The name Anthrotopia emerges from these fundamental questions. It joins the root anthro, from the Greek ánthrōpos (human), with -topia, from tópos (place), while also echoing utopia, derived from both ou-topos (no place) and eu-topos (good place).

Building on this layered etymology, Anthrotopia seeks to move beyond human-centered worldviews while acknowledging that we remain embedded within the very systems we both shape and depend on. In recognizing our ongoing influence, it emphasizes the need to act with care and foresight. This stance opens a conceptual terrain for reflecting on the human role in the world and for envisioning futures that move beyond existing paradigms.

Bringing together perspectives from art, design, and science – and their intersections with broader cultural, technological, and social domains, Anthrotopia explores these complex entanglements through diverse forms of knowing, opening up more holistic ways of seeing, sensing, and shaping our shared world. Through this lens, it gives form to an ongoing cultural discourse on more-than-human futures.

Anthrotopia emerged from a long-standing exploration by its founders, Ingrid Rügemer and Oliver Szasz, rooted in creative practice and academic research in art and design – grounded in the humanities and in dialogue with scientific inquiry. Working across these domains revealed both the distinct epistemic orientations and strengths of different disciplines, as well as the limitations of approaching multilayered questions through disciplinary frameworks alone. While scientific knowledge is essential for understanding planetary processes, it cannot fully account for the cultural, experiential, and imaginative dimensions that shape how humans relate to the living and non-living world. This gap points to the significance of creative and applied practices as modes of inquiry. Embodied, speculative, and materially engaged, they allow questions to be explored through perception, form, and experience – making relations tangible while holding ambiguity. Anthrotopia is grounded in the conviction that these forms of knowing should not remain separate or hierarchical, but be brought into relation as complementary epistemic cultures capable of generating new insights. In this sense, Anthrotopia adopts a post-disciplinary perspective – one that moves beyond established boundaries without dissolving the specificities of each field. From this position, it has evolved into a curatorial practice dedicated to rethinking and reimagining human-nature futures.

Anthrotopia’s curatorial approach traces, contextualises, and presents contributions that engage contemporary ecological, aesthetic, and societal questions from within a more-than-human horizon. As an evolving platform, it brings emerging theories, concepts, and practices into productive relation – not to unify them into a single perspective, but to situate them within a dynamic field of inquiry. In doing so, Anthrotopia aims to expand perception, reframe agency, and foster new ways of thinking about coexistence.

At the heart of Anthrotopia lies the premise that today’s challenges call for transdisciplinary forms of inquiry that connect diverse modes of knowledge and practice. Our Spheres of Inquiry visualise the conceptual landscape that guides Anthrotopia’s exploration.

Three complementary knowledge cultures form the core of our inquiry: art (and other humanities), design (and other applied practices), and science (all forms, such as natural, social and formal) – each offering distinct ways of perceiving, questioning, and shaping the world. Together they cultivate aesthetic sensitivity, systemic imagination, and analytical understanding.

Around this core unfold diverse domains of interaction: material, technological, ecological, economic, and societal. Here, ideas encounter practice, where concepts are tested through matter, systems, and lived experience, revealing the complex entanglements that shape our shared planetary condition.

Encircling these layers are frames of critical responsibility: aesthetics and perception, theory and reflection, ethics and governance. These provide the critical perspectives through which knowledge is interpreted, questioned, and oriented toward meaningful action.
Taken together, these spheres form a relational ecosystem of inquiry that invites dialogue, engages complexity, and opens pathways for imagining regenerative futures within a more-than-human world.