When thinking about digital innovation and policy around technology we often view it either through the lens of Silicon Valley surveillance capitalism or Chinese digital authoritarianism. We don’t often think about what a European approach to innovation might look like. Francesca Bria on the other hand spends most of her time thinking about just that. In our conversation, Francesca offered insight on Europe’s role in digital innovation, how culture informs technology and how citizens can get active in the area of digital innovation and policy.

3D printing has reached a level of quality and complexity that the boundaries of what’s possible with the technology feel almost limitless. We can create entirely new shapes, geometries and materials that would be otherwise impossible to manufacture and in many industries, it’s helping to make processes more efficient and more sustainable. Julia Koerner is an innovator in the use of 3D printing in the fashion space and that’s why we took the time to sit down with her to better understand how these processes and her work are continuing to evolve.

Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China’s Countryside is the most recent book from artist and technologist Xiaowei Wang. We sat down with Xiaowei to discuss innovations in China’s countryside, agency in the tech community and how reading tarot gave them a sense of connection during a disconnected pandemic.

Ben Kidd, one half of theatre production company Dead Centre, believes theatre must have relevance to modern-day society. Together with Stefanie Schmitt, a dramaturg and stage manager at Vienna’s Burgtheater, we sat down with him to find out exactly what that means.

This episode of the podcast features Cornelia Sollfrank, an early pioneer of Net Art and Cyberfeminism. Cornelia’s early work in the 1990s explored how the, recently introduced, World Wide Web could be used to do things in a different manner. Up until this day, her work explores many themes, which are still very relevant to this day; mostly digital cultures, self-organisation through new technologies and data as a tool that can be utilised to both positive and negative effects.

Greg Lynn has been at the forefront of architecture and design since the early 2000s but his current focus is around technology that encourages us to move and enables people the opportunity to be more active.

In this episode, we talk about just that as well as the ethics of technology, sustainability in architecture and the ins and outs of robot etiquette.

Until recently, spatial experiences have been resolutely material, taking place within cities, buildings, and rooms. Over the past year, however, the pandemic has moved museums, performances, and gatherings online, into virtual environments from games and video calls to VR hubs.

To get the lowdown on how technology is rebuilding our notions of space, Episode 6 invites two architects and curators, Bika Rebek and Agustin Schang to share their take on the shifting form of architecture within our emerging hybrid reality.

There’s a lot of hype around the word data these days. But what’s less clear is its exact meaning – and its relationship with culture.

For Episode 5 of the podcast, media theorist Paul Feigelfeld is joined by technologist and entrepreneur Dr. Sabine Seymour, who recently joined the Polypoly Cooperative to give people more control over their personal data. The two debunk the many myths swirling around this hot topic, from the history of computer science to AI’s black box and the future of equitable data development.

When we’re unable to gather in person, unable to experience the magic of encounters and exchange in physical proximity, what is lost?

For the bonus Episode 4 of the Culture and Technology Podcast – recorded in German – two friends and doyennes of theatre, actor Mavie Hörbiger and costume designer Aino Laberenz pick up the phone to consider how the pandemic’s restrictions have cast new light on their metier. By calling into question the relevance of art in times of crisis, they find its role to be of existential importance.

When an object consists of bits instead of atoms, how do you preserve and display it for future generations?

For Episode 3 of the Culture and Technology Podcast, two pioneers of digital culture curation, Natalie Kane at London’s V&A and Marlies Wirth at Vienna’s MAK, discuss the digital objects and share the challenges and rewards of collecting art that tells the story of our current moment – from Amazon Echo to the Women’s March Pussyhat.