ecoSYNTH² — Call for Films, VR & Digital Performances

Vorspiel 2026 · CTM × transmediale
30–31 January 2026 · Berlin

ecoSYNTH² returns for its second edition as part of Vorspiel 2026 (CTM × transmediale), hosted by TOP Lab, Berlin’s first biolab and transdisciplinary community space.

As part of the Vorspiel 2026 program of ctm x transmediale—highlighting independent and self-organized spaces across Berlin—we open our exhibition space and basement biolab once again for screenings, discussions, and hybrid encounters between art, ecology, and technology.

ecoSYNTH² focuses on multispecies alchemy, biohacking, and ecological synthesis—where digital media meets living systems, and art becomes a tool for sensing, resistance, and transformation.

What we are looking for

We invite submissions of:

• Short films (experimental, documentary, fiction, hybrid)
  → Maximum length: 20 minutes

• Experimental cinema & moving image works

• VR artworks / 360° video

• Online or hybrid digital performances (Zoom-based or networked formats)

• Talks or artistic research contributions for a hybrid panel (in-person & online)

Thematic focus

We are especially interested in works engaging with:

• Environmentalism and ecological collapse
• Surviving Postcapitalist Futures
• Non-human intelligence 
• Critical positions against ecocide, genocide, and colonial extraction
• Anti-war perspectives and resistance to militarism
• More-than-human worlds and multispecies relations
• Critiques of speciesism and human exceptionalism
• Anti-capitalist imaginaries and speculative futures
• Digital media as a tool to amplify voices, bodies, and ecologies that are silenced

We welcome works that are poetic, confrontational, speculative, messy, unfinished, or radically tender.

Context

TOP Lab is a community-run, self-organized biolab and project space. We work with biofabrication, biohacking, citizen science, XR, and artistic research—bridging living materials and digital cultures.

For ecoSYNTH², we aim to incubate anti-capitalist futures, host critical conversations, and create space for artworks that operate between code, culture, and biology.

Screenings will take place inside our biolab basement, creating an intimate and charged environment where digital images meet living processes.

Practical notes

• This is a self-funded, non-commercial, community project
• Unfortunately, we cannot offer artist fees or production support
• Selected works will be presented as part of ecoSYNTH² during Vorspiel 2026
• Artists may be invited to join discussions or panels (hybrid format)

How to apply

Please submit your proposal via the Registration Form (link below), including:

• Short description of the work
• Technical format and duration
• Artist bio / collective info
• Links to preview material (video, documentation, website)