Transformative Imaginaries: Rethinking Futures Through Art and Design.
As part of the Rachel Carson Center’s esteemed Tuesday Discussion Series, Professor Oliver Szasz, co-founder of Anthrotopia and founding partner of the former non-profit Symbio(s)cene, presented his talk titled “RE-IMAGINE – Artistic Approaches and Interventions as Catalysts for Transformative Metaphors and Narratives of Alternative Futures.”
In his presentation, Szasz explored the powerful role that art and design can play in shaping alternative imaginaries. Rather than simply reflecting on crises, creative practices can actively generate metaphors, materializations, and narrative frameworks that open up new cognitive and cultural spaces for change. These approaches, he argued, allow us to imagine, discuss, and sensibly experience possible futures long before they become politically or technologically feasible. Art and design, in this context, do more than illustrate what might come. They prototype worldviews and test ethical and emotional orientations. By doing so, they help shift societal perceptions of what is desirable, plausible, and worth striving for.
Oliver Szasz: “Art and design do not just illustrate futures; they prototype worldviews and test ethical and affective orientations, shifting what societies perceive as desirable, plausible, and worth striving for.”
Szasz emphasized three key mechanisms through which artistic practice can foster transformation: detachment, empowerment, and enchantment. These concepts are rooted in hermeneutic reflexivity, which Scott Lash describes as a reflective process embedded in everyday practices and social routines (Lash, 2003). He emphasized that vision is essential for guiding and motivating action. Design and art are not isolated disciplines but integrative practices that link human intention with material and cultural expression. Imaginative work is not just decorative but constitutive for any profound transition – transformation begins where the imaginable horizon is widened.
Reference: Lash, S. (2003). Reflexivity as non-linearity. Theory, Culture & Society, 20(2), 49–57.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276403020002003
From making sense of the world to symbiocentric visions – the presentation traced human history and showed how art and design, deeply rooted in shaping human perception and meaning, can open trajectories into symbiocentric futures.
Accompanied Exhibition Opening:
The presentation was followed by the opening of the exhibition “People – Nature – Future”, featuring the internationally acclaimed photographic works of the Scandinavian artist duo Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen. In their long-term project »Eyes as Big as Plates«, ongoing since 2011, the artists explore the intricate relationship between people and nature. The exhibition was initiated, organized, and curated by Ingrid Rügemer and was first shown in 2021 at Culture Sphere Gallery in Munich.
Our sincere thanks go to Prof. Dr. Christof Mauch, Director of the Rachel Carson Center, for the invitation and for providing this forum for dialogue.
