„The Fabric of Story – Exhibition Design in Dialogue with Material, Space and AI“

Elisabeth Ramm @Heimtextil Messe Frankfurt 15.1.2026  following world-architects.com invitation

In exhibition design, material is not decoration.
It is a narrative structure.
Quite literally the fabric of story.

Material shapes light, sound, temperature, and atmosphere. It carries meaning through presence and use.

Craft is grounded in implicit, embodied knowledge It operates through bodily intelligence: knowing through making, touch, and repetition. In contrast to explicit knowledge, which can be formalised, written down, coded, and transferred as data or rules, according to Michael Polanyi, a philosopher of science.

Craft, in dialogue with AI, expands what can be imagined. As Benjamin Bratton, a technology theorist, describes, AI functions as a synthesis engine—expanding the design search space beyond human habit and aesthetic memory. It connects references across material worlds—textiles, organic matter, glass, stone, synthetic surfaces—and generates new hybrid material imaginaries.

At Heimtextil Frankfurt 2026, we explored this perspective through Patricia Urquiola’s work, where material research, industrial production, and craftsmanship intersect. Her practice demonstrates how materials become carriers of meaning when experimentation, industry, and human sensibility are brought into dialogue.

Alcova, the Milan-based curatorial platform, framed design through “Craft is a verb,” understanding making as an active, intentional human practice.
Designers such as Stefania Ruggiero or Jonas Hejduk explore new creative possibilities at the intersection of craftsmanship, material research, and emerging digital tools, including AI—positioning technology not as a replacement, but as a space for expanded thinking and making.

Lea Schwab (Zurich), Lecture | 24th of October 10:00-11:30

The Concept Lives: Fichte’s Theory of the Concept Between Systematic Thought and Historicity

Fichte’s Political Philosophy and the                                           Philosophy of History Conference

The New School for Social Research, New York                             October 24–25, 2025

Fichte conceives his transcendental philosophy as the pursuit of an eternal, absolute truth revealed in self-consciousness, standing apart from mere historical facts.

At the same time, this truth is practically and politically active, as the self-determination of the “I” is linked to the revolutionary transformations of his time, especially the French Revolution.Thus, for Fichte, history becomes the realm of freedom and emancipation, where the universal principle of reason is concretely realized and continually renewed.