C/Change:
Prototyping Just Technological Futures

C/Change (Culture Change) — an initiative of the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and Gray Area — began in 2021 as a direct response to an unsettling period of geopolitical turbulence and disruption—compounded by climate crises and the lingering impacts of a global pandemic. Amidst the backdrop of ongoing polycrises, the project was conceived with the desire to incubate new possibilities for cultural exchange in digital spaces.

Between 2022 and 2023, the initiative supported the development of ten prototypes led by more than 30 international artists, whose collaborations explored how emerging technologies can foster cross-cultural exchange and empower marginalized voices. Exploring themes of diversity, inclusion, empowerment, social justice, and ecological crises, the C/Change artists leveraged transformative tools—such as AI, extended reality, and blockchain—to pave the way for critical developments in the use of technologies that uphold core values like open access and participation, reciprocity, mutual learning, and shared responsibility.

Embracing the same spirit of innovative digital spaces, the online platform Step into German fosters meaningful exchange between youth and their educators. With content spanning film, music, sustainability, and more, it inspires curiosity and encourages active engagement with the world around us.

To mark the reopening of the Goethe-Institut San Francisco in its new Yerba Buena district location, C/Change: Prototyping Just Technological Futures features a selection of prototypes that stand for the importance of ensuring our cultural producers and younger generations continue to take an active role in shaping our futures. The prototypes on exhibition — All Possible Rivers, Dragon’s Delusion, Missing Objects Library, The People’s Graphic Design Archive, and Tasting Tomorrow — serve as powerful reminders of the potential that emerges when we place artists at the forefront of our inquiries, reimagining just technological futures for all.