Elisava Masters' Talks - Rainer Helh

Cosmotechnics: or how we make worlds in the wake of AI

Every act of design shapes a worldview. Through the concept of cosmotechnics, this lecture explores how technologies, objects, spaces and environments embody particular ways of understanding the relationship between humans, non-humans and nature. Rather than seeing technology as neutral, Rainer Hehl proposes understanding design as a conscious practice of world-making, rooted in cultural, ecological and spatial contexts.

At a time when artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how knowledge is produced and experienced, the talk examines how designers can reconnect technological innovation with situated knowledge, embodied practices and place-based cosmologies. Bringing together critical reflection and design practice, the lecture invites participants to reconsider the role of design in cultivating meaningful futures.

Rainer Hehl is a designer, educator and researcher whose work operates at the intersection of architecture, environmental design and spatial practice. His projects explore alternative forms of learning, collective knowledge production and world-making through design. Grounded in experimentation, consciousness and co-creation, his work seeks to develop more engaged and plural ways of relating to the environments we inhabit.

Hehl is the co-founder of Studio Transforma, a Berlin-based practice that develops contemporary forms of ritual, ceremonial and contemplative design through spaces, objects and immersive experiences. He is also the founder of Polycosmos, a nomadic school for architecture, design and spatial practice that experiments with new educational models and investigates how artificial intelligence can enter into dialogue with embodied experience, situated practice and collective consciousness.