Waag Futurelab is the first Zoöp that works with society as a research community, working on technology based on public values. To keep the planet liveable, people need to interact differently with their living environment. Waag Futurelab will officially launch as a Zoöp from May 2025, challenging herself to improve Waag's own relationships with the living environment by exploring alternative, ecological ways of technology design and use.
What is a Zoöp
A Zoöp is a form of organisation that focuses on people and organisations as part of ecosystems. Zoöps strive for a reciprocal relationship between organisation and ecology. Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, director of the Zoonomic Institute: ‘The Zoöp model focuses on the cooperation between humans and other life forms. How do we as humans become useful to other species?’
'Waag has been engaged in open technology based on public values for 30 years. By becoming a Zoöp, we ensure that we include the interests of humans as well as those of other life and thus put ecological values at the heart of Waag's research and work. This is how we work towards technology that strengthens democracy and minimises harm to our natural ecosystem.'
- Judith Veenkamp, head of Waag's Urban Ecology Lab
Technology en ecology
A lot of investments are done in technology, in the hope that it can save us from the climate crisis. At the same time, the ecological costs of these technologies are enormous. Judith Veenkamp, head of Waag's Urban Ecology lab, says: ‘A lot of hope is being pinned on the role (digital) technology can play in shaping the big transitions like climate, energy and food. At the same time, this technology is extractive: from the natural resources needed to get the technology working, to the data it extracts from society. This is at odds with a healthy democracy and ecology.’
What will Waag do?
As a Zoöp, Waag will explore alternative, ecological ways of technology design and use within its own work. We will critically reflect on our language: who is the audience we are targeting with the public stack? Do they include life forms other than humans? And are animals and other organisms also citizens in the Smart Citizens Lab?
In the Public Stack, Waag currently puts the perspective of citizens at the centre, but will start this year with the integration of the interests of other life.
Waag's Open Wetlab is a laboratory for open-source, open hardware and creative biotechnology. As Zoöp, Waag is exploring how to adopt more eco-friendly practices.
In Waag's Smart Citizens Lab, citizens themselves are given open-source tools to measure their living environment and learn to interpret the data. In its measurement strategies and data collection, Waag will more often also make explicit the interests for other lives. In addition, Waag will focus more on research with bio-indicators: life that can tell something about the state of their environment. For example, measuring air quality using plane trees or lichens.
Waag is supported in this learning process by Harpo ‘t Hart. 't Hart works as a curator at Embassy of the North Sea, and takes on the role of Speaker for the Living within this project. He helps Waag translate the interests of other-than-human life into the organisation's decisions.
