Berlin Science Week: Art meets science

Art and science, the two unlikely daughters of human creativity, have come together in a new way in Berlin. At the eighth “Berlin Science Week”, which ended yesterday, Friday, artists were also present for the first time, sharing their views on scientific progress and solving world problems in various forms of performance.

How the two creative worlds can touch each other and strengthen each other synergistically was demonstrated on the first day at Humboldt University. There, in a live performance in front of an audience, the artist Katharina Ziemke painted a new picture from her exhibition there, “Severe Weather”: a landscape devastated by a storm on rice paper. The action was accompanied onomatopoeically by musicians who used everyday objects such as emergency blankets, metal pipes, bells and kitchen utensils to create the sounds of a hurricane. The following artist discussion reflected on: What does the climate catastrophe mean for current artistic practice? What is the relationship between art and science?

“I am absolutely sure that science can also learn something from the creative scene,” is also the opinion of Berlin’s Science Senator Ina Czyborra. From her point of view, “emotional and vivid methods are needed to convey complex scientific projects.” Topics of the over 200 events, most of which could be attended free of charge, included the mobility and energy transition, challenges and future of work in science as well as advances in quantum technology and nuclear fusion.

The Italian Embassy in the Tiergarten provided information about current advances in nuclear fusion technology as well as the planned Einstein telescope for gravitational waves. The location of the billion-dollar project has not yet been decided: While Italy is in the running with Sardinia, Germany favors a large research facility in Lusatia: the German Center for Astrophysics (DZA).

Against disinformation

“Every year we bring together 150 organizations, 600 speakers and over 20,000 participants both online and on site to exchange knowledge, get in touch with each other and find out about the latest scientific achievements,” says Jürgen Mlynek, describing the concept of the event . As chairman of the Berlin Falling Walls Foundation, Mlynek, who was well connected to the science scene as the former president of the Humboldt University, developed the series of events from the annual “Falling Walls” conference, which always takes place on November 9th, the day of the historic Fall of the Berlin Wall, the latest breakthroughs in international research are presented in the radial system.

The science festival is also intended to increase the general population’s interest in the work and results of researchers in universities and laboratories. Not an easy task in times when the proportion of science skeptics in Europe has increased to 20 to 30 percent due to the rapid spread of disinformation on social media. The question arises as to where the successes of Falling Walls and Berlin Science Week are in tearing down this “wall of stupidity and ignorance”.

Plea for more science fiction

“I am convinced that science must produce optimistic visions for the future in order to create trust,” answers Andreas Kosmider, the new managing director of the Falling Walls Foundation. Seizing individual scientists for small-scale political goals is not helpful. “We have lost the spirit of science fiction of earlier years,” says Kosmider. “We have to paint pictures of a world of tomorrow, of a knowledge-based, free future, without wars and diseases, in harmony with nature and on the way to the stars.” With education, research and science, humanity can achieve these goals. The “Falling Walls Science Summit,” which is a kind of world science summit integrated into the last three days of Berlin Science Week, brings together, in Kosmider’s words, “the very visionaries who are shaping this new science fiction and munifies all participants in theirs respective circles, countries and environments to place these narratives«. In this way, according to the Falling Walls managing director’s goal, “we indirectly make people more curious and perhaps a little more open-minded and thus contribute to countering scientific skepticism.”

Science Week found a new foothold for ten days at the hip Holzmarkt area near the Ostbahnhof. In previous years, the “Campus” in the Natural History Museum was a focus of the science events, which brought together many lectures and exhibits. Now the “Art & Science Forum” was added in collaboration with the “Holzmarkt 25” cultural quarter. Among other things, the “Art Fair” art fair was organized for the first time, at which 20 Berlin artists offered their science-inspired creations for sale. In the evening, the performance “Quantum inspired Sounds” took place, in which quantum physicists and sound artists presented their joint compositions. It also became political: In a solidarity campaign, the artist Ute Faber painted a Berlin Buddy Bear in the colors of Ukraine, which was later placed in front of the Ukrainian embassy.

In contrast, relations with Russian researchers, who used to always be present at Science Week, remain frozen after the attack on Ukraine. “There is currently no cooperation with Russian institutions,” explains Andreas Kosmider when asked, and adds: “As soon as Russia ends the war and completely withdraws from Ukraine, we will immediately resume cooperation.”

The Berlin Science Week is financed by the Berlin Senate with 350,000 euros and an additional 180,000 euros for the new “Art & Science Forum”. According to the organizers, the entire “Falling Walls Science Summit” budget is 3.2 million euros. 40 percent of this is financed through public money, the remaining 60 percent comes from sponsorship from partner organizations in the economy and ticket revenue.

Art promotes reflection

It is entirely possible that the new combination will get the ball rolling. “This newly created space between art, design and science promotes reflection and the creation of something new, while established knowledge is questioned,” says Norbert Palz, President of the Berlin University of the Arts. “Experiential alternative research” encourages “to go beyond disciplinary boundaries and their implicit paradigms.”

The Berlin Science Festival can continue to develop in the future. There is room to focus on Europe in order to strengthen the desired technological sovereignty. “Falling Walls is currently planning various formats to focus on the topics of European Deep Tech Strategy, European Tech Sovereignty and general questions surrounding the further design of the European Research Area,” says Managing Director Kosmider, who takes a look into the strategic nitty-gritty.