In 2023, Hartwig Art Foundation embarked on a five-year research journey exploring how virtual technologies—like AI, VR, AR, game engines, blockchain, metaverse tech and more—are reshaping the cultural landscape and how artists and cultural institutions can critically engage with these developments.
The aim of this journey was to bring together a community of practice—artists, technologists, and cultural institutions—through research, workshops, and events. In 2023, the first international conference, Art in the Age of the Metaverse, took place at de Balie in collaboration with Rijksakademie. During the event, we charted unexplored frontiers in art and digital technology together with experts like Ian Cheng, Micaela Mantegna, Trevor McFedries, Marina Otero, Kévin Bray, Morehshin Allahyari, Katja Novitskova and others.
Now in 2025, we’re calling our partners and global community back together in Amsterdam at a time defined by two critical tipping points: the rapid proliferation of artificial life and the simultaneous extinction of life caused by climate change.
Digital Cosmos Forum 2025 invites you for a two-day dynamic conversation with leading research initiatives and visionary artists and thinkers about this unprecedented moment. We ask: while artificial worlds blossom, and organic life crumbles, we ask: how can we nurture the web of life in a digital cosmos?
More details coming soon.
Digital Cosmos is a partnership between Hartwig Art Foundation and Leonardo Dellanoce and Arthur Steiner, from Memory Gems.
The first international conference Art in the Age of the Metaverse took place on 10 – 12 March 2023 at De Balie Amsterdam, in collaboration with Rijksakademie. More information about the programme: here
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