Critical, poetic and speculative perspectives on technological developments

A first for the University of the Arts (HfK) Bremen: the Digital Media programme’s inaugural Graduation Festival will take place from 11 to 13 June 2026 at Speicher XI A, Hall 1, and Speicher XI, Speicherpassage. Under the title “Oscillations”, more than 30 artistic, research-based, experimental and interdisciplinary final projects from the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in Digital Media are brought together.

In the form of exhibitions, lectures and performances, the works offer critical, poetic and speculative perspectives on technological developments. These focus on artificial intelligence (AI), surveillance capitalism, so-called green technologies and the control of IT infrastructures by a handful of global tech corporations. Further projects include artistic explorations of posthumanism and feminism in the context of social media. The festival creates a space for exchange and discussion. Visitors can move between the diverse forms of presentation and engage with a broad spectrum of current topics and media practices. 

On 13 June 2026 at 11 am, an international jury will present the Digital Media Graduation Award to one of the exhibiting graduates. The prize is worth 5,000 euros, sponsored in part by Bremer HEC GmbH. 

Festival opening: 11 June 2026, 7 pm, Hall 1.
Opening hours: 12 June 2026, 10 am to 6 pm, and 13 June 2026, 12 noon to 6 pm.
Admission is free.

What exactly is there to experience?

Four examples:

Whilst we experience AI through digital interfaces, the material reality underpinning it and the energy it consumes often remain hidden. Julia Voller makes this tangible in her project “to heat”. A metal keyboard gets warmer the more often an AI image model is used and runs hot in the process. In addition, a language model is activated on a small device resting on a candle. The heat generated by the AI calculations in the digital world melts the candle in the physical world.

With the complex biotechnological installation “Prometheus Bound – On Algae and Energy”, Clemens Hornemann confronts the promises of green technology with its reality: a room-filling algae battery supplies energy to bring a tiny artificial alga to life.

Salma Elkafrawy’s “in & of the erratics” deals with inner, tearing rage. Delicate fabrics are pierced during a performance, accompanied by a feminist video manifesto that overlays capitalist visions of femininity.

Sangbong Lee’s “Space Odradek” is a large-scale installation that receives signals from disused zombie satellites and manifests their ghostly existence through sound, mechanics and the narrative of a fictional space archaeologist, raising the question of whether useless objects are truly dead or reborn.


“Oscillations” is curated by Alevtina Senik and Katja Striedelmeyer under the supervision of Prof. Ralf Baecker, Prof. Peter von Maydell, Prof. Dennis P. Paul and Prof. Dr Andrea Sick.
 

https://www.hfk-bremen.de/en/events/oscillations-digital-media-graduation-festival/17174