De
Arts+HealthEventsProjects

New perspectives on health.

  • Echo Chamber: What do you see when you come face to face with yourself?

    Multiple institutions

  • Scientifica 2026: Can art make us healthier?

    Multiple institutions

  • Marina Abramović - THE BUS

    University of Zurich

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  • Awakening art stories: Workshops for people with dementia

    Multiple institutions

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  • Artefacts of the Future - Ethical Echoes in Medicine

    ETH Zurich

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  • Creativity as part of rehabilitation: an art workshop at the children’s hospital

    Multiple institutions

  • Hearing pictures, experiencing art: Guided tours for people with visual impairments

    Kunsthaus Zürich

  • Art, Medicine and Health Combined

    Multiple institutions

  • art.in: Culture, Art and Young People's Mental Health.

    Multiple institutions

  • Connect: Dancing with Neurological Challenges

    Multiple institutions

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Artefacts of the Future

Seven speculative artefacts give concrete form to possible developments in medicine and technology. The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on bodies, care, self-determination, and identity in an age of technological change.

In collaboration with researchers from the Health Ethics and Policy Lab and the Interactive Visualization and Intelligence Augmentation Lab at ETH Zurich, European artists developed objects that embody visions of medical and technological futures.

The works trace a path from the beginning of life to beyond death. They engage with fundamental human aspirations — to create life, expand the mind, and transcend biological limits — and make visible the values, assumptions, and tensions these aspirations carry.

A bespoke AI system, "AI Echo", gives the artefacts a dialogic voice, inviting visitors into personal reflection. In doing so, the exhibition becomes an ethical laboratory — one in which technological developments appear not as inevitable, but as open, negotiable, and shaped by society.

Institution

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A project by ETH Zurich, created for SNF Nostos 2026 with exclusive support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). With special thanks to the SNF Nostos 2026 team and to all those who made this project possible.

Credits

Director: Prof. Effy Vayena
Artistic Director and Curator: Dr. Joanna Sleigh
Conceptual Development and Curation: Dr. Alessandro Blasimme and Eirini Petrou

Development of "AI Echo": Dr. Rita Sevastjanova, Kirill Heitzler and Prof. Mennatallah El-Assady, in partnership with ElevenLabs

Artists and Artefact Producers: Nikolas Athanasopoulos, Richard Beckett, Jan Contala, Erzë Dinarama, Olaf Egner, Johanna Jonsson, Jessica Lundin, Iacopo Neri, Pietro Odaglia, Levent Ozruh, Massimiliano Pelletti and Hangchuan Wei

Scenography: Burri Mahlknecht Szenografen Graphic Design: Tommaso Prinetti Photography: Arthur Heck

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