Futurium Moves! Launch Weekend for the Theme of “Mobility”

On the last weekend in November, Futurium will be dedicating itself to the topic of mobility in all its facets. “Mobility permeates all areas of life. It’s not just about the movement of nature, people and things – but also of ideas and knowledge. We want to convey this holistic perspective on one of the major topics of the future in the exhibition and in the Lab, in workshops and in discussion rounds and, of course, in our digital programme,” says Futurium Director Dr Stefan Brandt.

With “Mobility”, Futurium will for the first time since its opening be incorporating a new theme into the large permanent exhibition. In the Thinking Space Human, two wooden houses are now entirely dedicated to the question “Who’s mobile?”. “Until now, there’s been an unfair distribution of opportunities for being mobile and for freely choosing where one wants to base one’s life. We’ve been asking ourselves how we might imagine a world in which each and every individual is free to travel and to be at home anywhere in the world,” says Dr Gabriele Zipf, Head of Exhibitions. Individual stories told by people on the move, the flight of a mythical bird through the future, and a game of self-assessment will encourage visitors to bring themselves closer to this complex topic. Under the heading “All change, please!”, we’ll be focusing on the various aspects of the topic of transport: how can we move around in a way that is both socially equitable and climate-friendly – in our own neighbourhoods, within our own regions, over long distances, or even in outer space? All this will be addressed, for instance, at interactive points that invite visitors to cast their votes or to mix their own personal sounds for the city of the future.

The Futurium Lab will be focusing on sustainable urban mobility. Five new projects ranging from prototyping to citizen science will be on display. Many of the interactive exhibits have been designed in part by visitors. One such project is “SensorBikes”. It involves 30 bicycles belonging to Futurium visitors that have been equipped with various sensors that measure safety and environmental factors on Berlin’s roads. Used by normal citizens, these bicycles gather new data every single day, and this is then evaluated in a simple and playful manner in the Futurium Lab. At other interactive points, visitors can develop prototypes for fantastical means of transport or use the “Future Mobility Simulator” to create traffic scenarios for the city of the future. Those who want to delve deeper into the topic can take part in one of our workshops for visitors young and old.

On Saturday evening at 19:30, the interdisciplinary panel discussion “What Moves Us” will take place, moderated by journalist Yara Hoffmann. Among other guests, we’re expecting sea ice physicist Stefanie Arndt, actor and prison doctor Joe Bausch – well-known for his role in the Cologne edition of the TV series “Tatort” – track-and-field athlete and Paralympic medallist Ali Lacin, and political scientist and activist Emilia Roig. We’ll be using our guests’ personal stories of mobility as a basis for discussing how mobility affects us all in an essential way.

On Sunday, in addition to guided tours and workshops, there will be further exciting talks on the programme. Moderator Ninia LaGrande will be talking with blogger Kim Lumelius, among other guests, about going travelling in “Lutzi” – her wheelchair. A special treat for our visitors will be the reading by author Ahmad Katlesh, who in his book of poems “Das Gedächtnis der Finger” (“The Memory of Fingers”) has explored his experiences of mobility in Syria, Jordan and Germany. On Sunday, the Berlin-based radio station radioeins (rbb) will be broadcasting its mobility show “Die Sonntagsfahrer” (“The Sunday Drivers”) live from our exhibition. Radio host Patricia Pantel and “car pope” Andreas Keßler will be there too.