Herbert W. Franke in Munich, Berlin, Japan
Just in time for Herbert W. Franke’s 99th birthday at May 14th, the international festival Various Others opens its doors in Munich. Additional events featuring Herbert W. Franke are scheduled to take place at various locations in the near future. These events will focus on both his visual and, above all, his literary works, paving the way for events this year, followed by the upcoming major anniversary celebration in 2026, during which the foundation will pay special tribute to its namesake. Here is an overview.
Various Others (VO) – May 14-24, 2026
at many locations in Munich
Dynamic apple II programs from 1982 in a historical setting
Various Others (VO) is an annual international festival for contemporary art since 2017. This year it will include technology venues, among them Apple. The host venue for VO in the heart of Munich is Apple’s European Center for Silicon Design on Karlstraße. What could be more fitting than to showcase a pioneer of generative art here—an artist who has played a pivotal role in shaping today’s generative art? He influenced generative art through his theoretical writings and his own art works, among those animations on the iconic Apple II. Curator Margit Rosen presents the tension by juxtaposing Franke’s classic programs from 1982 with works by artist Harm van den Dorpel: “While Franke sought to reveal the beauty of mathematics, van den Dorpel is interested in the moment when a system reaches its limits. Both rely on sets of rules—and on the moment when calculation gives rise to something that eludes control.”
The historical presentation of Franke’s programs was also made possible with the ZKM Karlsruhe, Horst Oberquelle and Marton Juaresz from the Computer Museum Hamburg, and the Association for the Preservation of Classic Computers (Verein zum Erhalt klassischer Computer e.V.). The foundation extends its heartfelt thanks for the help to present three of Franke’s historic apple-II-animations at this occasion.
As part of Various Others, Franke’s works are not only on display at Apple. Three of his early oscillograms of the series Tanz der Elektronen, created in the 1950s and using an analog computer, can be seen at the ERES Foundation—which belongs to the VO Association. They are part of the current exhibition Seeing the Unseen. Quantum physics and art as entangled worlds.
Fulldome Festival Fukuoka – July 19,2026, and July 22, 2026
Fukuoka, Japan
World Premiere „A Leap into the Void“
The world premiere of A Leap into the Void will take place on July 19 at the Fukuoka Fulldome Festival in Japan. At the subsequent IPS conference, Susanne Päch will give a presentation on this and two other productions featuring a science fiction series of stories in which Franke explores humanity’s big questions: Is there a creator—and does the evolution of the cosmos have a purpose?
Festival der Zukunft – July 2-5, 2026, 2 pm
Deutsches Museum, Munich
As part of the public Family Days at the Festival of the Future, a 30-minute generative art production will be presented at the Planetarium on July 4, accompanied by a talk explaining the background. The production by the Herbert W. Franke Foundation stems from an international open call, CONTACT ATTEMPT, in which the global community of generative artists was invited to create a work to mark the 50th anniversary of the first message sent into space to an alien civilization in 1974. Six finalist works have now been selected by the foundation.
Metropol Con Berlin – A multimedia Event for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror – 2.-5. Juli 2026
silent green Kulturquartier, Berlin
SF-Cycle – part of the festival’s cinema program
Metropol Con Berlin 2026 – where “Con” stands for “convention” – is the official annual meeting of the Science Fiction Club Deutschland. This year, the event is also hosting this year’s Eurocon of the European Science Fiction Society, which honored Herbert in 2016 with its highest award, the Lifetime Achievement Award. The program, which has a strong multimedia focus this year, will feature a multimedia adaptation of the foundation’s sci-fi cycle of three science fiction short stories penned by the physicist. The Foundation has visualized these narrated stories in multimedia productions. All stories are narrated in both German and English and showing them in a variety of ways.
Fulldome Festival Jena – celebrating the 100th birthday of the Jena planetarium – July 15-19, 2026
Europaen Fulldome Premiere „A Leap into the Void“
This extraordinary production will celebrate its European fulldome premiere at the Fulldome Festival in Jena. Founded in 2007 by Micky Remann, it is the world’s first fulldome festival ever. This year is a particularly special occasion in Jena, as the planetarium—located on the grounds of the Zeiss company, which invented this technology—is celebrating its centennial, opening with the Festival for its 100th birthday.