Unwired Currents—Imagining Technologies Otherwise

Unwired Currents—Imagining Technologies Otherwise is:

A six-month free online public program of keynotes, tutorials, panel discussions, and gatherings starting May 2025.

A fully-funded, six-month online fellowship for participants from diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to envision technologies beyond dominant narratives. The open call in November 2024 will invite designers, scientists, artists, coders, educators, and more to research and develop their own narratives as texts and mini-projects—such as a podcast episode, visual essay, short movie, or any other artistic or designerly utterance.

Western societies have perpetuated the myth that machinery and technical systems are neutral, objective tools, equating technological advancement with societal progress. This dominant discourse promotes a universalist vision of “the future” that reinforces modernist ideals and solutionist approaches to pressing, complex social issues. As a result, many technological developments not only fail to address but often exacerbate inequalities rooted in ableism, classism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and racism.

The Unwired Currents open program and fellowship bring together diverse perspectives from fields such as anthropology, history, and philosophy to art, design, coding, and activism to explore technologies beyond dominant narratives and delve into Indigenous knowledges, ancestral ways of making and being, and community-based practices.

The program is co-created by the think & do tank Dezentrum and Futuress, along with the transnational collective Dreaming Beyond AI, designer and researcher Franca López Barbera, and the anti-educational platform Materia Oscura.

Overview

Open program:

• Start: May 2025
• End: October 2025
• 8 free online keynotes, roundtable discussions, tutorials, and exchange-based gatherings available via Zoom and as recordings via Vimeo
• Language: English with close-captions
• Registrations will open soon! Register for our newsletter to stay tuned!

Fellowship:

• Start: May 2025
• End: October 2025
• 7 online sessions in small groups with fellowship mentors as well as individual work time on the project
• Different days and time-zones available
• Access to the Futuress Slack with a transnational community of feminist creatives, thinkers, and activists
• Honorary of 2000 CHF gross per fellow for research, writing, production, and publishing
• Application deadline: January 14, 2025, 23:59 CET.

Open program

Fellowship

The Unwired Currents—Imagining Technologies Otherwise fellowship will be a collaborative learning community focused on crafting independent narratives. 

Over six months, six participants from diverse fields—design, science, art, coding, education, and more—will research and develop their own narratives, which will be articulated as texts as well as mini-projects, which may take the form of a podcast episode, visual essay, short movie, or any other artistic or designerly utterance.

From May to October 2025, fellows will develop their text and mini-project individually, employing anthropological and feminist storytelling methods. Monthly online group sessions with fellow participants and two mentors will give space for exchange and mutual support. Mentors will guide fellows throughout the mentoring sessions while you conduct research, craft your text, and develop your mini-project. Each text and mini-project will be published on dreamingbeyond.ai and futuress.org at the end of the fellowship.

The program also features a series of free online keynotes, panel discussions, tutorials, and exchange gatherings. For more info, please have a look at the “Open Program” section above.

Fellowship mentors

Franca López Barbera (she/her) is an Argentinian design researcher and editor. Her work explores the intersection between nature, coloniality, gender, and ethics. She is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture, University of Braunschweig and teaches design theory at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany. Franca is a contributing editor at Bikini Books and a long-time collaborator with Futuress. 

Iyo Bisseck (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, interaction designer, and programmer. Their artistic practice combines immersive digital environments, sculptural installations, animated images, and video games. Their work is fueled by critical reflections on digital tools, highlighting their roots in a capitalist colonial logic. Iyo is part of the Dreaming Beyond AI core team. 

Mio Kojima (she/none) is a German-Japanese designer, editor, and educator exploring knowledge politics in design. Her practice—from teaching to publishing and curating—addresses sociopolitical issues within educational spaces and design’s potential for dreaming and empowerment. Along with Maya Ober, Mio is the Futuress co-director.

Nushin Yazdani (she/her) is a transformation designer, artist, and AI design researcher working at the intersection of machine learning, design justice, and intersectional feminist practices. Nushin curates and organizes community events as one of the Dreaming Beyond AI co-founders.

How to Apply

Our call for applications will open on November 19, 2024, and close on January 14, 2025, at 23:59 CET.

Through an anonymized Google questionnaire, you may present a new or ongoing research project you wish to develop and share with a broad audience—this could be a thesis in the works, a final-year project, a semester assignment, a long-standing obsession, or a piece of research you’ve been pursuing on your own.

You will be asked to share a short research abstract along with a situated biography and a short portfolio of relevant material. This can include previous research, writing samples, designs, or any materials you’d like to share that help us understand your work. 

Your profile: You are interested in the politics of technology with a focus on broadening the notion of technology beyond machinery systems and digital tools. You aim to challenge dominant ideals of “progress,” “neutrality,” and “universality” and understand technology as a mode of cultural production and transformative practice to foster equity, inclusivity, and justice. Your research amplifies marginalized perspectives and narratives, and you’d like to present your findings in a compelling, accessible format. 

The fellowship includes an honorarium of 2.000 CHF gross which will be paid in two installments: the first after the first fellowship session and the second upon publishing your work.

Please note that the language of the fellowship is English.

We prioritize applicants from marginalized communities and situated perspectives. Due to the funding of the program coming from Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, one third of the spots are reserved for practitioners based in Switzerland, regardless of nationality or migration status. We particularly encourage applications from marginalized Swiss-based communities, including migrants, BIPOC, queer, disabled, and other structurally excluded groups.

FAQ

Can people apply together? Can collectives apply?

Yes, teams and collectives are welcome to apply for a single spot. However, please note that the honorarium cannot be adjusted accordingly.

How much time do I have to invest?

We deeply value exchange and mutual support. We thus expect fellows to attend all seven online fellowship sessions, each lasting 1,5 hours. During these sessions, fellows will present updates on their texts and mini-projects and offer feedback to others. Between sessions, fellows will conduct research, write, and develop their mini-projects, which should be completed by the end of the fellowship. Additionally, participants will peer-review each other’s texts and projects during the final steps.

Who will own the rights to my work?

You will retain the moral rights of the author and will be credited as such. Dreaming Beyond AI and Futuress will retain exclusive publishing rights to your work for 12 months after publishing, and unlimited, non-exclusive rights after this period. For republishing, it must be credited as originally appearing on dreamingbeyond.ai and futuress.org.

When will I hear back about the application?

Applicants will be contacted in March 2025.

How good does my English have to be?

In order to participate in the fellowship, it will be necessary to communicate in English with the other participants and the mentors. There is no expectation to be fluent and grammatically correct, but you should feel comfortable enough to exchange, present, and write. The mentoring team also speaks French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and none of us speaks English as our first language.

If you have questions about the fellowship or the application process, please send us an email to learning@futuress.org.