Composing Futures: Creative Impact on Eco-Social Transformation

6–7 November 2026  

mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Wien

© M. Huebener

Composing Futures: Creative Impact on Eco-Social Transformation

In the framework of Wien Modern

How can contemporary, improvised, and experimental music contribute to eco-social transformation? How can we move beyond critique towards more equitable, collaborative, and sustainable cultural futures?

Composing Futures: Creative Impact on Eco-Social Transformation brings together artists, cultural practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and audiences for two days of dialogue, experimentation, and collective reflection.

The forum approaches sustainability not only as an ecological concern but also as an artistic, social, and structural question. It asks how artistic practice can challenge established ways of working and organising, and what this means for cultural labour, institutional structures, audience participation, and collective agency.

Through artistic contributions, dialogue sessions, good-practice inputs, workshops, and co-creation labs, Composing Futures creates a space for exchange across artistic, institutional, and policy perspectives, inviting participants to imagine and test more resilient ways of making and sustaining culture.

Programme

Moderation: Antonia Eckhart & Dominik Förtsch

Friday, 6 November

09:00–09:30 | Networking Coffee & Registration

09:30–09:40 | Opening Artistic Contribution

Belma Bešlić-Gál: Pod zemljom (excerpt)

Fanny Hensel-Saal

09:40–10:10 | Welcome & Official Opening

Fanny Hensel-Saal

• Gerda Müller, Vice-Rector, mdw

• Sabine Reiter, mica – music austria

• Aleksandra Bajde, Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik – Sektion Österreich / Culture and Sustainability Lab

  
  

10:10–10:15 | Collective Breathing Exercise

Marie Helle

Fanny Hensel-Saal

10:15–10:45 | Artistic Provocation

Ricardo Tovar Mateus, mdw

Fanny Hensel-Saal

10:45–11:00 | Coffee Break

Foyer

11:00–12:30 | Dialogue Session

What Cultural Futures Do We Need for Eco-Social Transformation?

Moderation: Manuel Rivera, Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS)

Fanny Hensel-Saal

Contributors:

• Eva Bauer, City of Vienna – Culture

• Eva-Maria Bauer, Austrian Music Council

• Belma Bešlić-Gál, Zvjezdane Staze

• Simon Zöchbauer, SOIL

12:30–14:00 | Lunch Break

Foyer

14:00–14:15 | Artistic Intervention

Samu Gryllus: Soundpainting

Fanny Hensel-Saal

14:15–15:15 | Good Practice Inputs

Artists and cultural practitioners share approaches to sustainability, collaboration, and eco-social change.

Fanny Hensel-Saal

• Gwendolenn Sharp, Beyond Reducing Impacts: Towards Regenerative Cultural Practices

• Maria Rylander, Knutpunkt the network

• Emma Axberg, one eARTh

• Sara Stevanović, Composing in a Bad World: Ecological and Social Perspectives on I Thought God Can Be Found in the Danube, Parts I & II

• Mihael Hrustelj, STRUNE — Symphonica Machina et Natura

  
  

15:15–15:30 | Coffee Break

Foyer

15:30–17:00 | Parallel Workshops

Participants choose one of two parallel workshops.

• Workshop 1 | Beyond Reducing Impacts: Towards Regenerative Cultural Practices

Gwendolenn Sharp, The Green Room / GreenBeat Nexus

A0201

• Workshop 2 | Culture or Just Art?

Sven Hartberger, Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie

C0209

17:00–17:30 | Reflections and Shared Harvest

Facilitated by: Manuel Rivera, RIFS

Fanny Hensel-Saal

19:00 | Concert: SOIL – Songs from the Underground

Separate registration required.

Klangtheater, Future Art Lab

Saturday, 7 November

09:30–09:45 | Welcome Back & Introduction to the Co-Creation Labs

spiel|mach|t|raum (S0225)

09:45–11:15 | Co-Creation Labs I

Participants choose one of two parallel labs.

spiel|mach|t|raum (S0225)

• Lab 1 | Counter-Promise Scores

Ricardo Tovar Mateus, mdw

D0263

• Lab 2 | Who are the (Future) Audiences? From Audience Development to Participation, Co-Creation and Social Transformation

Matic Gajšek, InterCivis 

C0209

11:15–11:30 | Coffee Break

Bankettsaal

11:30–12:15 | World Café

spiel|mach|t|raum (S0225)

12:15–13:45 | Lunch Break

Bankettsaal

13:45–14:00 | Re-Gathering & Introduction to the Afternoon Labs

Room: spiel|mach|t|raum (S0225)

14:00–15:30 | Co-Creation Labs II

Participants choose one of two parallel labs.

• Lab 3 | Listening as Method: Curating Listening

Orsolya Kaincz

C0209

• Lab 4 | Creative Entrepreneurship as Agency

Marie-Theres Zirm, cardamom

D0263

15:30–15:45 | Coffee Break

Bankettsaal

15:45–16:30 | Sharing Lab Outcomes & Future Initiatives

spiel|mach|t|raum (S0225)

16:30–17:00 | Closing Reflections & Outlook

spiel|mach|t|raum (S0225)

Programme subject to change.

Registration

Participation in the forum is free of charge. Voluntary contributions (pay as you wish) are welcome. Registration includes snacks, coffee, and soup for lunch. Additional lunch options can be purchased at the mdw Mensa on Friday or at nearby cafés and restaurants. Separate registration is required for the SOIL concert.

Please register here.

Concept and Organisation

Aleksandra Bajde

Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik – Sektion Österreich / Culture and Sustainability Lab

Birgit Huebener 

mdw – Koordinationsstelle für Nachhaltigkeit

Doris Weberberger 

mica – music austria

in cooperation with

Wien Modern

supported by

Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport

City of Vienna Culture

District of Landstraße – Culture