The Art of Looking: Seeing As a Start of Critical Thought 

Marloes van der Werf/workshop

Description

This workshop explores how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), developed by MoMA, can spark critical thinking in higher education. Discover how to see openly, listen without judgment, and build on each other’s ideas. Through art and Foucault’s writings on parrhesia, we’ll examine what it means to think critically with an open mind. By looking together, listening deeply, and embracing difference as a source of insight rather than division, we uncover new perspectives on thinking and learning. Critical thinking begins not with judgment, but with openness: learning to look differently in order to think differently.

Biography

Marloes van der Werf is a change management consultant, teacher, and philosopher who explores the intersection of reflection, courage, and transformation. Her work focuses on how parrhesia—the practice of speaking truthfully and acting courageously—can serve as a guiding principle for change in organizations and education. Through research, teaching, and publications, she connects philosophical insight with practical action, helping individuals and teams navigate complexity with openness and integrity. Marloes combines academic depth with hands-on experience, inspiring others to approach change not as a process to control, but as a dialogue that requires authenticity, critical thinking, and moral courage.

Art-based cross-innovation: the key to unlearning 

Koen Snoeckx/presentation + reflection

Description 

In this interactive session, discover how artistic practices can foster unlearning: a process of critically rethinking ourselves and our familiar contexts. Explore ways to integrate these methods into higher education and empower students to question dominant systems and imagine alternatives. Participants will also get an exclusive preview of an open-source toolkit (launching early 2026) designed to help educators guide students from all disciplines in challenging the status quo and shaping more conscious, creative futures. 

Biography

Koen Snoeckx is the owner and director of Arteconomy, a Belgium-based organization that integrates artistic practices into policy and innovation. Holding a Master’s in Biochemistry, a Post-Master’s in Journalism, and a Teacher’s Degree, he has nearly 20 years of experience bridging the arts and other sectors. Koen previously worked at R&D centers imec (Leuven) and Holst Centre (Eindhoven), and served as Director of the cultural organization Baltan Laboratories (Eindhoven). Currently, he is also Innovation Manager at Innovatiecampus Geel and founder of the Creative Hub Moktamee in Herentals, Belgium.

The Digital Data Divide 

Sjors Groeneveld/workshop

Description

In this playful yet thought-provoking session, you’ll experience The Digital Data Divide: a festival-style experience based on speculative fiction that begins with choosing a red or blue pill and unfolds through two short films into a dialogue on the increasing collection, use, and reliance on personal data. Together, we’ll explore how data shapes humanness, connection, and control in society. Expect cinematic speculation, meaningful conversation, and fresh perspectives on privacy, technology, and humanity in a data-driven world. Ready to imagine the future? Oh, and before you join: will you take the red pill or blue? 🔴🔵

Biography

Sjors Groeneveld is a principal lecturer at Saxion University of Applied Sciences and a PhD candidate in AI in long-term care at the University of Twente. His research focuses on how healthcare professionals collaborate with AI-driven innovations and how technology shapes human values, relationships, and decision-making in care settings. Beyond academia, Sjors works closely with artists to create immersive, speculative experiences that spark society-wide dialogue on the impact of technology on our lives. Through festivals, public events, and educational settings, he explores how creative, narrative-driven approaches can help us question, imagine, and shape more human-centered technological futures.

The intimate impact of technology - an autobiographical narrative. 

Dr. Trijsje Franssen/presentation + reading

Description

My presentation is an appeal to philosophers of technology and engineering to more often integrate first-person stories, narratives, and creative methods in research as well as education. I argue this would make more space for critical reflection, questions of personal experience, embodiment, and existence. In order to explore how this could be done, I will first tell an autobiographical story about the intimate impact of neurotechnology, and second, tell about a pilot course in which my engineering students wrote their own science fiction narrative. I present both cases as potentially useful material in education and research.

Biography

Dr. Trijsje Franssen is a lecturer and post-doc researcher in philosophy of technology. She obtained her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Exeter (UK). A central theme in her research is the human/technology relationship. She focuses on the posthuman, human enhancement, and cyborgs, and particularly on the role of myths, narratives, and (science) fiction in this context. Within this framework, neurotechnology has a special place. She approaches it from an autobiographical viewpoint, being someone with the chronic disease of epilepsy who has experienced deep-brain brain research and brain surgery herself.