Die Preisträger*innen 2025

At the heart of this project is a plant so rare that it stands on the brink of extinction. This plant, the Encephalartos woodii (E. woodii), a cycad classified as ‘extinct in the wild,’ is known from a single pollen-producing specimen found in South Africa’s oNgoye Forest in the late 19th century.

ASTRES is an audiovisual installation using laser light and sound to celebrate the night sky. The project employs algorithmic systems to address constantly changing star positions, with precise laser calibration techniques developed through university collaboration.

Echorroes: Reflections on Tchaikovsky is a human-centered approach to Artificial Intelligence through interactive play with classical music, for children ages 1-3. Created by the interdisciplinary team Echorroes and commissioned by the Greek National Opera, the project establishes a playful dialogue between AI and Tchaikovsky, enabling children to co-create and transform his compositions.

Emerald Black Latency takes the Medusa Submarine Cable System as a starting point to explore the representation and material dimension of data circulation on the internet. Planned for 2026, Medusa is an 8,700 km fiber optic cable designed to enhance connectivity in the Mediterranean and link Europe with North Africa.

HYBRIS is an art-based research initiative presenting an innovative method for transforming waste into both art and building materials. Since 2019, Yana Zschiedrich has explored this concept through a collaboration with mealworms, which decompose polystyrene into biodegradable substances. These can replace sand in new, sustainable construction applications.

How will we write in the future, and why should we design “seamful” interactions? The Large Language Writer (LLW) is an experimental design project that explores honest interactions with Large Language Models (LLMs).

During a research residency with Künstlerische Tatsachen at the University of Ulm’s TRR234 CataLight, I explored molecular light-driven catalysis in soft matter systems. Using near-infrared LiDAR, I scanned so-called “invasive” plants, creating point clouds that reimagine their presence in a sci-fi-inspired world with two suns.

Inspired by the symbiotic relationship between corals and microorganisms, Christopher Bellamy has developed a contemporary living material that encapsulates bioluminescent microalgae. This living material glows in response to touch and requires only sunlight to survive, with a lifespan of at least six months.

The Occasional Museum of an Incredible Landscape (MOPI) is a nomadic, ephemeral museum rethinking our relationship with landscapes, ecosystems, and collective memory. Created by Argentine artists Julieta García Vázquez and Ana Vogelfang, MOPI merges participatory art, environmental research, and territorial practices.

Neutone Morpho is a real-time tone morphing plugin for Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) powered by advanced machine learning technology. It resynthesizes input sounds into entirely different styles while preserving the original sound’s shape.

Performative Ethnographies (PE) are an artistic methodology and ongoing non-disciplinary research created as a response to the multiple layers of exclusion of laypeople from spaces where advanced technology is developed, even though their bodies are affected by it.

[SUN] Flower Plasma explores the ecological and geopolitical meanings of sunflowers alongside the science of Alfvén waves moving through the sun’s corona and interstellar space. The installation features a two-channel video of the Large Plasma Device, sunflower fields, bees, and microscopic sunflower cells that resemble the sun’s surface.

We tested whether passively experiencing motions that have been not experienced could surmount the ceiling effect and enhance the already well-honed skills of experts. We utilized a novel exoskeleton robot attachable to fingers.

The Call develops new protocols and materials for the creation of AI models. To train the AI, Herndon and Dryhurst have composed a songbook of hymns, singing exercises and a recording protocol, and recorded fifteen community choirs across the UK.

The Permanent and Insatiable is a series of installations exploring the mythic tension in material science. Each installation features miniature cityscapes made from post-consumer PET plastic, submerged in transparent bioreactors where lab-grown enzymes gradually dissolve them.

The Solar Share stages a form of planetary economics based on photosynthesis. This artistic provocation seeks to estimate the orders of magnitude of new solar energy income metabolized by photosynthetic organisms at a planetary scale, a process fundamental to all planetary life.

Open-weather’s Year of Weather (YoW) explores changing relations to weather and climate as the planet warms above 1.5 degrees Celsius. It unfolds as public access to environmental knowledge is threatened by attempts to dismantle US agencies such as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an institution that has provided satellite images to ground stations around…

Zifzafa demonstrates the force of this sonic annexation, and features over 40 field recordings by Jawlani artists, to serve as an archive of a sonic life under threat.