Data↔Worlds
Final Conference of the Second Funding Phase at Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden
September 28 to 30, 2026
TUD Dresden University of Technology
Görges-Bau, Helmholtzstraße 9, 01069 Dresden
Keynotes
Louise Amoore (Professor of Political Geography, Durham University)
Joanna Zylinska (Professor of Media Philosophy + Critical Digital Practice, King's College London)
Manuela Naveau (Professor for Interface Cultures / Critical Data, University of Arts Linz)
Exhibition opening
Quadrature, Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden 2026
The Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden is pleased to announce the international conference “Data↔Worlds”, which will take place from September 28 to 30, 2026, at TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD). The conference marks the conclusion of the lab's second funding phase (2024–2027), which examines the interactions between data-based technologies and social realities under the guiding theme of Data↔Worlds: Sociotechnical and Cultural Syntheses of New Realities.
The conference will explore the multifaceted relationships between data worlds and political decision-making processes, social inequalities, cultural expressions, and ecological conditions. Different forms of knowledge, questions of power and participation, and the role of imaginations, narratives, and images surrounding the topic of data will play a central role.
In addition to the Schaufler Residency 2026 exhibition opening by artist duo Quadrature, the conference will feature keynote lectures by Louise Amoore, whose work examines how data-driven technologies are transforming practices of security, risk, and preemption, with far-reaching implications for society, democracy, and geopolitics, and by Joanna Zylinska, whose work engages with data, media, and art practice from a planetary perspective, addressing deep time, ecological crisis, and the evolving boundaries between human and machine intelligence.
The conference is designed as an open and diverse exchange. It brings together scientists, artists, and practitioners who have collaborated with the Schaufler Lab in a variety of ways in recent years—in academic seminars, symposia, exhibitions, experimental art formats, video productions, and publications. “Data↔ Worlds” offers a space to look back together, share experiences, and develop new perspectives for future projects.