Long Night of Sciences
The air contains more than ten times as much water as all the world’s rivers. Phenomena such as fog, clouds, and dew fascinate a wide range of disciplines. What new approaches is science developing to harvest water from arid air? How do designers work with fog? And what role do clouds play in literature? These questions are explored through talks, conversations, and a reading as part of the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften. In workshops, they can also be tested and experienced in practice.
Program
The curator of the exhibition “On Water. WasserWissen in Berlin” introduces the theme of the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften and guides the audience through the sections of the exhibition dedicated to clouds, fog, and new forms of water harvesting. The tour focuses on the question of what role atmospheric water plays in the global water cycle — and on the scientific and design approaches currently being developed to extract water from the air.
Short presentation by Dimitra Almpani-Lekka (English)
Harvesting Water: Design for the Urban Water Cycle
This open drop-in workshop is inspired by the installation “Cheimarros” by designer Dimitra Almpani-Lekka in the exhibition “On Water. WasserWissen in Berlin”. The ceramic forms in the artwork explore how rainwater can be collected and directed in urban environments. Guided by the designer, visitors can experiment with clay themselves, explore different methods of water harvesting, and create a small object to take home afterward.
Moderated by Anna-Lisa Dieter
Clouds, fog, and haze are phenomena without a fixed location, suspended between sky and earth. In his essay Meteor. Versuch über das Schwebende, literary and cultural scholar Joseph Vogl takes such phenomena as a starting point for reflecting on the nature of the suspended and the elusive — on things that are visible, yet cannot be fully grasped. Drawing on texts from literature, philosophy, and science, he shows how these fleeting phenomena challenge our ways of thinking and open up a different kind of attentiveness to the world.
How can drinking water be obtained directly from the air? Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly porous materials capable of capturing water molecules from the atmosphere and making them usable as drinking water. Valerii Karpov, a PhD researcher in physical chemistry at Humboldt University of Berlin, explains how water moves through the tiny pores of these materials and how simulations help researchers understand these processes at the atomic level and develop new materials. A special highlight of the evening is a live connection to Berkeley with Omar M. Yaghi, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry 2025 and pioneer of MOF research.
Clouds play a central role in Earth’s climate system: they influence the atmosphere’s radiation balance and therefore the temperature of the Earth’s surface. At the same time, rising temperatures also affect the formation and properties of clouds, creating a complex feedback process. Mathematician Annette Rudolph demonstrates how methods from artificial intelligence can help researchers better understand these interactions and integrate them into climate models — in an interactive lecture featuring a small hands-on cloud experiment.
Clouds may seem fleeting and intangible — yet they can also be shaped and designed. Designer and researcher Clemens Winkler works with water vapor, fog, and microclimates as materials. His projects move between design, art, and science, exploring how atmospheric phenomena transform spaces and shape our perception. In a short performative presentation, he will present examples of his work and create a small atmospheric environment directly within the exhibition space.
Participants
Valerii Karpov is a PhD candidate in theoretical chemistry at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, working in the research group of Prof. Joachim Sauer. His research focuses on the atomistic modelling of porous materials, in particular metal–organic frameworks, with an emphasis on adsorption and diffusion processes. A particular focus lies on materials capable of harvesting water from air.
Joseph Vogl is a literary and cultural theorist and one of Germany’s leading public intellectuals. From 2006 to 2023, he was Professor of Literature, Cultural Studies, and Media at the Institute of German Literature at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and has been a regular Visiting Professor at Princeton University since 2007.
His work brings together literary studies, philosophy, and economics, addressing topics such as the history of knowledge, theories of money, and the dynamics of modern financial markets. His major publications include “Das Gespenst des Kapitals” (2010), K”apital und Ressentiment. Eine kurze Theorie der Gegenwart” (2021), and most recently “Meteor. Versuch über das Schwebende” (2025).
Clemens Winkler is a researcher, designer, and artist. He is a design researcher at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and was a visiting professor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. Previously, he taught at Zurich University of the Arts, the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam, and Central Saint Martins in London. In his work, he explores phenomena such as clouds through the means of design and interrogates their materiality. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum London, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, and the Kiasma Museum Helsinki.
Annette Rudolph studied mathematics (Diplom) with a minor in physics at the Technical University of Berlin. She then completed her doctorate at the Institute of Meteorology at Freie Universität Berlin, specializing in geophysical fluid dynamics. Driven by her theoretical understanding of atmospheric processes and the growing possibilities of analyzing large datasets, she investigated precipitation processes and changes in cloud formation in the context of climate change.
Since the summer semester of 2023, she has headed the research area „KI und Landnutzungswandel” at the Institute of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at TU Berlin. Using artificial intelligence, she examines the impact of climate-related changes on the environment.
Dimitra Almpani-Lekka is an architect and an architectural design researcher. For the last years she is working as a landscape architect at Kokomo Landschaft & Stadtraum in Berlin, with a focus on urban biodiversity and urban water management. She is a researcher at the Cluster of Excellence ‘Matters of Activity’ at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture of the University of Ioannina, investigating living materialities and their potential roles in architectural design, as well as methods of designing the built environment in synergy with water to support biological growth and urban biodiversity.