Speculative Futures of Farewell – What you leave behind [Digital Panel]

Speculative Futures Berlin is initiated by Ellery Studio www.ellerystudio.com
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How can we design the futures of farewell?

In our Western culture, the idea of finiteness and the impossibility of influencing what will happen after our own passing is occupied with an oppressive heaviness.

Join us in the exploration of the end of life through the speculative design project "What you leave behind". In this digital panel Henrik Rieß and his students of FH Potsdam will present provotypes of different futures with evolved technological and societal rules. Shedding light on new angles of observation to soften the stigma and create a space for debate.

While diving deep into the topic, we open it for other contexts of leaving someone / something behind. Particular emphasis is placed on the influence of rituals as temporal markers of closure as well as their increasing disappearance from our society. To what extent can future farewell rituals prepare us for goodbye and guide us through the process of parting in a strengthening way? Is our modern product and service culture – filled with communication noise – superior to the more dusty-looking sequences that have to be strictly practiced, or could new hybrid customs even emerge from them?

Works by Gesine Thränhardt, Peter Schwarz, Maryna Honcharenko, Rosa-Sophie Hamburger, Lena Hoffman, and Lena Zagora will be shown, among others.

More details about the speakers below.

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Access to the zoom conference:

Digital doors open at 18:25.
Begin is at 18:30.
From 18:40 you won't be allowed to enter the event anymore.

As part of providing a safe experience and platform you need to RSVP with a valid meet up account. On the day of the event we will send an email with the zoom link. Please join the event with a valid zoom account and your full name. In case we need to launch a new event due to zoom bombing or other technical issues it would be super helpful if you could provide your email address so that we can avoid the new link being sent to your spam box.

The talk is in English. By joining the event, participants give their consent that we may use the recording for potential social media purposes. The conference is limited to 100 participants. It's first come first served!

Live stream for those not being able to join on zoom: www.ellerystudio.com/events

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The speakers:

Henrik Rieß is a creative director with over 15 years of experience in UX and applied design research. As a lecturer for interaction design, design thinking and speculative design, he works with students on socially relevant issues in the so-called "Inconvenience Space". His course "The Future of Farewell" at FH Potsdam explored possible future perspectives on the design of farewell and the associated societal consequences.

Gesine Thränhardt began studying communication design at FH Potsdam in 2017 after training as a film and video editor. Her main focus is on the conception and production of moving images, but also graphic projects.

Peter Schwarz is studying interface design at FH Potsdam. In his work he explores multidisciplinary formats in the intersections of art, technology and society.

Maryna Honcharenko is an interface design student at FH Potsdam with a social science background. She especially appreciates speculative design as an excellent tool for revealing hidden social issues and reflecting upon them.

Rosa-Sophie Hamburger is a service designer with a great passion for strategic design and human kind's odd characteristics. In her work she combines the design process with data from psychological and neurobiological research.