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About me

SUMMARY

“I'm not interested in how people move, but what moves them” – this sentence by dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch is a central guiding principle for me.

 

From my youth, social justice, women's and human rights, and environmental protection have played a significant role for me. Collaborating with scientists and artists to develop experiences that make socially relevant issues accessible to a broad audience. This involves formats that incorporate a transdisciplinary, often physical and experiential approach to science and new technologies, integrating artistic practice and reflection in the humanities. Through this approach, I want to enable a diverse audience to build an emotional and positive relationship with science and technology while avoiding uncritical optimism. We need a post-disciplinary avant-garde that feeds on the integration of natural and social sciences, technology, and art, reaching for utopias, thereby achieving social realities - shunning dystopias and technological promises of salvation.

 

Art holds a prominent role in this context: for me, it provides an emotional anchor in our intricate, rapidly changing world. Artists also act as essential navigators in an uncertain future. Art helps to sound out innovative technologies, new applications, and potentially problematic societal developments. However, scientists also use creative or artistic practices, which are yet to be frequently incorporated into the organizational identity and workflows. Therefore, artiscient projects that integrate science and art and which offer opportunities for intergenerational exchange are all the more critical for me. Such transdisciplinary projects are increasingly in demand - as valuable contributions to knowledge production to respond to social challenges and crises in increasingly uncertain times in a creative and sensory way.

 

I produce short films, interactive exhibits, and large-scale and 3D installations. The outcomes are showcased at renowned exhibitions and festivals in Germany and abroad, including the German Museum of Technology in Berlin, the Ars Electronica Center and Festival in Linz, the UCLA Art Sci Center, SIGGRAPH Asia in Tokyo, the Media Art Nexus in Singapore and the Raw Science Film Festival in the USA.

 

I develop STEAM and storytelling workshops and oversee and mediate an international residency program for creative professionals at a research institution. This program includes participatory STEAM courses for students that meld science, art, and technology, fostering multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge exchange.. In collaboration with a software architect and dance performers, I created motion-sensitive software that allows dancers to enhance their physical appearance. This innovation led to an interactive exhibition encompassing photography, film, and performance art.

 

I studied biology and comparative religion in Bremen. I am trained as a cognitive behavioral coach and have run my own business. I wrote my interdisciplinary diploma thesis on ritualization and female genital mutilation, covering aspects of behavioral biology and religious and cultural theory. I also studied the neurobiology of teaching and learning, interspecies communication, and the physical and acoustic behaviors of short-finned pilot whales. The insights gained from this research have been incorporated into the development of protective strategies for the animals.

 

​I currently work as a producer, consultant, and creative director for and with international artists, organizations, institutions, and companies. I am also Head of Science Engagement at a software-orientated research institution for digital medicine.

Bianka Hofmann, London
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