Building Vessels

Melting glaciers, collapsing mountains, crumbling infrastructure—erosion is all around us, and alongside erodes trust in the institutions that promised to hold it all together. Where do we even begin as the rubble of what we took for granted is threatening to engulf us? Throughout the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures’s annual Lab Days, we will zoom in on attempts at building coalitions for staying afloat. Over two full days, HyperWerk and Critical Media Lab will join forces and bring together artists, activists, designers, and educators to focus on the mundane acts of finding a footing on unstable ground and building vessels that are more than just life rafts.

Through their practice, our guests will interpret what that means. Artist duo La Caoba will set a table inspired by the Georgian Supra tradition, where seeds, food, and ideas are shared, exchanged, and carried home. Listening to Berlin’s Sonnenallee over a period of 5 years, Imad Gebrael developed a podcast that sits at the intersection of public research, publishing platform, and an emerging public sphere for the excommunicated and marginalized. Julie Mallat hosts the Narrative Intelligence Cell in Lebanon, a learning programme where young people study the mechanics of persuasion and collectively develop narrative strategies towards activating climate propaganda. Anna Unterstab, Ayat Tarik Kamil, Stefanie Rau, and Ivana Jović will welcome you to a further iteration of an ongoing conversation about how design education can grow out of the crumbling institutions that house it. Additional guests will be announced soon.

On 16 & 17 December 2026, we invite you to spend two days of conversations and activations of the vessels that exist, and to engage in building new ones from the flotsam that drifts by.

Save the date and stay tuned for the full programme announcement in November.