Drawing on a vision of the future from a hundred years ago, this symposium asks what editorial experimentation can mean in the present and how the processes of book production – design, printing and distribution – influence the interpretation of the world. 

Organized by Rachel Robinson and Verónica Stedile Luna

An ICI Berlin event in cooperation with University of Galway.

Registration required.

The workshop is fully booked.

Part of the symposium A Hundred Years of The Future of the Book

All of the works on display are ‘book objects’ —hybrids of unique artworks and mass-produced artefacts that oscillate between sculpture and publication. Michalis Pichler uses antiquarian books as his main material and subjects them to surgical interventions that highlight their physical fragility and their cultural resilience. 

By and with Michalis Pichler

Opening Hours:
Thursday, 19 March, 14:00 – 18:00
Wednesday, 25 March, 14:00 – 18:00

Part of the symposium A Hundred Years of The Future of the Book

No registration required.

This talk explores scale and simulation. In the scientific context, simulations are often epistemic tools that can be larger or smaller or faster or slower than the target of study. But in cases where the thing of interest is that which is remote or inaccessible, the scale is simply 1:1.

Part of the ICI Lecture Series Scale.

Registration required.
Livestream available.

This workshop challenges the notion that the user is the only or most effective means of accounting for the various forms of practical knowledge and expertise involved in human-machine interaction, and proposes that a more diverse range of figures is needed.

With Tyler Reigeluth and Magdalena Krysztoforska

Organized by Magdalena Krysztoforska

Registration required.

As technological systems become increasingly distributed, embedded, and multiscalar, an ever-larger part of how they function seems to escape human perception and understanding – at least at an individual level.

Part of the workshop Beyond the User

Organized by Magdalena Krysztoforska

Registration required.

This symposium explores the possibilities and limitations of conceptual activism. What does it mean to engage in politics through concepts? Does ‘conceptual’ imply that this kind of activism has less practical relevance or lacks material power?

With Aylon Cohen, Gergana Mineva, Yv Nay, Asmae Ourkiya, Alexandra Papademetriou, Rubia Salgado, Ferdiansiyah Thajib, and Sifen Wibell

An Institute for Queer Theory (iQt) event in cooperation with ICI Berlin

Organized by Sagniquee Banerjee, Antke Antek Engel, Karolina (kasu keys) Heck, Friederike (Fred) Landau-Donnelly, Rafael Baioni, Samu/elle Striewski

The symposium is part of Queer Cohabitations, a series of events celebrating the Institute for Queer Theory’s 20th-anniversary (March-October 2026).

Registration opens on 16 March 2026.

The discussion is participatory. Audience members are invited to join the speaker’s circle. There will be continuous movement between the inner, in-between, and outer circles of chairs, as well as between languages (German, English).

Part of the symposium Conceptual Activism.

Registration opens on 16 March 2026.

Organized by James Harker, Clio Nicastro, and Laura Scuriatti for Bard College Berlin in cooperation with ICI Berlin

Autotheory, autofiction, and related genres, such as auto-sociobiography or mythobiography show the interplay between theorizations of personal life, subjectivity and historical or collective experience. This workshop explores the history of these forms, and is interested in their genealogies, as well as in the politics and aesthetics of subjectivity, especially in the moments when these practices have intensified. 

The organizers welcome proposals for 20-minute talks. Abstracts of 300 words and short bios should be sent by 15 March 2026 to  theselfatscale@ici-berlin.org

As with all events at the ICI Berlin, there is no registration fee. Any further queries should be addressed to the organizers.