Stefan Brandt (© Jan Windszus)
Shaping the Future Together
Hello, my name is Stefan Brandt and I’m the director of Futurium. I’d like to take you with me on a digital tour of Futurium. Everything here is about participating in shaping the future. After all, who can shape the future – if we can’t? And by that I don’t just mean our individual futures, but also the future in terms of the major societal issues: sustainability, democracy, digitalisation, to name but a few.
How can people make sure their ideas and perceptions are considered in decision-making processes? How will everything come together as a great whole? How can conflicting goals be resolved? And what concrete approaches are there to shaping the future? Futurium offers lots of suggestions in this regard. I will now show you a few examples from our exhibition, Lab and event programme to give you an idea of what shaping the future together might look like.
Let’s start with an issue that directly affects, and increasingly concerns, many people: housing. In this field, there are exciting initiatives that are putting us on the path towards finding better and more sustainable solutions together.
In alternative projects, people are already working together to shape their own lives.
Did you know,
that you can take care of the trees in your neighbourhood with the help of giessdenkiez.de or go to atiptap.org to campaign for the more widespread drinking of tap water? Together with others.
Shaping the future really concerns every one of us. That’s why inclusion is so important. Inclusion means including everyone, of course. No matter what you look like, what language you speak or whether you have some form of disability.
Politics: it’s something that many of us occupy ourselves with and also sometimes get worked up about. At times, we lose sight of the fact that we in Europe have a degree of influence – through elections, for example – on what happens in the political arena.
Policymakers have to deal with the major challenges that lie ahead in the future. The good news is that we can all contribute to further developing our democracy.
Now let’s move on to an area that still sounds a bit like science fiction – our future life with robots. Today, there are already fields in which robots can help us.
But “support” doesn’t mean “replace”. What is always needed is a framework of values set by us humans within which the technology can then become effective.
Speaking of technology: I’ve found a great example – just for this once outside of Futurium – of how to get really creative with the help of artificial intelligence.
Did you know,
that at artsandculture.google.com you can compose an opera with colourful blobs and share it with others?
But don’t worry, at Futurium you can compose with AI too!
At Futurium, we offer a wide range of opportunities for getting involved and helping shape the future. On site and digitally.
Stefan Brandt (© Jan Windszus)
Shaping the future can really be as diverse as this
Shaping the future can really be as diverse as this. Thank you for joining me on the tour. If you would like to learn more about getting involved at Futurium, please browse through our educational offerings and our programme or send us an e-mail at office@futurium.de. And of course, I really look forward to you visiting Futurium in person in the near future. See you soon!