Design & Crises – More-than-Human Commons in Times of Climate Urgency
- October 2026 | 18:00 - 19:30 | digital
Data and digital technologies reshape how we can see, know and act with ecological worlds – how might this bewilderment become productive?
How can tracking and rewilding birds be an act of mutual learning and care, preserving and increasing non-human autonomy? How can virtual reality shift the human perspective to that of the microscopic world of phytoplankton, making imperceptible ecological processes perceptible to reshape our relationship to non-human life? And what does it mean to give a river legal rights in a process of restorative justice?
Digital technologies change the ways in which we perceive, understand and relate to the more-than-human world. Data and computation increasingly mediate our encounters with ecological systems – they allow us to model environments, trace species, make invisible processes perceptible and imagine alternative futures. At the same time, these technologies do not simply reveal the world – they actively shape what can be seen, known and acted upon. The speakers in this panel will explore and discuss what happens when ecological worlds are increasingly mediated through data, digital technologies, law and governance – and whether this bewilderment can become productive, opening up new forms of ecological participation, multispecies care, and more-than-human commoning.
Participants
- Felix Stalder (Professor, Zurich University of the Arts)
- Christian Stein (Researcher, Matters of Activity, Humboldt University of Berlin)
- Ariel Sánchez Meertens (International Expert in Restorative Justice)
Moderation
- Michelle Christensen (Research Group Leader - Weizenbaum Institute)