For the workshops and pop-up events, external guests—designers, artists, and scholars—are invited. Their unique asset is the combination of their own creative practice with abstract thinking and theoretical expertise. In this way, access to the complexity of ‘wicked problems’ is enabled, and an understanding of the diversity and ethics of socio-economic contexts and technical systems is fostered. At the same time, an understanding of empathy, inclusion, creativity, and the connection between theory and practice are strengthened.

The external guests introduce student teams to specific approaches and new perspectives related to the respective topics, advancing responsible design processes and inspiring innovative methods of mediation and communication for social, ecological, and economic sustainability.

SteamSpace Artists in Residence include Agnieszka Anna Wołodźko, Bleeptrack (aka Sabine Wieluch), Daniel Wessolek, Hagen Betzwieser, Jonas Rebmann, Merlin Marski, Peter Wildman, Ole Bornitz, Posttheater Berlin, Sebastian Lotz, Vera Nowottny and more.

Bleeptrack describes herself as a Creative Technologist in order to emphasize the connection between creative skills and different technological approaches. Her work is characterized by a distinctive synthesis of scientific research and practical, experimental practice, with a focus on technology, programming, and computer science. Her academic background in computer science, combined with her creative practice in generative coding and DIY electronics, forms an unusual and compelling combination.

She uses social media not only to present her projects but also as a platform for knowledge sharing and as a multiplier within the DIY community and in the context of open educational resources.

Through her teaching activities at universities and higher education institutions, as well as her active participation in conferences, Bleeptrack has developed a broad thematic spectrum. In workshops, she combines technical knowledge with experimental methods and hands-on applications. One example is the use of Shelly Plug devices (smart plugs), which allowed students to explore fundamental principles of networked technologies and the Internet of Things in a practical way. By programming and controlling these smart home components, experimental prototypes and visualizations were created, enabling technological functions to be combined with creative concepts.

In this way, her work fosters interdisciplinary exchange, empowerment, and a broader understanding of possible technological and societal contexts. Further information about Bleeptrack’s work can be found here: bleeptrack.de, instagram.com/bleeptrack

Residencies at SteamSpace run for a few weeks at a time. What travels best is rarely the finished work — it is the way of working: how a question gets framed, what counts as evidence, when to stop.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

A residency changes the lab it happens in. Tools get built, jigs get improvised, and half of them stay on the shelf long after the guest has gone.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

The residency is deliberately short of deliverables. Working in the open, with people wandering past and asking what that is, turns out to be a format of its own.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

The lab has no back room. Whatever is being made sits on a table in the middle of everything, which changes both the work and the conversations around it.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

Every residency ends with the doors open: unfinished things on the table, a short explanation, and an hour of questions from people who were not there for any of it.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

A residency is a trade: the lab provides the machines, the room and the students; the guest provides a reason to use them differently than usual.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

Projects end and get packed away. What remains in the lab are the habits picked up along the way — a different order of steps, a new tolerance for detours.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

Some residencies treat the workshop as a rehearsal room: the equipment becomes scenery, the sessions become run-throughs, and the audience is whoever happens to be in the building.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

Guests work where the workshops happen, not next door to them. Interruption is not a side effect of the residency, it is roughly the point.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.

Every guest starts by moving the tables. How a room gets rebuilt says more about a way of working than any project description could.

The text for this residency has not been written yet. It will describe the project, the sessions with students and what came out of them.