What influence do new digital technologies have on artistic and design practice? How can digital media be critically examined and used in a purposeful way? The program has been working on these and other questions since October 2024 and is developing a wide range of artistic educational formats on the use and application of digital media until the end of 2026. Together with HGB lecturers, students, artists, designers and scientists, it is designing and implementing transdisciplinary formats such as lectures, practical workshops, seminars, interventions, a symposium, online platforms and a publication. The program is cross-disciplinary and is aimed at HGB students as well as the interested public. The program is characterized by an experimental and collaborative approach as well as the processual development of sustainable teaching formats.
Questions of the program
- How does working with artificial intelligence influence creative processes?
- What power structures are perpetuated by digital technologies?
- Under what conditions do we create and maintain identities in the digital space?
- How do we as artists and designers deal with digital forms of surveillance, censorship and discrimination?
- How can digital forms of interconnectedness be cultivated in work processes and thematized in artistic and creative practices?
Opportunities for students
- Acquisition of technological, artistic, critical and communicative skills in the field of digitality
- Assistance with self-organization, networking and strengthening one's own autonomy
- Learning how to use and experiment with different digital tools
- Support with the production of digital portfolios
Through a collaborative examination of current digitality discourses, new networks are created and critical reflection on digital media is encouraged. The program supports artists and designers—with a focus on the FLINTA* group, which has so far been underrepresented in the technological field—in their entry into increasingly digitalized working contexts.
Programme summer semester 2025
Cluster I – Worlds That Build The(y) Self
This cluster explores the artistic and theoretical possibilities of digital realities. It is about the creation of alternative worlds that represent not only narrative, but also political and social counter-designs. Digital technologies are seen as tools and actors that help shape creative processes and open up new aesthetic and discursive spaces. The critical examination of the ideologies and power mechanisms behind digital systems - especially generative AI and game worlds - is a central component.Subject areas: Generative AI, world building, games, digital tools and critical interventions
Evening Lectures
AURORA DIGITALIS
Aurora Digitalis is an educational screening format dedicated to time-based digital films that create alternative worlds with game engines, among other tools, and renegotiate these worlds in their identities, virtual bodies and socio-economic structures. Through speculative narrative forms, the understanding of game mechanics and avatars, they question the ideological foundations of digital technologies and open up critical perspectives on power structures and future concepts. The screening includes films from international positions as well as HGB alumni.
Aurora Digitalis is an extension of the weekly HGB cinema Aurora. Initiated as part of (Un)Learning Digitalities with Clemens von Wedemeyer (Expanded Cinema class) and Eliza Goldox (Artistic Associate) of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig in cooperation with the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig.
Screening
Artist Labs
Liquid Coding
The Liquid Coding is a self-organised space at the HGB that enables a collaborative and reflective examination of programming practices. In an open co-learning studio setting, it offers the opportunity to deepen technical knowledge and critically discuss the political and social implications of coding.
The sessions are open to all levels of experience and begin with a sharing round in which ongoing projects, ideas, tutorials, skills and questions can be presented. The aim is to create an inclusive and experimental learning environment that consciously distances itself from hegemonic and normative technology narratives.
The sessions are open to all levels of experience and begin with a sharing round in which ongoing projects, ideas, tutorials, skills and questions can be presented. The aim is to create an inclusive and experimental learning environment that consciously distances itself from hegemonic and normative technology narratives.
Clay Printing Week
Enorê is coming to HGB to join Clay Printing Week.
It is beyond exciting to get to know their 3D printing techniques and artistic approach to ceramics and 3D technology exploring the entanglements between virtuality, physical embodiment and matter.
Primarily working with 3D printed ceramics, enorê uses clay as a catalyst to question how digital data can be mediated through physical processes, with an interest in clay's potential to hold, erode, and reconfigure form.
Their practice navigates the fluidity between states, not limited to digital or physical, examining how traces of the body persist or dissolve through multiple cycles of translation.
It is beyond exciting to get to know their 3D printing techniques and artistic approach to ceramics and 3D technology exploring the entanglements between virtuality, physical embodiment and matter.
Primarily working with 3D printed ceramics, enorê uses clay as a catalyst to question how digital data can be mediated through physical processes, with an interest in clay's potential to hold, erode, and reconfigure form.
Their practice navigates the fluidity between states, not limited to digital or physical, examining how traces of the body persist or dissolve through multiple cycles of translation.
Sound Lab
Exploring Digital Sound Montage as Artistic Practice with Patrice LIpeb and Banu Çiçek Tülü
SOUND LAB is an open format workshop that explores digital sound montage, live looping and DJing as embodied, performative artistic practices.
Participants will engage hands-on with professional DJ setups, loop stations, field recordings and audio effects, investigating rhythm, texture and spatial listening. The three-day workshop will culminate in a public performance of selected sonic works.
The lab invites students to develop their own audio practices at the intersection of sound art, improvisation, and expanded performance.
SOUND LAB is an open format workshop that explores digital sound montage, live looping and DJing as embodied, performative artistic practices.
Participants will engage hands-on with professional DJ setups, loop stations, field recordings and audio effects, investigating rhythm, texture and spatial listening. The three-day workshop will culminate in a public performance of selected sonic works.
The lab invites students to develop their own audio practices at the intersection of sound art, improvisation, and expanded performance.
AI owned by no-one
Hands-on Open Source AI – Workshop with Niels Gercama
In this workshop, Hands-on AI, Niels Gercama demonstrates how to build practical workflows using open-source tools like ComfyUI and AnimateDiff. Participants will learn how to design functioning media pipelines by integrating various tools.
The workshop is aimed at anyone curious about AI-based media production — whether you have prior experience or not. The goal is to build a foundational understanding of open-source AI and gain the skills to develop simple workflows independently.
Together, we’ll explore the topic in an accessible, hands-on, and playful way.
In this workshop, Hands-on AI, Niels Gercama demonstrates how to build practical workflows using open-source tools like ComfyUI and AnimateDiff. Participants will learn how to design functioning media pipelines by integrating various tools.
The workshop is aimed at anyone curious about AI-based media production — whether you have prior experience or not. The goal is to build a foundational understanding of open-source AI and gain the skills to develop simple workflows independently.
Together, we’ll explore the topic in an accessible, hands-on, and playful way.
Digital Reenactment as Artistic Strategy
In this seminar, the artist duo HUNITI GOLDOX will invite participants to explore digital re-enactment as a tool for reimagining historical events, myths, material transformations and erased narratives.
Through video works employing diverse artistic strategies, participants will gain access to: 3D modelling, virtual reality and immersive environments.
The seminar encourages critical reflection on the politics of representation and storytelling beyond linear time.
Through video works employing diverse artistic strategies, participants will gain access to: 3D modelling, virtual reality and immersive environments.
The seminar encourages critical reflection on the politics of representation and storytelling beyond linear time.
Invitation Writing Club
by Sohyeon Lee
on Monday, 16. June. 2025
17:00-21:00 at R3.04 HGB
▶ What we do? we each write and publish our own website invitations.
▶ Who are we? who wants to begin their code writing, who already writes code, who wants to write code with friends, who are interested in self-publishing, …
▶ What to bring?
a computer, preferably not the palm sized one & ideas for what to invite
on Monday, 16. June. 2025
17:00-21:00 at R3.04 HGB
▶ What we do? we each write and publish our own website invitations.
▶ Who are we? who wants to begin their code writing, who already writes code, who wants to write code with friends, who are interested in self-publishing, …
▶ What to bring?
a computer, preferably not the palm sized one & ideas for what to invite
Collaborations
The project is co-financed by the European Union and is co-funded by public funds on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon state parliament.