedom for individual and joint research than we have done so far. In addition, the Kolleg allows us to further develop and strengthen our international networks related to our research topics. In this way, we hope not only to achieve insightful research results, but also to support the development of a special epistemic culture at our University.”


An interview with Gabriele Gramelsberger and Stefan Böschen looking back on the past funding phase and reflecting on the goals and expectations for the second phase can be found on our blog.

Theodore von Kármán Fellowship to Professor Victor de Lorenzo

Victor de Lorenzo, chemist and Professor of Research in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he currently heads the Laboratory of Environmental Synthetic Biology at the National Center for Biotechnology, has been awarded the Theodore von Kármán Fellowship by RWTH Aachen University.

Professor Lars Blank (Chair of Applied Microbiology) and KHK c:o/re director Professor Gabriele Gramelsberger jointly applied for the fellowship. The fellowship thus strengthens interdisciplinary cooperation in the field of biotechnology.

photo credits: Scienseed

The fellowship enables Victor de Lorenzo to spend two weeks at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) at RWTH Aachen University, where he will work on the project “Synthetic Biology: From Domination of the Natural World to Partnership and Negotiation”. This project proposes to explore synthetic biology not only as a tool for control, but also as a means to reimagine our interactions with the microbial world. Drawing parallels with the changing perception of animals in Western societies – from resources to sentient beings – it argues for developing a new epistemology for microbes, recognizing their agency and evolutionary narratives. By integrating science, philosophy, and art, this project seeks to anticipate and shape a new ethic of coexistence, negotiation, and compromise with the microbial world.

To present the outcomes of this fellowship, Victor de Lorenzo will give a public university lecture entitled “Design Meets Evolution: Theory and Practice” on May 13, 2025, from 5 to 6.30 pm, at the KHK c:o/re, Theaterstr. 75. For further information and registration, please have a look at the event here.

RWTH Kármán-Fellowships are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine Westphalia (MKW) under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder.

Get to know our Fellows: Harro van Lente

Get to know our current fellows and gain an impression of their research. In a new series of short videos, we asked them to introduce themselves, talk about their work at c:o/re and the research questions that fascinate them.

In this video, Harro van Lente, professor of science and technology studies (STS) at Maastricht University, presents his research on the role of promises and expectations in science and technology. He explores the notion of epistemic imaginaries, desirable outcomes within a field of research, how they influence scientists and institutions in deciding their disciplinary direction, and how they are changing in the face of current challenges such as climate change and globalization.

Check out our media section or our YouTube channel to have a look at the other videos.

Lecture Series Summer 2025: Expanding Science and Technology Studies

We are happy to announce that the lecture series of the summer term 2025 will continue to explore the topic of expanding science and technology studies.

Over the decades, science and technology studies (STS) have developed many different approaches for investigating the relationship between science and society and to dig deep into the cultures of research, the ways science is conducted. For example, scholars have investigated the local cultures and politics underlying processes of knowledge production, the biases and gender divisions informing the organization of academic institutions, or the reception of future technological visions in different publics. There is a rich knowledge. However, it seems that science studies are not well prepared for the transformation challenge, a present-day topic that also affects science, knowledge societies, and the spread of knowledge. Against this background, the purpose of this lecture series is to understand first the transformation challenge and its consequences for science studies and second to explore different pathways of future science studies.  

The lecture series will begin on May 7, 2025 with a talk by Nina Frahm entitled “Innovation as Res Publica: The New Governance of Technoscience and its Politics”.

For an overview of the dates and speakers, please see the program.

The lecture series will take place every second Wednesday from 5 to 6.30 pm, in the lecture hall of the center and online via zoom.

If you would like to attend the lectures, please send a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Program

May 7, 2025Nina Frahm (Aarhus University): Innovation as Res Publica: The New Governance of Technoscience and its Politics
May 21, 2025Hannah Star Rogers (KHK c:o/re fellow): Expanding STS: Art, Science, and Technology Studies (ASTS)
June 18, 2025Bart Penders (Maastricht University): Metascience as the Social Hygiene Movement of Science Studies
July 2, 2025Daniela Wentz (KHK c:o/re fellow): Data Behaviorism: A History
July 16, 2025Carsten Reinhardt (Bielefeld University): How Uncertainty is Rendered Residual

Call for Papers: History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC) Conference

Submissions are open for the 8th edition of the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC) Conference that will take place on December 17-19, 2025, at RWTH Aachen University (Germany) on behalf of the DHST/DLMPST Commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC).

Important dates:

  • Submission deadline: May 25, 2025
  • Notification of acceptance/rejection: July 31, 2025
  • Conference: December 17-19, 2025

About the conference:

Since 2011, the biennial History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC) conference series has contributed to building an interdisciplinary community and environment to address the various facets of computing and computing technology. HaPoC aims to bring together scholars from a broad range of disciplines to discuss the past and present cultures, practices and images of computing.

We welcome contributions from researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds, such as history, philosophy, sociology, computer science and software engineering, cultural and media studies, computational sciences, design and art. We invite contributors to share their expertise in respective areas and openly engage in interdisciplinary discussions. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Historical and philosophical dimensions of computing practices
  • Social and cultural aspects of computing
  • Computing and the arts
  • New forms of computing, such as neuromorphic computing
  • Ethical and legal aspects of computing
  • Reflecting and historicizing AI

We look forward to submissions by scholars from all career stages and aim at diversity of participants in terms of demographics that include gender, career stage/track, geographical location, and institutional affiliation.

Find out more on the HaPoC website (with links to past conferences).

Submission procedure:

Please submit to hapoc2025@khk.rwth-aachen.de a 2-page proposal in PDF format containing:

  • an anonymized abstract (1 page, ca. 700 words) for double-blind review
  • a max. 1-page statement of your name, affiliation, research focus, academic activities and optionally publications (max. 5).

Acceptance notifications will be sent by July 31, 2025.

There are no conference fees and travel grants will be offered to early career scholars, further information will follow.

We look forward to meeting you at HaPoC-8 in Aachen!

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Robin K. Hill, University of Wyoming, US
Alexandre Hocquet, Université de Lorraine, France

Confirmed Members of the Program Committee:

Arianna Borrelli, TU Berlin and RWTH Aachen, Germany
Jianqing Chen, Washington University at Saint Louis, US
Jack Copeland, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ
Beatrice Fazi,  University of Sussex, UK
Gabriele Gramelsberger, RWTH Aachen, Germany
Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, US
Andrei Korbut, CAIS Center for Advanced Internet Studies Bochum, Germany
Ben Peters, University of Tulsa, US
Mate Szabo, University of Southern California, US

Local Organising Committee at RWTH Aachen University:

Gabriele Gramelsberger (philosophy of science)
Stefan Böschen (sociology of science)
Dawid Kasprowicz (philosophy of science)
Phillip Roth (science and technology studies)
Saskia Nagel (ethics of science)
Torsten Voigt (science and technology studies)

Find the Call as a pdf document here.

Event Announcement: Workshop “After Networks: Reframing Scale, Reimagining Connections”

We cordially invite you to the interdisciplinary workshop “After Networks: Reframing Scale, Reimagining Connections”, which will take place on April 16 and 17, 2025 at the SuperC of RWTH Aachen University. The event is organized in collaboration with Nathalia Lavigne, who is currently a fellow at the KHK c:o/re.

Abstract

In the last few years, we have witnessed an unprecedented crisis in the way social interactions have merged with the informational space. The current “space of the world”, as the artificial space of social media platforms has been called (Couldry, 2025), is designed and controlled by corporations with strictly business purposes, putting at risk a sense of community in a devastating way. How can the future of the internet be imagined beyond social media platforms? What can we learn from other networks or other notions of space devised by artists? In which ways can digital communication be grounded on equity, common ownership and sustainability? These are some of the questions that will be addressed during the workshop.

The interdisciplinary program, combining art and internet studies, puts together different approaches on how science and technology are configured in other spheres beyond academia. Gathering scholars, artists and activists who have been working on disruptive understanding of digital systems, this two-day event will discuss alternative ways to reimagine connections in contrast to increasingly monopolistic and financially motivated social media platforms.

The workshop includes an opening artist talk with Eduardo Kac, a keynote speech with the media scholar Lori Emerson, who is launching her new book “Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook” (Anthology Editions, 2025) and a round table focused on a community-centered perspective of networks.

The full program can be found in this document.

If you would like to attend, please register with: events@khk.rwth-aachen.de

Speakers

Photo credits: Maria Silvano

Tatiana Bazzichelli is the founder and director of the Disruption Network Lab, a non-profit organisation in Berlin that explores the intersection of politics, technology and society (www.disruptionlab.org). Her work focuses on whistleblowing, network culture, art and activism. Since September 2023 she is the director of the Disruption Network Institute: Investigating the Kill Cloud, a new centre for investigation and empirical research into the impact of artificial intelligence on new technologies of war, automated weapons and networked warfare (https://disruption.institute). She is the author of Whistleblowing for Change (2021), Networked Disruption (2013), Disrupting Business (2013) and Networking (2006). She was a member of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Award Committee 2020. In 2019-2021, she was appointed by the Federal Government and the City of Berlin as a jury member for the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Capital Cultural Fund), and in 2020-2023 she was a jury member for the Kulturlichter Prize, a new award for digital cultural education in Germany. For three years until 2014, she was a curator at the transmediale art & digital culture festival in Berlin, where she developed the year-round programme reSource transmedial culture Berlin and curated several conferences, workshops and art projects.

Photo credits: Doro Zinn

Lisa Deml [she/her] is an independent curator and writer based in Berlin. Initially trained as a journalist, she subsequently worked for public institutions and non-profit organisations, including Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. Most recently, she curated the exhibition ‘Like Snow in the Middle of Summer’ with works by the Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué as part of Manifesta 15 (Granollers, 2024) and the international symposium ‘After Memory’ in collaboration with Víctor Fancelli Capdevila and Nathalia Lavigne and in partnership with ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, 2024). As of March 2025, Marie-Sophie Dorsch and her are joint artistic directors of Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V.

Photo credits: Jenna Maurice

Lori Emerson is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and Associate Chair of Graduate Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is also the Founding Director of the Media Archaeology Lab. Her most recent book is Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook (Anthology Editions, 2025), now available for pre-order. She is also co-author of The Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies (with Darren Wershler and Jussi Parikka), author of Reading Writing Interfaces, and co-editor of three collections. Her research focuses on uncovering crisis points in past media, or, points at which there was the possibility, never fully realized, for technologies to become “other” than what they are now. Lori Emerson also tries to undo established narratives of how contemporary technologies came to be by looking at artists and writers’ experiments with, for example, network technologies.

Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in contemporary art and poetry. In the early 1980s, Kac created digital, holographic and online works that anticipated the global culture we live in today, composed of ever-changing information in constant flux. In 1997 the artist coined the term “Bio Art,” igniting the development of this new art form with works such as his transgenic rabbit GFP Bunny (2000) and Natural History of the Enigma (2009), which earned him the Golden Nica, the most prestigious award in the field of media art. GFP Bunny has become a global phenomenon, having been appropriated by major popular culture franchises such as Sherlock, Big Bang Theory and Simpsons, and by writers such as Margaret Atwood and Michael Crichton. In 2017, Kac created Inner Telescope, a work conceived for and realized in outer space with the cooperation of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. In 2024, Kac’s Ágora flew to deep space aboard the Centaur rocket and is now in a perpetual heliocentric orbit. Kac’s Adsum landed on the Moon in 2025. Kac’s singular and highly influential career spans poetry, performance, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist’s books, early digital and online works, holography, telepresence, bio art, and space art. Read more.

Photo credits: Jana Hambitzer

Nathalia Lavigne [she/her] works as an art researcher, writer and curator. Post-doctoral fellow at MAC USP, she has a PhD from FAUUSP (University of São Paulo), with a dissertation entitled “(De) musealizations and practices of countercollecting in instantaneous archives.” During her PhD, she was a visiting researcher at The New School (NYC) and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. She also has a master’s degree in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. Her research interests involve topics such as social documentation and circulation of images on social networks, cultural criticism, museum and media studies and art and technology. She writes for several art magazines, including Artforum, Contemporary &, ZUM (Instituto Moreira Salles) and Humboldt (Goethe). As a curator, she has held exhibitions such as “Against, Again: Art Under Attack in Brazil” (2020), at Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery (John Jay College, CUNY, NYC) and “Tactics of Disappearance” (2021), at Paço das Artes (São Paulo). Since July 2024, she is a fellow at the KHK c:o/re.

Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic and author of Uncanny Networks (2002), Dark Fiber (2002), My First Recession (2003), Zero Comments (2007), Networks Without a Cause (2012), Social Media Abyss (2016), Organization after Social Media (with Ned Rossiter, 2018), Sad by Design (2019) and Stuck on the Platform (2022). He studied political science at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and received his PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures (www.networkcultures.org) at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). His centre organizes conferences, publications and research networks such as Video Vortex (online video), The Future of Art Criticism and MoneyLab (internet-based revenue models in the arts). Recent projects deal with digital publishing experiments, critical meme research, participatory hybrid events and precarity in the arts. From 2007-2018 he was media theory professor at the European Graduate School. In December 2021 he was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the UvA Art History Department. The Chair (one day a week) is supported by the HvA. Since early 2022 he is involved in support campaigns for Ukrainian artists, in particular UKRAiNATV, a streaming art studio network, operating out of Krakow.

João C. Magalhães is an Assistant Professor in Media, Politics, and Democracy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and an incoming Senior Lecturer in AI and Trust at the University of Manchester, UK. His work concerns the multiple intersections of platforms and politics. In 2024, he started a 4-year project on the (re)making of content moderation, funded by a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council.

Alex Wermer-Colan is a co-founder, long-time volunteer, and Executive Director of Philly Community Wireless. A resident of North Philadelphia, Alex has contributed to all facets of Philly Community Wireless’ growth and operations, including conducting installs throughout the coverage area, engaging in community outreach with residents and organizations, training and teaching volunteers and staff, overseeing software and networking infrastructure, and developing policies and fundraising strategies to sustain the organization. In addition to his work with Philly Community Wireless, Alex works as the Academic and Research Director at Temple University Libraries’ Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio, where he supports research and teaching with emerging technologies across the disciplines. Alex holds a PhD in English literature with a focus on critical theory from the City University of University of New York’s Graduate Center. Alex serves as the Managing Editor for the Programming Historian in English, and his writing, translations, and dramaturgical work have in such publications as The Los Angeles Review of Books, New Directions, Harpers, New Criterion, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Twentieth Century Literature, The Yearbook of Comparative Literature, dh+lib, Debates in the Digital Humanities, The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, Indiana University Press, and Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative.

Bruna Zanolli is a specialist in community-centered connectivity and digital care, grounded in intersectional feminism, social and climate justice, and popular education. With 15+ years of experience and research in community radio, autonomous networks, and local technologies, she works to advance public-interest technologies. Bruna supports community networks in the Global South through the Local Networks project (in collaboration with Rhizomatica and APC) and contributes to Brazil’s telecom regulator Anatel on the Community Networks Committee, advocating for inclusive policies and sustainable funding. A Mozilla Open Web Fellow (2018/19) alumni, Bruna is part of the Transfeminist Digital Care Network and APC’s Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN). She holds a master’s in Communication and Culture from MediaLab UFRJ and is a dedicated FLOSS enthusiast.


Header Image:
© Illustration of SSTV event “Still Life Alive” (by Carlos Fadon Vicente) which also included “Intercities São Paulo / Pittsburgh” from 1988, organized by the Digital Art Exchange (headed by artist Bruce Breland) [from DAX archives, Carnegie Mellon University, “Intercities Sao Paul-Pittsburgh” Jan. 25, 1988 Letter of May 31 to Breland/Kocher from Matuck FF44].

Special issue of Cybernetics & Human Knowing out now!

We are happy to share that the special issue of Cybernetics & Human Knowing entitled “(Dis)entangling Cognition, Meaning, Modeling, and Environments” has been published.

The issue is guest edited by Alin Olteanu, Phillip H. Roth, and Gabriele Gramelsberger and includes many contributions from KHK c:o/re staff and fellows.

The foreword, written by Phillip H. Roth and Alin Olteanu, is available on the journal’s website.

International Conference “Cultures of Research”

March 25 to 27, 2025, Forum M, Buchkremerstraße 1-7, 52062 Aachen

The international conference “Cultures of Research” takes stock of the first four years of the fellow program at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Rearch (c:o/re).

During these years, more than fifty international fellows came to the KHK c:o/re to explore the transformation of research in its many facets. Topics such as the digitalization of science, the growing influence of AI on research practices, the organizational transformations in science, the “engineering of science”, and the historical as well as intercultural comparison of “varieties of science” have been widely discussed.

The conference will focus the discussions on these topics in various panels with current and alumni fellows as well as members of the scientific advisory board of the KHK c:o/re.

A detailed program with all speakers and titles can be found in this document.

Program

TimeTuesday, 25thWednesday, 26thThursday, 27th
09:00-12:00Welcome and IntroductionPanel 4 “Digitalisation of Science”
Lecture by Franck Varenne
Panel 7 “Expanded STS” & Euregio
Panel 1 “Historicizing Science”
Lecture by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
Lunch
13:00-15:30Panel 2 “Dealing with Complexity”
Lecture by Mary Morgan
Panel 5 “Varieties of Science”
Lecture by Alfred Nordmann
Panel 8 “Art and Research” 
Coffee break
16:00-18:00Panel 3 “Lifelikeness”Panel 6 “Freedom of Research”
Lectures by Frederik Stjernfelt &
Steve Fuller
Departure
18:00-20:00Evening Keynote Lecture by Ad AertsenConference Dinner
Reception (finger food)

Get to know our Fellows: Carsten Reinhardt

Get to know our current fellows and gain an impression of their research. In a new season of short videos, we asked them to introduce themselves, talk about their work at the KHK c:o/re and the research questions that fascinate them.

How do chemical residues shape our understanding of uncertainty in modern society? In this video, Carsten Reinhardt, professor for historical studies of science at the University of Bielefeld, explores the concept of residual uncertainty and how unknown long-term effects of chemicals influence scientific debates and regulatory policies.

Check out our media section or our YouTube channel to have a look at the other videos.