From 11 to 15 July 2023, the ALTEREUROPE FUTURES’ MANUFACTORY opened its doors at the Vonderau Museum in Fulda for individual visitors and heterogeneous groups of participants (students, pupils, families with children, activists, local artists, teachers and educators, about 150 in total) to interact in a shared exercise of democratic imagination for a possible Europe of tomorrow. 

© Science of Singularities. Entangled Matters #1, Vonderau Museum Fulda, 2023

The Fulda’s Manufactory is to be seen as an Episode of the ongoing participatory artistic research Altereurope. ENTANGLED MATTERS is the title of this episode. It aims at imaginatively reshaping a possible Europe, conceived as an ecosystemic entanglement.

The Altereurope Future Manufactory was staged in the museum’s Baroque chapel, with various settings (Tables of Matters, Foundland Map, Installation Insight the Ecosystemic Matters) that allowed participants to intervene in a shared flow of reflection and imagination, and also included an intervention on one section of the permanent collection, inviting participants to rethink Europe starting from the perspective of different ecosystems around Fulda.

© Science of Singularities. Entangled Matters #1, Vonderau Museum Fulda, 2023

For centuries, European history has been understood as a history of people, kings, wars or, more recently, as a history of technological achievements. But is such a perspective still suitable for meeting up to the challenges of climate change and creating a more sustainable future? Should we not dare to look at history from a perspective that also includes the developments of the planet? Should we make the ecosystem the subject of history?

And if we do this, don’t we then consequently have to go even further and reorganise our scientific disciplines. Since the 19th century at the latest, these have been split into natural and social sciences. Can a science that takes the ecosystem as a whole, including its cultural and historical changes, as the starting point for research still conscientiously carry out this division? Can the social and cultural be strictly separated from nature?

Finally, the conception of the social traditionally starts from individuals and their contexts, but recent research shows how much the two are intertwined. Therefore, in order to do justice to these interconnections, should we not adopt an approach that focuses on networks of relationships rather than individuals as such?

The word ecosystem represents a holistic view of the interconnectedness between nature, animals, humans and technology that goes beyond natural science considerations. The ecosystem itself becomes a political and historical matter that evolves through human intervention.

We therefore ask whether a sustainable ecosystem requires a different way of living together – i.e. also raises social questions? Goods could be shared with others, for example, instead of declaring them waste as soon as they have become obsolete for one’s own use. Or, how the creation of a respectful relationship between all participants of the ecosystem, humans, animals, plants and vital matter can help us develop ecosensitive forms of society?