Transformation in the changing world: A public HAT research symposium for arts and sciences on change and complex systems
Time
Why do ideas and art styles evolve, new strains of microbes emerge, ecosystems collapse and reassemble, industries rise and decline, civilisations arise, prosper, and go extinct?
We are living in an era of instability. Our climate, ecosystems, societies, and cultures are constantly changing. Yet, this is not always easy to perceive. To understand change, we look at it through the lens of transformation. How do systems become? How do they adapt? How do they vanish?
The symposium gathers together researchers and practitioners, as well as artists and community builders, to discuss patterns of change in complex systems - nature, cultures, and societies - and to foster long-term thinking on sustainable futures.
Programme
Open circle & coffee from 10 am
- Welcome to the HAT research project, Leo Lahti, Turku
- Modeling complex living systems, Indrė Žliobaitė, Helsinki
- Transformation in economies: Renewal and changing composition, Mirva Peltoniemi, Tampere
Research keynote: Amir Vudka, Amsterdam
- Anomalous Intelligence: AI at the Threshold of Myth and Magic.
Lunch & tour at Koroinen Living Culture House after noon
HAT Research talks:
- No cycling renaissance, no sustainability transition in transport? Carlos Lamuela-Orta, Helsinki
- Memory, Language, and Change. Donald Killian, Helsinki
- Queer Death Ecology - transforming systems through creative dying across scales. Aura Raulo, Oxford.
Arts keynote: Alvar Gullichsen, Artist.
- Reflections on art and transformation.
Panel & discussion:
- Is the future predictable?
Circle closing by 5 pm
HAT project is a multidisciplinary research initiative funded by the Kone Foundation. We organize events bringing together artists and scientists to build an in-depth understanding of the shape, nature, and meaning of change in complex systems. For more information, see: blogs.helsinki.fi/hatresearch/about
The event will take place at the premises of the Koroinen Living Culture association, which organises open events, workshops, and community activities on sustainability and culture. More info: koroinen.info
Keynote introduction
This lecture argues that contemporary AI cannot be understood solely through technical or sociopolitical analysis; it must also be situated within the mythic, magical, and mystical imaginaries that have long shaped moments of transformation in human–nonhuman relations.
I examine how AI revives ancient archetypes and how these symbolic frameworks continue to guide public discourse, technological ambition, and our collective hopes and fears. From the Golem and Pandora to The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell, AI inherits a dense mythotechnical lineage that intersects with ancient wisdom traditions, cybernetics, singularity theology, transhumanist eschatology, and modern occult revivals. These imaginaries matter: they shape how we interpret the transformative power of AI and determine which forms of nonhuman intelligence we are prepared to recognize.
AI is not merely computation but a site where mythic patterns and suppressed traditions resurface in coded form, structuring our expectations of technological transformation. Reengaging these imaginaries critically is essential for imagining alternative - and better - futures.
