Extractive Pasts, Sustainable Futures?

Extractive Pasts, Sustainable Futures? brought together 30 interdisciplinary researchers and artists to examine Lusatia’s ongoing transformation—from Germany’s largest lignite mining region to a prospective hub for renewable energy. Through site visits to former open-pit mines, solar parks, converted lakes, energy research centres, and tech start-ups, as well as engagements with Sorbian history and culture—an ethnic minority of Slavic origin—participants gained first-hand insights into the complexities of regional transition. The project interrogated how historical legacies shape infrastructural futures, revealing tensions between competing sovereignties, infrastructural monopolies, the slow pace of technological change, unsettled communities, and a scarred landscape that will take decades to regenerate. These frictions challenge dominant narratives of a seamless green transition.

The studio was organized by the Chair of Digital Cultures (Michaela Büsse, Johanna Mehl, Orit Halpern) in collaboration with the Chair of Micro-Sociology and Techno-Social Interaction (Kristiane Fehrs) and the Department for Transformative Speculation at TU Dresden, March 11–18, 2024.