ART & SCIENCE FORUM

Lithium, back to the Earth

Lithium, often referred to as “white gold” is a fascinating element that originated from the Big Bang, making it one of the few metals, formed during that event. This rare element cannot survive in stars and is deposited in limited areas of the Earthʼs crust, giving it unique properties.

Lithium has undeniably become an indispensable component of our lives, playing a crucial role in energy production. Every day we carry about 3 grams of lithium from our cell phone battery in our pocket!

The current life cycle of lithium can be described as a linear chain, stretching from mining to use in technology. Lithium, back to the Earth aims to shed light on the necessity of transforming this linear chain into a circular one, where science can play a key role.

Dalia and Sara Morcillo transform the laboratory research work into an art installation by turning the “Tiny Gallery” into a lithium salt flat. This salt flat is composed of materials used in lithium batteries, which undergo chemical processes of salt crystallization that will naturally grow throughout the 10-days exhibition.

​​THE POWER IN/OF COLLECTIONS

How powerful are collections and archives? The exhibition “Power in/of Collections” delves into this inquiry, involving scholars from the Technical University, Humboldt University, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. 

Collections and archives are places, that (re)produce worldviews and influence society. They can emanate from hegemonic viewpoints and perspectives, or conversely, focus on marginalized artistic expressions or stories of resistance. Building upon the long history of conflicts concerning the politics of collecting, the exhibition scrutinizes the dynamic between museums, academic science, and additional forms of knowledge production such as artistic or activist endeavors. It delves into the subject matter through three chapters. In the section “Power of Archives,” the focus is on collections of material created by social movements and marginalized groups. Here, the emphasis is on the archive as a space of resistance, where histories are nurtured, documented, and remembered, giving rise to alternative narratives distinct from those found in larger museums. These institutions are addressed in the second section under the title the “Power of Collections”. How to deal with art collections that are built upon and reproduce social inequalities? What power structures can be identified within the artworks, catalogs, and museum databases? Can they be interpreted as archives of injustice? At the core of the third section, titled “Critical Art Practice,” are artists’ power-critical perspectives on institutions. This concerns the potential of artistic works to create counter-narratives and induce shifts in perspective.

The Cabinet of Microscopic Life: Dive into a Drop of Water

In the Cabinet of Microbes, a single drop of water becomes a cosmos of wonder. Microorganisms such as bacteria, algae, ciliates and fungi are tiny, but their importance is huge. They are the hidden architects of our ecosystems. They play a crucial role in purifying water, keeping nutrient cycles going, producing oxygen and are the basis of all life underwater – sometimes they are also toxic. Some aquatic microbes are true superheroes, able to survive in extreme environments, from hot springs to perpetual ice. Discover stories about the importance of these tiny creatures, researched at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin. Welcome to a 3D wonderland of microbes!

Organising Institutions

1. Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB), Berlin, Germany
2. Francisca Rocha Gonçalves / ICARUS / Ocean Soundscape Awareness (ØSAW)
3. Laboratory for Innovation and Sustainability of Marine Biological Resources (ECOMARE), Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal

“Rekaviður – Driftwood, a Living Archive”

Artistic research project by Kollektiv Lichtung

Driftwood is omnipresent in Iceland’s history and culture. It plays a central role in the Nordic creation myth and was one of the most important resources for centuries, without which the island most probably could not have been settled permanently. Driftwood is a true globetrotter that hitchhikes with sea ice thousands of kilometres across the Arctic. The driftwood on Iceland’s coasts originates from boreal forests in Eurasia and North America and represents a living archive—during its travels it has logged detailed Arctic climate records since the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago. But while old driftwood is still piling up on Icelandic beaches, new arrivals have decreased significantly over the past decades. A recent study concludes that due to predicted sea-ice loss under anthropogenic global warming Iceland’s driftwood supply will terminate by 2060. 

Website: www.rekavidur.com

Hidden Variables

What lies behind a single scientific breakthrough? A journey of trials and errors, ups and downs, successes and failures, and above all, an investment of time. At the intersection between art and science, a team of six dedicated quantum computing scientists come together to show you the hidden beauty within lost data and failed measurements – essential components in the pursuit of even the most subtle scientific insights.

“To be of service”

Speculative millinery’s tiny worlds of consequence.

Climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are deeply entwined, overlapping, and co-shaping catastrophes. Both affect the multitude of lifeforms sharing and shaping the biosphere. And yet, in public perception, one seems to be overshadowed by the other.

In sustainability discourse, more-than-human life is often de-centered and limited to deliver ecosystem services: biodiversity is reduced to providing flows of human-centered services like food sustenance, recreation, or climate regulation.

“To be of service” takes the hat making (“millinery”) trade of the late nineteenth century, as a crucial starting point for environmental protection activities and public thinking about extinction. It showcases historical hats, interrogated by AI-based species recognition apps and developed further with hat makers and botanists, as speculative museum objects. They take up different moments in time when certain plant, fungus, or animal species were especially threatened.