Back to Future

The Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt am Main has developed an exhibition which highlights the technological utopias of the past and present. It particularly reflects on digitalisation and the social changes it has engendered, featuring selected works by internationally renowned artists like Antonia Hirsch, Aleksandra Domanović, Fabrice Monteiro, Suzanne Treister and Pinar Yoldas, alongside objects of technological history. Visitors embark on a visual journey passing four thematic rooms that introduces them to the technological models of the future, developed by the creative visionaries of the 19th century. Some of these utopias have become established models of everyday life, while others, though entertaining, clearly overshot their mark.

The artworks offer individual points of access to scientific history and provide alternative perspectives on technological innovations. In the piece by Pinar Yoldas, for example, visitors are given opportunities to consider the advantages (and disadvantages) of human optimisation. Entitled “Designer Babies” (2013-2016), her work reflects both the fascination and horror evoked by such themes as human-machine hybridisation, cyborgs and body extensions. In her installation „Cosmic Nightshade“ (2014), Antonia Hirsch simulates the other-worldly images of the asteroid 433 Eros that were sent to earth by a probe in 2000, thus capturing the human push into the unknown and sometimes threatening depths of the universe. The award-winning virtual reality installation „Neurospeculative Afrofeminism“ (2017) by the multi-disciplinary collective Hyphen-Labs introduces the visitors to a future in which women of color transcend the current intersectionality to become pioneers of neuroscience.

Artistic directors: Katja Weber, reflekt and Yvonne Zindel
Artists: Aleksandra Domanović, ecoLogicStudio, Antonia Hirsch, Hyphen-Labs, Fabrice Monteiro, Suzanne Treister, Pinar Yoldas