Digital Sovereignty for Art Academies

Artistic practices are undergoing a fundamental shift as a result of digital transformation – and this cannot happen at the expense of artistic freedom.

For art universities, this means that digital sovereignty is not optional, but essential: It enables a self-determined, secure, and reflected approach to digital tools, data, and infrastructures.

The joint project “Digital Sovereignty for Art Universities” is pursuing the goal of shaping digital teaching and working environments at art universities and colleges in a way that ensures artistic practices remain free, experimental, and critical within the digital realm.

Project Goals

Based on the guiding principles of sovereignty, openness, autonomy, and sustainability, the project has two closely connected main goals:

  • Building future-proof digital infrastructures that fulfill the needs of art universities, and
  • Establishing sustainable cultures of digital self-determination among students and staff.

Studio for Digital Sovereignty

At the core of the project, the Studio for Digital Sovereignty serves as cross-institutional development, advisory, and transfer structure. The Studio bundles expertise, coordinates project activities and implements the project goals. Working together across multiple institutions creates the framework for establishing digital sovereignty in the long run and effectively anchoring it beyond the duration of the project.

The studio works in three central aspects of tertiary art education:

  • Research data management and interface development (ABK Stuttgart)
  • Cooperative teaching and learning (Kunstakademie Karlsruhe)
  • Documentation, archiving, and publication of artistic practices (HfG Karlsruhe)

Across these areas, university-specific solutions are developed, shared throughout the network, and documented as best practices. In doing so, the Studio takes part in shaping digital transformation for art and design universities and colleges everywhere.

Practices of Cooperation

Impulses for the joint project “Digital Sovereignty for Art Universities”

Symposium at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe together with Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart.

Karlsruhe, November 4–6, 2026

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