Within the project Farming the Uncanny Valley, feelings of uneasiness towards emerging societal changes in the context of current biotechnological developments are investigated. This research is intended to function as a starting point for initiating an open discourse and exploring new ways of involving a broader public into a process of co-creation.
Technological change is leading to shifts in our values and perceptions. Relevant topics and questions that are characteristic for this are identified in a close dialogue between designers and leading researchers in the field. Through these questions, possible shifts in our values and concepts as a result of technological change are formulated. The possible shift is to be experienced through installations that address the psychological tilting moment and serve as a starting point for a discourse and the development of tools that enable laypeople to articulate desirable life with these technologies.
The methods and tools will be developed and tested in a series of workshops with selected target groups in the course of 2019, and then made accessible to a broad public in a final exhibition. The three-years research project is running from 2018-2020 and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.