On the weekend of 17–18 October not only talks and performances but also the party celebrating our 25th birthday took place at the Campus of the Arts, Basel. In the Transbona Halle, company founder Valentin Spiess guided us through the colourful history of our company, not without also putting forward theses for the present and the future. He was joined in this by the three heads of our core competencies: Visitor Experiences (Anna Pfeiffer), Media Facades (Steffen Blunk) and Creative Engineering (Oliver Schwendemann). Together with numerous former colleagues who came along, the entire current team enjoyed a successful evening, which concluded with an apéro at CIVIC at the Academy of Art and Design.

Among the events organised by iart at the mesh Festival was the prominently staffed panel discussion on “Architecture of Care”, dedicated to a holistic approach to architecture. Across five sessions, architects, designers, researchers and engineers explored how the spaces around us can support our well-being and shape how we live, work, rest and connect with one another. Through practical examples, they demonstrated how care can become an integral part of the built environment. The speakers were Christine Binswanger (Senior Partner, Herzog & de Meuron), Minou Afzali (Chief Innovation Officer, Swiss Center of Design and Health), Stefan Sulzer (CEO, Swiss Center of Design and Health), Matthias Böttger (IXDM), Valentin Spiess (iart) and Charlotte Truwant (Truwant + Rodet).

Another highlight was the panel on “Ethics for Intelligent Infrastructures of Care”, which was organised by the Media Architecture Biennale (MAB) and hosted by iart. Bringing together experts and practitioners, the session explored how we can develop more democratic, community-driven alternatives to AI, rather than leaving its power and governance in the hands of a few tech giants. The discussions focused on how AI can support care, strengthen communities, and enable the fair sharing of resources, while respecting our ethical and cultural values. The hosts, Dr. Gernot Tscherteu (realitylab; Media Architecture Institute) and Prof. Martijn de Waal (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences; Media Architecture Institute), spoke with Dr. Viktor Bedö (School of Communication and Design, Royal College of Art; Studio Neumann), Dr. Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green (Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford) and Oleg Lavrovsky (EPFL; Public AI Switzerland).

As part of the mesh Festival, iart furthermore hosted two TouchDesigner workshops: one for beginners and one for more advanced participants. First, Markus Heckmann gave an introduction to TouchDesigner for interactive installations. It walked through building an interactive system from scratch so that participants could understand how the parts fit together. The result was a project to take apart, adapt and experiment with. Second, Markus Heckmann and Oliver Heyerick led a workshop exploring how to control lighting fixtures in TouchDesigner using a POPs-based workflow. A big thank you to everyone who participated!