Difracta '26

The programme is organised around four thematic blocks dedicated to the epistemological, ontological, methodological, and ethical dimensions of the quantum paradigm.

The festival features five keynote lectures delivered by Maciej Lewenstein (ICFO), Vlatko Vedral (University of Oxford), Evelien Geerts (University College Cork), Femke Snelting (The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest), and Mónica Bello (DALI / Arts at CERN).

Each keynote lecture is followed by four simultaneous laboratories, for which prior registration is required. Conceived as spaces for creation, experimentation, and research, these laboratories provide participants with the opportunity to engage practically and critically with the questions raised during the plenary sessions.

The sixteen laboratories will be led by Pep Vidal, Anja Groten, Peter Teunissen, Claudia Claremí, Abelardo Gil-Fournier, Sonia Contera, Josep Perelló, Antonio Gagliano, Astrid Schrader, Ellen G. Richardson, Blanca Pujals, José Luis de Vicente, Jara Rocha, Lucía C. Pino, Lara García Díaz and María García Ruiz, as well as the Ludic Thinking Laboratory, formed by Antonio R. Montesinos and Susana Rodilla. The programme also includes three performative activations by Dr. masharu, Reiko Yamada, and Lúa Coderch.

Day 1 · Epistemology and Ontology

9.30–10.30
Artistic Activation
Dr. masharu — The Museum of Edible Earth

Block 1 · Epistemology
How do we produce knowledge?
This block explores how knowledge is produced and how instruments, observational devices, and material conditions participate in shaping what can be observed and known. Drawing on the notion of diffraction, it examines how methodological decisions determine what becomes visible, what counts as evidence, and what remains outside observational frameworks.

10.30–11.30
Keynote Lecture
Maciej Lewenstein (ICFO)
Diffraction, Measurement and Phenomena in Quantum Physics

11.45–12.45
Simultaneous Laboratories (choose one)

• Devices of Observation — Pep Vidal
• Producing Evidence in Art and Science — Anja Groten
• Infrastructures and the Production of Evidence — Forensic Architecture / Peter Teunissen
• Conditions of Perception and Observation — Claudia Claremí

Block 2 · Ontology
What understanding of reality does quantum physics imply?

This block explores how quantum physics transforms our understanding of reality. Rather than a world composed of stable and independent objects, it presents a reality constituted through relationships between observers, devices, environments, and phenomena. This shift invites us to rethink what we understand by existence, observation, and reality, as well as the role of scientific, artistic, and design practices in shaping what we consider real.

13.00–14.00
Keynote Lecture
Vlatko Vedral (University of Oxford)

15.30–16.30
Simultaneous Laboratories (choose one)

• Relational Agency — Abelardo Gil-Fournier
• Reality After Quantum Physics — Sonia Contera
• Distributed Authorship — Josep Perelló
• Relational Cartographies — Antonio Gagliano

16.30–17.30
Artistic Activation
Reiko Yamada — Field of Interference

Day 2 · Methodologies and Ethics

Block 3 · Methodologies
How do we research and create from this understanding?

This block explores diffraction as a methodological practice for research and creation. Inspired by the work of Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, diffractive methodologies understand methods not as neutral tools applied to a given reality, but as configurations that participate in the production of what can emerge, be observed, and acquire meaning. From this perspective, researching and creating involve designing the conditions that make particular phenomena possible and examining the decisions, inclusions, and exclusions that contribute to their configuration.

10.00–11.00
Keynote Lecture
Evelien Geerts (University College Cork)

11.15–12.15
Simultaneous Laboratories (choose one)

• Designing Apparatuses: How to Produce Phenomena — Astrid Schrader
• Practising Diffraction — Ellen G. Richardson
• Diffractive Readings of Texts and Processes — Blanca Pujals
• Documentation and Writing as Part of the Phenomenon — José Luis de Vicente

Block 4 · Ethics
What responsibilities emerge from these practices?

This block explores the responsibilities that emerge when research and creative practice are understood as interventions that participate in shaping social, material, and ecological realities. From this perspective, ethics is conceived as an ongoing attentiveness to the consequences of our decisions and the effects they produce. Inspired by the notion of diffraction, this dimension invites reflection on what and who remains inside or outside our frameworks of observation, as well as on the responsibilities that arise from the relationships between the multiple actors—human and non-human—that make a phenomenon possible.

12.30–13.30
Keynote Lecture
Femke Snelting (The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest)

15.00–16.00
Simultaneous Laboratories (choose one)

• Distributed Responsibility in Creative Processes — Jara Rocha
• Tracing Matter — Lucía C. Pino
• Mapping Impacts Beyond the Project — Lara García Díaz and María García Ruiz
• More-than-Human Systems — Ludic Thinking Laboratory

Closing Session

16.15–17.15
Closing Keynote
Mónica Bello (DALI / Arts at CERN)

17.15–18.00
Performative Reading
Lúa Coderch

Maciej Lewenstein is an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), where he leads the Quantum Optics Theory Group. Holding a PhD in theoretical physics, his research focuses on quantum physics and quantum optics, while also contributing to fields such as mathematics and cognitive science. His work has been widely recognised internationally for its contributions to contemporary theoretical physics. Alongside his scientific career, he maintains a close connection to experimental music and is also a writer and jazz critic.

Vlatko Vedral is a theoretical physicist specialising in quantum information, quantum mechanics, and entanglement, and Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Oxford. His research spans areas such as quantum computing, cryptography, and quantum thermodynamics, and he has published more than 500 scientific papers. In addition to his academic work, he is a renowned science communicator and author of books such as Decoding Reality and Portals to a New Reality: Five Experiments to Unlock the Future of Physics, in which he explores how quantum physics transforms our understanding of reality. His work connects scientific, philosophical, and cultural questions surrounding the nature of the physical world.

Evelien Geerts is an interdisciplinary philosopher and Lecturer in Gender and Women’s Studies and Philosophy at University College Cork. Her research lies at the intersection of critical posthumanism, new materialisms, diffractive pedagogies, and Deleuzoguattarian thought. She works on issues related to the (post-)Anthropocene, identity, difference, violence, and justice through relational and non-representational approaches. She is also involved in several international research centres dedicated to posthumanities and critical ecologies. She has published and edited numerous works on gender, embodiment, technology, and contemporary methodologies.

Femke Snelting develops projects at the intersection of publishing, feminism, and free software, exploring ways of rethinking computational practices beyond dominant technological models. She participates in collective initiatives such as The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest and has led research on open access from feminist and decolonial perspectives. Her work combines research, tool development, editing, and teaching across different contexts of artistic research and experimental publishing.

Mónica Bello is a curator and art historian specialising in the intersection of art, science, and contemporary technoscientific culture. Her work focuses on how artistic practices contribute to rethinking perceptions of reality and the role of scientific knowledge. She currently directs the DALI platform, having previously led Arts at CERN, where she developed residency and commissioning programmes that foster dialogue between artists and particle physicists. Previously, she was Artistic Director of the VIDA programme at Fundación Telefónica and Head of Education at LABoral Centro de Arte.

Pep Vidal is an artist and researcher with a background in mathematics and physics. His practice explores the relationship between science, chance, and knowledge through projects that combine experimentation, humour, and conceptual rigour. He often works with complex systems, the limits of measurement, and seemingly insignificant phenomena to question how data is produced and validated. He has presented his work in international artistic and scientific contexts and combines artistic practice with research and teaching.

Anja Groten is a designer and researcher based in Amsterdam. Her work operates at the intersection of digital and physical media, design education, and collective practices, and she is involved in initiatives such as Hackers & Designers and Feminist Search Tools. Since 2019, she has directed the Master's programme in Design at the Sandberg Instituut (Rietveld Academie). Her research examines who decides what counts as knowledge—and therefore as evidence. She analyses systems of classification, demonstrates how data is structured through prior decisions, and reveals mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in the production of knowledge.

Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, dedicated to developing methodologies for investigating forms of state and corporate violence. Its team brings together practitioners from architecture, software development, filmmaking, investigative journalism, science, and law.
Peter Teunissen is a researcher in migration studies, infrastructures, and border mobilities. He is currently conducting postdoctoral research at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Bern, examining how states and supranational entities use infrastructures and natural landscapes as techniques of border control and displacement. His doctoral research focused on the Evros/Meriç River, analysing how its historical and imperial legacies have shaped contemporary mobility regimes and the experiences of people in transit.

Claudia Claremí is an artist and filmmaker whose practice encompasses video, analogue film, installation, photography, and archival work. Her work explores memory, the body, and the relationships between the personal and the collective, addressing issues such as diaspora, identity, coloniality, and human-plant relations. Trained at the International Film and Television School of Cuba and the University of the Arts London, her work has been presented at international institutions and festivals, and she has undertaken residencies at art centres across Europe and the Americas.

Abelardo Gil-Fournier is an artist and researcher. Initially trained in Physics, he holds a PhD in Art from the Winchester School of Art (UK) and has worked as a researcher at FAMU (Prague). He is currently a Leonardo Fellow of the BBVA Foundation. His practice explores the relationship between media and matter through projects combining installation, image, sound, and computational processes, investigating the interaction between living, natural, and planetary temporalities and visual cultures, systems of knowledge, and politics. He is the co-author, together with Jussi Parikka, of Living Surfaces: Images, Plants and Environments of Media (MIT Press, 2024).

Sonia Contera is Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. She studied physics and languages at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, she continued her studies in Moscow and Prague, and later in Beijing. She returned to physics in Japan, where she completed her PhD in nanotechnology at Osaka University. Her interest in this field, together with the influence of Japanese science, led her towards biology. Since 2003, she has conducted research and taught in Oxford's Department of Physics. Her work focuses on the physics emerging at the convergence of biology, nanotechnology, and information science, as well as its applications to medicine and bio-inspired materials. She is also a columnist for the Spanish newspaper El País.

Josep Perelló is Professor in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Barcelona (UB), researcher at the UB Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), and founder of OpenSystems-UB, a group dedicated to promoting scientific research projects that combine citizen participation and artistic practices. He takes part in collective citizen science experiments in public space. He has served as coordinator and curator of the Science Area at Arts Santa Mònica on behalf of the University of Barcelona, and as curator of the 2019 City and Science Biennial, among other initiatives.

Antonio Gagliano is an artist and researcher trained in Fine Arts at the National University of Córdoba and in critical theory through the PEI programme at MACBA. His practice, which combines drawing, writing, and publishing, explores the ways in which knowledge is produced, organised, and circulated. He has exhibited at institutions such as MACBA, Fundació Joan Miró, and Tabakalera. He is the author of several books and a regular contributor to Son[i]a at Ràdio Web MACBA.

Astrid Schrader works at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), human-animal studies, and feminist and poststructuralist theory. She joined the University of Exeter in 2013 as a HASS Research Fellow and became a Lecturer in SPA in 2016. She holds a PhD in History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a Master's degree (UC Santa Cruz) and a Diplom in Physics (TU Berlin).

Ellen G. Richardson is a researcher in Health Humanities and the arts based in Exeter. Her practice combines health research with the creation of fanzines as tools for communication and mediation, aiming to make health research accessible to diverse audiences and foster more open forms of exchange between communities and scientific knowledge.

Blanca Pujals is an architect, researcher, and filmmaker based between Barcelona and London, holding a PhD in Visual and Material Cultures. Her transdisciplinary practice investigates the political and material dimensions of technoscientific infrastructures, power relations affecting bodies and territories, and the geopolitics of materials. Educated at ETSAB (UPC) and institutions such as MACBA and Goldsmiths, her work has been presented internationally and combines research, artistic practice, teaching, and writing.

José Luis de Vicente is a curator, cultural researcher, and cultural manager specialising in the intersection of art, technology, science, and innovation. He served as Director of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona (2023–2025) and was the founder and Artistic Director of Sónar+D. An expert in digital culture, he has curated major exhibitions such as Big Bang Data and the Llum BCN festival.

Jara Rocha is an independent researcher, writer, and curator whose practice addresses situated forms of technological distribution from transfeminist and critical perspectives. Their work explores the semiotic-material conditions linked to regenerative justice, combining research, publishing, and pedagogical action. Based in Barcelona, they collaborate with initiatives such as The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest and teach at EINA and ESCAC, while also participating in curatorial and radio projects.

Lucía C. Pino is a visual artist recognised for her experimental approach to sculpture and installation. Her work combines industrial and textile materials with critical perspectives on the body, space, and queer ecologies, exploring the affective, political, and performative dimensions of matter. Her practice shifts the notion of individual authorship towards collaborative and interdisciplinary processes, where contingency, material conditions, and class intersections play a central role in artistic production.

Levantar el suelo (Lara García Díaz and María García Ruiz) is a research project developed through art and design that invites participants to rethink soil and subsoil from multiple perspectives. Its aim is to understand the subsoil as a material archive, where networks of interspecies interaction converge with cultural, historical, political, and technological dimensions. The project seeks to expand the understanding of soil beyond its consideration as a support, surface, or technical datum, approaching it instead as a field of interferences in which knowledge emerges through resonance between heterogeneous registers.

Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico (Antonio R. Montesinos and Susana Rodilla), founded in 2016, is a project that develops play as a tool for multidisciplinary research through collective intelligence methodologies. Its practice explores the potential of play to generate spaces of thought that challenge disciplinary boundaries, political frameworks, and dominant epistemologies through experimental, decolonial, and ecofeminist pedagogical approaches. LPL has presented its projects at institutions such as CCCB, MACBA, the Naturkunde Museum Berlin, and Matadero Madrid, and has received several recognitions, including the Barcelona Awards 2020 (ICUB). The collective is formed by Antonio R. Montesinos and Susana Rodilla together with a network of collaborators.

Dr. masharu is an artist and researcher based in Amsterdam and founder of the Museum of Edible Earth (MEE). Their practice combines scientific research, personal approaches, and cultural practices, exploring the relationship between matter, knowledge, and perception through geophagy and the study of earth as a living substance. Holding a PhD in Mathematics and trained in photography at the Photo Academy Amsterdam, they have undertaken residencies at institutions including the Rijksakademie, NIAS-KNAW, and Ars Electronica. MEE brings together a global collection of edible soils, inviting audiences to question their relationship with the environment and rethink their understanding of the earth and cultural traditions.

Reiko Yamada is a composer and sound artist originally from Hiroshima. Her practice encompasses musical composition, sound installations, and interdisciplinary collaborations, exploring the aesthetic concept of imperfection across different contexts. She holds a PhD in Composition from McGill University and has received numerous international awards and residencies. Her work has been presented at institutions such as the Sónar Festival and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at ICFO and Professor of Composition at ESMUC.

Lúa Coderch is a visual artist and holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona. Her practice addresses questions related to memory, fragility, language, and affect through video, installation, performance, and writing. She has exhibited at institutions including MACBA, CCCB, Fundació Joan Miró, and CentroCentro Madrid, and has received recognitions such as the DKV Prize at Swab Barcelona and the BBVA Foundation Video Art Grant. Her work is part of several national contemporary art collections.

Here you will find the link to reserve your discounted Early Access ticket, available until September 1:

→ Registration here

To confirm your participation, during the registration process, please select, using the corresponding drop-down menus, which workshop you would like to attend in each of the programme blocks. This information is necessary to manage the available places and organise the working groups.

If you have any questions, please contact us at eina.obra@eina.cat.