FIBER Festival 2022

After the first part of the programme in 2021, FIBER Festival is preparing for the second programme on the theme Mutation in June 2022. The festival will continue to reveal the mutating relations between humans, nature and technology as questioned and captured by arts and design. This time zooming in and out on the collisions between worldviews, the material nature and planetary scales of computation, industrial and spiritual realms and proposals for different types of futures.

In the domain of science, ‘mutation’ is the alternation of genetic material. The cells of organisms and viruses undergo changes due to mutation, after which their being – and the interactions with their environment – can radically transform. One of the most well-bespoken cases of mutation are, of course, the current COVID-19 variants and our constant mitigation with these shapeshifting viruses.

Mutation can be seen as an unwanted development, but might also present opportunities to change habits and minds. Within the FIBER Festival programme we will be working with the concept of ‘mutation’ from a broader and artistic perspective. By blurring separations and exploring alternative relations, mutation could provide us with both actionable and speculative modes of moving towards  new forms of existence and resilience.

The extractive nature of Western information- and energy systems are causing a severe degradation of the planet and its inhabitants. Around the world we are seeing the impact of these systems, driving further environmental pollution and extreme socio-economic inequality. Meanwhile, researchers, activists, artists and engineers are experimenting with alternative modes of governance and post-capitalist design strategies to sustain existing and foster new communities. Moving from centralised and extractive models to communally driven and more-than-human societies.

Advanced forms of artificial intelligence, hyperreal simulation technologies, and recent developments in bio-engineering dissolve boundaries between natural and artificial systems. Ecology and technology are becoming, and are, intimately entangled. At the same time, scientists and artists take a critical stance towards traditional notions of nature, based on classification and linear progress. 

Instead of the predominance of a male techno utopia, we can turn towards other knowledges which are more attuned to natural cycles, such as spiritual and feminist approaches, and queer ecologies. They offer ways to adapt to cyclical rhythms, nomadic existence, new forms of kinship with more-than-human entities and fluid identities.

Artists and researchers are revisiting moments before the industrial revolution and past spiritual authorities to explore other paths to futures. Magical thinking, a renewed interest in rituals, paganism and (digital) wxtchcraft propose altered ways of learning, thinking and being embedded within (a mutation of) nature and technology.

FIBER Festival 2022 invites you to take a deep dive into these various approaches to mutation, and how they could help us navigate the moment we find ourselves in. The installations, performances, live sets and lectures provide thoughts and strategies for adaptation or rejection of current modes of living.

Find out more on last year’s programme: Mutation (Part I)