Futurologist at the Austrian Institute of Technology
Co-founder of the Berlin Ethics Lab at the TU Berlin
Fellow of the Robert Jungk Library for Future Issues 2022
Artist in Lab at the Fraunhofer ISI 2022
Former research assistant at the UdK Berlin
lecturer / creative / projecteer / speaker / author / consultant
Wenzel Mehnert is a futurologist focusing on the imaginaries of new and emerging technologies. He researches, writes and teaches experimental methods of futurology. In his work, Wenzel Mehnert focuses on the intersection between speculative fictions and the evaluation of new and emerging sciences and technologies (e.g. A.I., SynBio, Internet of Things, etc.). He worked as a researcher at the Berlin University of the Arts, co-founded the Berlin Ethics Lab at the Technical University of Berlin and currently lives in Vienna, where he works at the Austrian Institute of Technology and develops ethical guidelines on new technologies for the European Commission.
Partizipative und transdisziplinäre Forschung in Innovationsökosystemen - Fallstudie zum High-Tech-Innovationsprojekt NeuroSys (with Mareike Smolka, Philipp Neudert, Frieder Bögner & Stefan Böschen)
PartWiss 2023, Chemnitz, Germany
Zukunfts-Schreib-Werkstatt - Worldbuilding as a participatory method to envision the future of Salzburg
Disruptive Imaginations, Dresden, Germany
Beyond the Bad Actors - A reflection on prominent ethical issues in the context of Quantum Technologies (with Peter Remmers)
Responsible Quantum Technologies workshop @ ITAS, Karlsruhe, Germany
The Futures of Emerging Technologies - Exploring ethical and social challenges through Visioneering
QAI Ventures, Basel, Switzerland
Neugefragt - Zukunftsnarrationen weitergedacht (with Katrina Günther)
Festival der Zukunft, München, Germany
Futures of foresight (with Attila Havas)
EUSpri 2023, Sussex, UK
TechEthos - Eliciting Values & Attitudes through a scenario-based research approach (with Eva Buchinger, Michael J. Bernstein & Masafumi Nishi)
SPT 2023, Tokyo, Japan
Science Fiction und Zukunftsforschung - Kann die SF irgendetwas voraussagen? (with Klaudia Seibel, Isabella Hermann & Karlheinz Steinmüller)
Metropolcon 2023, Berlin, Germany
Transhumanistische Metaphern in der SF - Was will uns das Neurointerface eigentlich sagen?
Metropolcon 2023, Berlin, Germany
Science Art Film - a talk on the movie Akira
National Film and Sound Archive Australia, Canberra, Australia (online)
Making values work for technological innovation - A roundtable dicussion (with Clara Boissenin, Anna Aris & Greta Alliaj)
PCST 2023, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The TechEthos Game – A serious game to generate societal values towards emerging technologies (with Greta Alliaj & Lena Söderström)
PCST 2023, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Geschichten über Salzburgs Morgen - Zukunftsvisionen von Bürger:innen für die Stadt Salzburg
Robert-Jungk-Bibliothek für Zukunftsfragen, Salzburg, Österreich
Integrating Ethics - A four hour panel moderation on the practice of ethical reflection (with Nele Fischer & Sabine Ammon)
STS-Hub, Aachen, Germany
Spinning in circles – structuring the circulation of techno cultural imaginaries
STS-Hub, Aachen, Germany
Implication Fan - An epistemic tool to assist ethical reflection within development processes (with Tim Hildebrandt)
Fachtagung Cluster Integrierte Forschung, Mannheim, Germany
Envisioning Ethics - How to foster ethical reflections on futures to design responsible technologies (with Nele Fischer)
Anticipation Conference, Arizona State University, USA
Integrated ethics: Towards a transdisciplinary toolbox for research and development processes of socially disruptive technologies (with Sabine Ammon, Nele Fischer & Tim Hildebrandt)
ESDIT2022 International Conference, Leiden, Holland
K.I.-Kunst: Muse, Melkkuh oder Marketing-Gag? (with Dana Wasserbacher & Masafumi Nishi)
NTA10 «Kultur und Digitalisierung», Bern, Switzerland
„Sound Of Contagion“. An artistic research project exploring A.I. as a creative tool for storytelling (with Robert Laidlow)
Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Art?, TU Braunschwig, Germany
Neugefragt – A speculation based art project on emerging futures (with Futuresprobes & Bernd Hopfengärtner)
Fraunhofer ISI, Berlin Science Week, Berlin Germany
FUTUREBODY – The Future of the Body in the Light of Neurotechnology
Futurebody Gathering, TU Berlin, Germany
My copy and me – Imaginäre des Minduploads
Tagung "'Philosophie dürfte man eigentlich nur dichten‘ – Ethik und Literatur”, TU & HU Berlin, Germany
The Imaginaries of Merging Minds and Machines
EASST 2022 – Politics of technoscienfitic futures, Madrid, Spain
Re-Imagined Aftermath – Reflecting on post-apocalyptic imaginaries in Science-Fiction-Film
Worlds ending - Ending worlds, Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), Heidelberg University, Germany
Zukunftswelten
RWTH Aachen, Germany
The Road - reflection on the postapocalypse
Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), Heidelberg University, Germany
bio:fictions – Ko-kreative Design Fictions der Bioökonomie (with Ellery Studio and IZT)
Speculative Futures Berlin, Germany
Sound of Contagion – an artistic research project with the UdK Berlin and the University of Oxford (click here for info).
University of Oxford, UK
Solutionism, Tech Fixes & Ethical Tech – a panel discussion
Anti-Dystopian Congress, Goethe-Institut Krakow, Poland
The Imaginaries of Merging Mind and Machine
World Future Studies Conference, Berlin, Germany
Future follows Fiction - On the end of the world as we know it
Science Meets Fiction Festival, Salzburg, Austria
Tactical Science-Fiction - die Zukunft schreiben
Fabrikanten der Wirklichkeit, Kunstverein Hannover, Germany
Rethinking Futures (with Nele Fischer)
Futures Conference, Turku, Finland
Imaginary Studies – Imaginationsforschung im Kontext von TA
Societal Futures, AIT, Vienna, Austria
Technodystopian Imaginaries in Cyberpunk worlds
Visions and Narratives of AI, TU-Berlin & Cambridge University
A.I. against Extinction II
re:publica, Berlin
Prototyping Sociotechnical Systems (with Nele Fischer)
Cybioses symposium, Berlin
What desert smells like? An exercise in speculative Worldbuilding.
Hybrid Talks XXXIX – “Speculation”, Berlin
Worldbuilding & Speculative Fiction
Speculative Futures Berlin, Germany
Curating Emerging Futures
Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany
Digital ist man weniger allein?
Digitaler Salon, HIIG, Berlin, Germany
Nano Visionen (mit Christopher Coenen)
TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
A.I. against Extinction I (with Bernd Hopfengärner)
Schwarzmarkt für nützliches Wissen und Nicht-Wissen, Dresden, Germany
Speculative Performances
Future Slam, FU-Berlin
A Plea for Speculative Thinking
Solarpunk Festival, Berlin, Germany.
Speculative Foresight
Mastercourse Future Studies, FU-Berlin, Germany
Objects of Uncertainty – A speculative exploration of the Internet of Things
Drone Dancing Festival, Stockholm, Sweden
Business Science-Fictionalized (with Joachim Haupt)
Re:Publica, Berlin, Germany
Wiesmüller, S., Fischer, N., Mehnert, W., & Ammon, S. (2023). Responsible AI Adoption Through Private-Sector Governance. In R. Schmidpeter & R. (Hrsg.), Altenburger Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for Sustainable Management, CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance (1. Aufl., S. 111 - 132). Springer International Publishing.
Vögler, D., Mehnert, W., Zwiers, J., Behrendt, S., & Ricken, A. (2022). Bio:fictions – Design Fiction als transdisziplinärer Ansatz der partizipativen Zukunftsgestaltung einer nachhaltigen Bioökonomie. In J.-L. Reinermann, J.-H. Kamlage, N. de Vries, U. Goerke, B. Oertel, & S. D. Schrey (Hrsg.), Zukünfte nachhaltiger Bioökonomie: Kommunikation und Partizipation in neuen Wirtschaftsformen (1. Aufl., S. 185–200). transcript.
Mehnert, W. (2022). Zwischen Körper und Geist — Transhumanistische Metapher in der Science-Fiction. In S. Käppele, J. Kirschbauer, L. C. Recksiek, M. C. R. Lora, J. Schütt, & V. Vasileuski (Hrsg.), Körpern. Logos Berlin.
Mehnert, W. (2022). Solarpunk – Technik-Utopien der Gegenwart. Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung, 9(1), Art. 1.
Mehnert, W. (2021). Solarpunk oder wie SF die Welt retten will. In H. Kettlitz & M. Wylutzki (Hrsg.), Das Science Fiction Jahr 2021. Hirnkost KG.
Mehnert, W. (2021). De-Constructing Cyberpunk Worlds. In C. Ernst & J. Schröter (Hrsg.), (Re-)Imagining New Media: Techno-Imaginaries around 2000 and the case of „Piazza virtuale“ (1992). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Fischer, N., & Mehnert, W. (2021). Building possible worlds. A speculation based research framework To reflect on images of the future. Journal of Futures Studies, March.(25(3)), 25–38.
Mehnert, W. (2019). Dystopische Möglichkeitsräume — Near Future Science Fiction als Schnittstelle zu möglichen Zukünften. In K. D. Haensch, L. Nelke, & M. Planitzer (Hrsg.), Unheimliche Schnittstellen / Uncanny Interfaces. Textem Verlag Hamburg. textem Verlag.
Haupt, J., & Mehnert, W. (2017). Business Model Futures. In M. Heidingsfelder, S. Kaiser, K. Kimpel, & M. Schraudner (Hrsg.), Shaping Future. Frauenhofer Verlag.