Fictionlab

Fictionlab
Name	Fictionlab
Type	Independent research collective
Founded	2012
Headquarters	Berlin
Founders	Unknown
Focus	Speculative narrative design; experimental publishing

Fictionlab Fictionlab is an independent collective focused on experimental narrative, transmedia storytelling, and speculative publishing. The collective operates at the intersection of contemporary art, digital culture, and literary experimentation, engaging with institutions such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Serpentine Galleries, Tate Modern, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Centre Pompidou. Its activities have intersected with figures and organizations including Hito Steyerl, Aria Dean, Jaron Lanier, Paolo Virno, Lev Manovich, Donna Haraway, and Bruno Latour, situating the collective within debates that also involve MIT Media Lab, University of the Arts London, Goldsmiths, University of London, Columbia University, and UCL.

History

Fictionlab emerged in the early 2010s amid dialogues shaped by events like Documenta 13, Venice Biennale, Transmediale, Sónar+D, and the rise of platforms such as Kickstarter, Tumblr, SoundCloud, GitHub, and Medium. The collective's formation paralleled debates prompted by publications and exhibitions involving Siegfried Zielinski, Mark Fisher, Jussi Parikka, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault, reflecting on archival practice seen at institutions such as British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and New York Public Library. Early projects drew inspiration from precedents like Fluxus, Situationist International, Conceptual Art, Net.art, and the practices of artists including Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Laurie Anderson, and Rainer Ganahl.

Mission and Activities

Fictionlab's stated mission emphasizes experimental forms of narrative production and distribution, aligning with conversations influenced by Frantz Fanon, bell hooks, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, and Édouard Glissant. The collective engages in curatorial experiments that reference models from MoMA, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum, Serpentine, and ICA London, while developing pedagogical formats reminiscent of programs at Rhizome, Eyebeam, Jan van Eyck Academie, and Transart Institute. Activities include workshops, residencies, exhibitions, lectures, and digital releases that have been held alongside festivals like IFA Festival, OFFF Festival, Ars Electronica, South by Southwest, and Lost Weekend.

Projects and Publications

Fictionlab's output includes collaborative publications, serialized fictions, multimedia installations, and experimental software. Notable formats echo practices from works and platforms related to McKenzie Wark, Anne-Marie Schleiner, Rosa Menkman, Trevor Paglen, James Bridle, Kate Crawford, and Cory Doctorow. Published items have been hosted by presses and journals such as Verso Books, MIT Press, Goldsmiths Press, e-flux Journal, Frieze, and Artforum, and have been distributed in spaces like ICA Philadelphia, SFMOMA, Hammer Museum, and Walker Art Center. Projects often interlace references to texts and artifacts associated with Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Samuel Beckett, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia Butler.

Organization and Funding

Fictionlab operates as a non-traditional collective rather than a formal corporation, with an organizational model comparable to networks seen in Creative Commons, OpenStreetMap, Mozilla Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and The Serpentine Pavilion initiatives. Its funding sources have included grants and fellowships from organizations such as the European Cultural Foundation, Arts Council England, German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), Stiftung Kunstfonds, Pro Helvetia, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and project commissions from institutions including ZKM, CAPC Bordeaux, and Ludlow 38.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Collaborations have connected Fictionlab with cultural and academic partners including Goldsmiths, The New School, Pratt Institute, RCA, ENSAD, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Technical University of Berlin, Leuphana University Lüneburg, and museums like Deutsche Guggenheim, Hamburger Bahnhof, Kunsthalle Basel, CCA Montreal, MASS MoCA, and Museo Reina Sofía. It has worked with artists, scholars, and technologists such as Arjun Appadurai, Nikolaj Gammeltoft, Simone Browne, Safiya Umoja Noble, Timnit Gebru, Kate Manne, and Evan Roth on interdisciplinary projects and symposia.

Impact and Reception

Critical reception places Fictionlab within discourses shaped by critics and theorists like Simon Reynolds, Claire Bishop, Benjamin H. Bratton, Nick Srnicek, Jodi Dean, and T.J. Demos. Reviews and responses have appeared alongside coverage of contemporaneous initiatives such as Creative Time, Art on the Underground, Public Art Fund, Rhizome, and New Inc. The collective's influence is noted in graduate programs and curricula at institutions including University of California, Berkeley, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rhode Island School of Design, California Institute of the Arts, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where experimental narrative and critical code studies have been integrated into syllabi alongside readings from Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, and Anna Tsing.

Category:Arts collectives