KISD _TH Köln | International Transdisciplinary Conference | Summer 2026
PATICIPATORY MEMORY, COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION: Connecting Institutions and Communities, 2 July 2026
Organisation: Dr. Alexander van Wickeren & Prof. Dr. Carolin Höfler (TH Köln)
The KISDconference contributes to ongoing debates on gender, ethnicity and social class in relation to cultural conceptions and artistic representations of the past. It does so by examining the involvement of co-researchers from art and cultural institutions, as well as civil society initiatives – including those from marginalised communities. Participatory approaches in art and cultural studies have gained increasing prominence in recent years. These approaches foster forms of knowledge production, developed collaboratively within broader social contexts, rather than being defined exclusively within the framework of institutionalised research. However, studies of cultural memory often fail to integrate participatory methods that ensure cultural and social actors are actively involved in shaping project design, research questions, and analysis. The KISDconference aims to advance participatory memory studies that approach cultural memory in an artistically, socially, and inclusively engaged manner. It addresses the general challenges and opportunities of participatory methods in transdisciplinary research, and shares the experiences of memory researchers who have employed these approaches. The event also seeks to initiate new collaborations with other researchers.
Panels
I. Chances & Callenges
II. Exploring Experiences
III. Spaces of Memory
IV. Alternative Practices
Language
English
Date
2 July 2026
Venue
Köln International School of Design of TH Köln, Ubierring 40, 50678 Köln
Funded by
PLan_CV [BMBFTR Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space & GWK Joint Science Conference] & KISD/TH Köln
PROGRAMME
Thu, 2 July 2026
09:00–09:15 Welcome & Introduction
Carolin Höfler & Alexander van Wickeren
I. CHANCES & CHALLENGES
09:15–10:15 Jonathan Ngeh, University of Cologne:
Doing Research With, Not On: Ethics of Knowledge Co-Production (Keynote lecture)
10:15–10:30 Coffee break
II. EXPLORING EXPERIENCES
10:30–11:00 Red Chidgey, King’s College London:
Activist Collaboration: Exploring Methods for Equitable Memory Work
11:00–11:30 Felix Fuhg, eCommemoration Körber-Stiftung:
The Past as a Participatory Medium: Rethinking Memory Culture in the Post-Digital Age
11:30–12:00 Sandra Vacca, ICOM International Committee for Collecting:
Co-Making Memory? Participatory Research and the Postmigrant Museum
12:00–13:00 Lunch break
III. SPACES OF MEMORY
Co-Research with Bebero Lehmann, DOMiD – Documentation Centre and Museum of Migration in Germany
13:00–13:20 Daniel Lohmann, TH Köln:
Whose Cultural Heritage? The Power Station on the Zanders Site in Bergisch Gladbach as a Reflection of Architecture, Industrial History and Migration
13:20–13:40 Yvonne Lober & Carolin Höfler, TH Köln:
Boundaryma(r)king: Mediating (Im)material Memory Along the Inter-Entity Boundary Line, Bosnia and Herzegovina
13:40–14:10 Comment and discussion
14:10–14:25 Coffee break
IV. ALTERNATIVE PRACTICES
Co-Research with Fabiola Arellano Cruz, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum Köln
14:25–14:45 Simon Meienberg, TH Köln; Sandra Kurfürst, University of Cologne; Sevi Bayraktar, Cologne University of Music and Dance & Wan Issa, Kurdish cultural researcher:
Moving Memories: Embodied Acts of Collective Remembering through Dance and Theater
14:45–15:05 Marc Pfaff, Berlin University of the Arts/Technical University Berlin & Jonny-Bix Bongers, curator and researcher, Berlin:
Imagining Alternative Archives
15:05–15:35 Comment and discussion
15:35–16:15 Final Discussion
with Wrap-Up by Glenda Obermuller, Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, and Simon Meienberg, TH Köln
During the conference, the speakers, co-researchers and guests can visit the HYPERMEMORIES Digital Remembrance Culture in the Anthropocene exhibition at KISD, which explores new forms of digital archives, virtual reconstructions and alternative memory systems. Integrated Design and Architecture students developed projects questioning how heritage is selected and preserved, and considering how audiovisual technologies could reimagine these collective memories. The exhibition emerged from an academic seminar and a short project supervised by guest lecturer Lena Renz (Design Theory and Research), in collaboration with the DFG funded Research Impulse 115 Cultural Memory in Crisis and the Faculty of Architecture at TH Köln, MA specialisation in Spatial Strategies.
Organisation: Lena Renz, Integrated Design Researcher
Exhibition participants: Elias Chanel, Max Dreyer, Claire Eo, Marie Goldbach, Julian Gossler, Chiara-Celine Hofmann, Alicia Huntgeburth, Annika Mechelhoff, Lotte Mödden, Meike Raupach, Phillip Schulz, Janko Stein, Arav Tewari, Jakob Troll, Davide Vignando
Images: Janko Günter Stein and Alexander van Wickeren
