Qualification Visit to Bochum and Essen: Stella Flatten at Before Ruins 2026
In March 2026, Stella Flatten, a doctoral researcher at the Leibniz ScienceCampus – Postdigital Participation at the Georg Eckert Institute, attended the Before Ruins conference in Bochum and Essen. Organised by the stsing e.V., the annual conference focused on the material, ecological and social legacies of industrial transformation.
A key component of her visit was participation in the case study Toxic Heritage Ruhr, which examined the ecological and discursive remnants of mining in the Ruhr region. Through workshops, field visits and discussions at the former Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen, participants explored issues such as contaminated soils, industrial legacies and processes of post-industrial transformation.
Stella Flatten also contributed her own artistic-research project to the workshop Elemental Archives: Soils, Archives and the Lived Experience of Toxic Environments. In an interdisciplinary setting, she discussed her work on soil, materiality and digging as participatory and artistic practices.
The conference provided valuable impulses for her doctoral research, particularly regarding questions of soil as archive, spatial practice, and environmental and memory politics. At the same time, the visit strengthened international networks and opened up new perspectives at the intersection of art, architecture, environmental history and postdigital research.
