Herbert W. Franke 100 – The Centennial FUTURE
Ahead of the Curve: Coding the Future
In 2027, the Foundation will celebrate Herbert W. Franke’s 100th birthday together with the generative art and science fiction community. The major HERBERT W. FRANKE 100 project consists of several events, including new Summits and a scientific symposium, as well as performances that will take place with renown partners in Europe, America, and perhaps even in Asia. The Foundation has also launched several art projects in collaboration with the Generative Art Community, such as ASTROPOETICON and HWF goes AI, that will be performed during 2027. We will provide regularly updated information on this page from now on.
January 9th, 2027, 10:30 pm – Planetarium Bochum
KOSMISCHE KONSTRUKTIONEN
Dome Nocturne der Ausstellung Franke /Jäger im Museum Folkwang
Opening of the Celebration Year
The ceremonial opening of the centenary year featuring the HERBERT W. FRANKE 100 events will take place as part of the finissage of the exhibition Herbert W. Franke / Gottfried Jäger. Art and Construction at Museum Folkwang at January 9th & 10th. The exhibition will open on October 16, 2026, and run until January 10, 2027.
February, 6 & 7, 2027 – London, St. James’ Church Goldsmith
SYMPONY OF THE ELECTRONS
Herbert W. Franke and Huichuan Wang
SYMPHONY OF THE ELECTRONS is a 30-minute immersive multimedia performance created by Huichuan in close coordination with the Herbert W. Franke Foundation as a tribute to the event series HERBERT W. FRANKE 100. It is based on Herbert W. Franke’s generative photographs from the 1950s, which were brought to “life” by Huichuan Wang using artificial intelligence trained by Franke’s early digitized works. The exhibition is open to the public in St. James’ Church over the weekend between 9 AM and 6 PM.
The opening will take place on Friday, February 5, 2027, from 2 PM to 4 PM. Admission by invitation only.
March 18 & 19th, 2027 – V&A London
CREATORS, THINKER, AND SPACES
Herbert W. Franke Centenary Summit
an event in cooperation with the Victoria and Albert Museum London (V&A)
Symposium and Art Performances
with Rebecca Allen (computer art pioneer), Peter Beyls (computer art pioneer), Michael Connor (CEO Rhizome), Douglas Dodds (art historian and former senior curator of V&A), Ernest Edmonds (computer art pioneer), Charlotte Kent (Professor of Visual Culture & Autorin), Mario Klingemann ( pioneeer of AI art), Jonas Lund (concetional media artist), Lev Manovich (Presidential Professor of Computer Science & Medientheoretiker), Frieder Nake (computer art pioneer) Casey Reas (Professor of Design Media Arts, co-creator of Software Processing & generative artist), Margit Rosen (Kunsthistorikerin, ZKM Karlsruhe, Head of Collections, Archives & Research), Sasha Stiles (AI artist) and others.
March 18 & 19th, 2027 – London
ASTROPOETICON 2027
The Generative Art Community is Celebrating its Visionary
16 space poems by Herbert W. Franke (English edition), presented in an immersive adaptation by members of the worldwide generative art community. First public preview in a mobile 6m dome erected during the Summit in the V&A.
May 14th, 2027 – Science Museum Vienna
DIE WELT – EIN AUTOMAT? (in German)
Code, Kunst, Kosmos: Hommage an Herbert W. Franke zum 100.
an event in cooperation with the Science Museum Vienna
with Peter Aufreiter (Director General Science Museum Vienna), Lilli Hollein (Director General Museum für angewandte Kunst)
Dietmar Dath (Novelist & Writer), Werner E. Gerabek (Professor of Science History), Imre Koncsik (Professor of Systematic Theology, Philosopher, and Essayist), Susanne Päch (Foundation Herbert W. Franke), Peter Schattschneider ( Professor of Physics & Novelist).
May 14th, 2007, 9 pm – Planetarium Vienna
Late Night Special ASTROPOETICON 2027
The Generative Art Community is Celebrating its Visionary
16 space poems by Herbert W. Franke (in English), presented in an immersive adaptation by members of the wolrdwide generative art community.
May 16th, 2027 – Astronimical Center Rijeka
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF LIGHT 2027 / GLOWING GLOBE
Herbert W. Franke – 100 Years ahead the Curve, lecture by Susanne Päch, and a fulldome show of immersive science fiction stories of Herbert W. Franke in the Planetarium of the Center: A Leap into the Void (directed by Sergey Prokofyev), The Evolution Game, The Green Comet.
June 28th – July 2th, 2027 – University Innsbruck
THE NEXT DECADE OF SPELEOTHEM CHRONOLOGY
Celebrating Herbert W. Franke’s Centennial
An international expert symposium by invitation only • part of the Herbert W. Franke 100 event series • For scientists in paleoclimatology • University of Innsbruck, Faculty of Geo- and Atmospheric Sciences
September/October 2027 – New York
GENERATIVE ART SUMMIT
Celebrating the 100th Birthday of a Visionary
Symposium and art performance
More events, exhibitions and immersive performances to come
HERBERT W. FRANKE 100 — ASTROPOETICON
To mark its centennial year, the foundation has launched the multimedia project ASTROPOETICON. It is based on a cycle of poems of the same name, which Herbert W. Franke wrote in 1979 for an illustrated book by the space artist Andreas Nottebohm. The 16 poems deal with the physical laws governing the cosmos and its evolutionary processes leading up to the emergence of life. The foundation has invited multimedia artists from three continents to re-interpret the poems in a multimedia format for fulldome and immersive theater. The entire cycle will premiere in 2027 at one of the HWF 100 events and will be shown at different interntional locations throughout the year.
HERBERT W. FRANKE 100 — SYMPHONY OF THE ELECTRONS
In March 2026, HWF goes AI was launched—a collaborative project between the Foundation and Goldsmiths, University of London and the young artist Huichuan Wang. Here is an interview with interesting background information to the project that will lead to a 30 minutes immersive performance SYMPHONY OF THE ELECTRONS.
This research initiative explores how modern AI can breathe new life into the visionary concepts of a pioneer of computer art. As early as 1957, Herbert W. Franke foresaw the transition from his static generative artworks to moving processes—something he was unable to realize with the technical means of that era.
At the heart of this research is a profound shift in perception: Franke’s early works are no longer viewed as mere static images, but as visual artistic records of dynamic mathematical processes. The artistic implementation is led by Huichuan Wang, a recent graduate of the Master’s program in Computational Arts. As a research assistant working alongside Prof. William Latham and Dr. Rachel Falconer, she contributes to the School of Computing’s research agenda in the field of AI and art. The 30 minutes immersive multimedia work of Franke’s early generative art from Lichtformen to the Tanz der Elektronen will be publicly showcased during the 2027 Herbert W. Franke centennial celebrations at different locations.
The EDITION HERBERT W. FRANKE on the Occasion of the HERBERT W. FRANKE 100 Event Series
In October 2026, the first two volumes of the Edition Herbert W. Franke will be published, featuring key non-fiction and academic books by Herbert W. Franke. Released by Deutscher Kunstverlag, these volumes are created in cooperation with the Herbert W. Franke Foundation and edited by Susanne Päch. In addition to the title book, each volume includes further articles by Franke (most of them first time in an English translation) from the Franke manuscript database at ZKM Karlsruhe. Furthermore, two or more scientists and scholars from various disciplines—such as art history, media theory, philosophy, media theory, information technology, and the natural sciences—provide commentary on each book.
Edition Herbert W. Franke 1
Art and Construction / Kunst und Konstruktion
(First publication 1957 – release date October 2026)
Scientific Contributions: Margit Rosen and Eric de Giuli
Edition Herbert W. Franke 2
Computer Graphics – Computer Art / Computergrafik – Computerkunst
(First publication 1971 – release date October 2026)
Scientific Contributions: Grant D. Taylor and Martin Warnke
Edition Herbert W. Franke 3
The P-Principle / Das P-Prinzip
(First publication 1995 – release date spring 2027)
Scientific Contributions: Hans Esselborn, Stephan Kempe, Imre Koncsik, Peter Schattschneider, Christoph Spötl
Edition Herbert W. Franke 4
I: HWF / Ich: HWF
(First edition – release date spring 2027)
Personal Reflections: Heike Piehler