Live, love, party, and work with robots non-stop for 42 hours: from March 15 to March 17, 2019, the META MARATHON 2019 is dedicated to the subject of robotics. Not only can visitors participate in workshops, talks, and performances, they can also share their living space with robots, including the opportunity to spend the night at the NRW-Forum and meet arguably the most famous robot in the world, Sophia.

What happens when robots leave the industrial context and become part of our everyday lives? What must society be prepared for if automated processes are being performed by machines and decisions are being made without human intervention? How do robots change our actions and feelings? Are machines becoming more human or are human emotions becoming more mechanical? Can robots help us relax and slow down, and what does a culture of intelligent robotics look like?

The META Marathon brings together digital visionaries, artists, researchers, creatives, and visitors and will transform the NRW-Forum into a living lab where visitors can participate in workshops, talks, and performances and live together with robots.

Entrance

The entrance fee is 42€, reduced 25€, which includes 42 hours of festival, food, drinks, and a place to sleep. Information on tickets and the program is available at: https://www.metamarathon.net/.

Start: Friday, 15 March, 7 p.m.
End: Sunday, 17 March, 2 p.m.

With Sophia, Alter 3, Marco Donnarumma & Marghertia Pevere, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Karin Harrasser, Christiane Miethge, Nadja Buttendorf, Claire Cunningham, Fei Liu, Shirley Ogolla, the Iceberg Robots, and many more.

The festival director for the second edition of the digital happening is programme developer, lecturer and creative producer Jasmin Grimm

The META Marathon 2019 is in cooperation with HI, ROBOT! Das Mensch Maschine Festival (The Human Machine Festival), which takes place from March 13 to March 31, 2019 in Düsseldorf. HI, ROBOT! is a themed festival about the future of the human body, initiated by the tanzhaus nrw in cooperation with the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf and the Black Box—Kino im Filmmuseum, and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. www.hi-robot.de

META is supported by the Beisheim Foundation and the KomKuk, and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Paul Kohtes, founder of the Identity Foundation (https://www.identity-foundation.de/) supports META MARATHON.

Design is by Selam X.

META Marathon 2018