Art For Futures Potsdam Recap

The university cooperation project “Art For Futures Potsdam” culminated on June 30 at the Filmmuseum Potsdam. It deals with sustainability transformation of our society as a whole. Almost 50 students and 10 teachers from the University of Applied Sciences (HTW), Berlin and the Film University Babelsberg had been working together for almost one year on this project.

The exhibition opening “Camilla Plastic Ocean Plan – From Dystopia to Utopia“, which can be seen at Filmmuseum Potsdam until 16 April 2023, was the starting point for the project.

It was complemented by Kids For Futures Potsdam – an afternoon children’s sustainability festival. After successfully participating in several stations, the kids could earn a sustainability driving license.
Stations included fishing for garbage in an ocean with an iceberg (wonderfully realized by #Raumlichtlabor), sorting garbage correctly, creative designing of machines to transport garbage out of the environment, and more.
The festival was organized and implemented by many students of the HTW and generously sponsored by STEP – Stadtwerke Potsdam and ProPotsdam. Especially the tour of the STEP garbage truck, the filling of glass bottles at the water bar as well as the huge ocean pool were important elements for the successful event.

In addition, the musician Nilsen with his great participatory concert as well as Die Aristokraten with artistry and clownery provided an exuberant atmosphere for the almost 500 guests.

The evening began with the vernissage, where Christine Handke, director of the Filmmuseum, and curator Dorett Molitor introduced the transmedia exhibition. Prof. Dr. Bernhard Dieckmann in dialogue with Prof. Angelica Böhm, initiator of the artistic research project CPOP, then gave insight into the art and science cooperation.

At 20:00, the lectures on the topic “Art For Futures Potsdam” started, presenting positive futures of interdisciplinary working participants. They had emerged from an interdisciplinary workshop based on the Art For Futures Lab (AFFL) method.
The presentation of the method, the scientific approaches as well as descriptions of works from the field of scenography were done by the two co-directors of the AFFL Prof. Angelica Böhm (FUB) and Nicole Loeser (IFAI Berlin). Afterwards, the professors Prof. Dr. Angela Brennecke, Prof. Dr. Ralf Birkelbach, Prof. Dr. Regina Frieß, Chandra Fleig and Michael Witt also shared insights of the results of the study programs such as Business Communication and Media Informatics (HTW) as well as Scenography, Animation, Creative Technologies and Film Music (FUB) in the form of augmented reality works, animation, walk-in pictures, concept arts and music compositions.

Thank you!

We would like to thank all young and grown-up visitors who visibly enjoyed the day. We would especially like to thank all participating students and colleagues from the Film University Babelsberg (FUB) and the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) for their dedicated collaboration and wonderful realization. Another thank you goes to the Filmmuseum Potsdam and its staff for granting us the festive setting for the collaboration.

We would also like to thank the sponsors and their great staff: STEP – Stadtwerke Potsdam, ProPotsdam as well as Raumlichtlabor for making this event possible.

And last but not least, we would like to thank all our partners who took care of the sustainable physical well-being of our guests: Waterdrop, Coffee-Bike Potsdam, StreetFoodTrailerCatering, Genusswerkstatt, Paletas Eis.