In response to the idea of the post-anthropocene, a life after human exceptionalism, ecological catastrophes, political extremism, and accelerated global fossil capitalism, we aim to seek strategies and practices that help us overcome the stasis that originates from one dominant narrative proclaiming doomsday and no possible way out.

With Otherwise we want to encourage participants to stay with the trouble we are facing — some of us sooner than others. Acknowledging the fact that asymmetrical power structures, uneven distribution of risk and responsibility and a non-correlative cause-effect relationship are the nature of the Anthropocene discourse, we are looking for survival strategies nevertheless. Bringing together approaches ranging from aesthetics to activism, art to policy making, global south to north, Otherwise aims to reframe disaster as the potential for transformation — what is left otherwise?

With this first edition of Otherwise — a festival-as-research — we straightforwardly ask how to possibly live in the ruins of the Anthropocene — the epoch which marks humanity’s becoming of a geological force. With its small-scale format Otherwise means to provide a breeding ground, a space for the in-between, for collective overwriting, unsettling and enacting biases beyond individual and society, nature and culture, geology and technology. It creates a framework that challenges one-way perception and provokes collective becoming of its participant-collaborateurs. Sessions at Otherwise will engage the whole sensory apparatus ranging from talks to walks, meditation to simulation, inhalation to fabulation. Together we will playfully, subversively and collaboratively un-learn and re-think what planetary inhabiting means.

For this first edition of Otherwise we look for proposals that challenge the concept of the Anthropocene by creating surprising relations, subverting, outplaying, forming resistance, altering perception, reconstructing histories or futures in order to enable collective transformation, glimmers of hope or just pure survival.

We welcome approaches which are serious and cynical, situated and distributed, political and aesthetical interventions, performances, workshops, platforms and experiences of all sorts of kind and format. Topics might range from ASMR to VR therapy, AI dreaming and cloud-castle building, unwhitening and mixology, metabolic rifting and metabolisms of sorts. Most importantly, sessions should be experimental in their form and participatory in their setup showing a clear link to the festival’s theme.

We strongly encourage submissions by individuals or collectives who are interested in collaborative and experimental research practices and who are available throughout the whole duration of the festival. Submissions may come from a range of backgrounds bridging disciplines, methods and values. As a session leader you are automatically counted participant for the other sessions due to the nature of the event.

Please submit your proposal until 21.12.18 to proposal@h0.institute formatted as one PDF.

The file should include:

1. An outline of your format, process, methods and outcome
2. The maximum number of participants
3. The approximate duration
4. Requirements in terms of space and equipment needed and brought along
5. A short CV and motivation for your participation.

We will get back to all proposals by the end of 2018. For the chosen submissions travel and stay will be covered. If you apply as a collective please note, as for now, we can only guarantee travel and stay for one person per session.

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