"Free Words" - Revolutionary Conversation as part of the Weekend for Democracy with Jörg Bong and Jan Carpentier, moderated by Markus Dichmann
© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss/ Foto: Stefanie Loos
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"Free Words" - Revolutionary Conversation as part of the Weekend for Democracy with Jörg Bong and Jan Carpentier, moderated by Markus Dichmann
© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss/ Foto: Stefanie Loos
Past events
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Is the Pope now travelling in a down jacket? Are Barack Obama and Angela Merkel dancing in the sea? Has there ever been a gay pride parade in front of the Palace of the Republic? Images generated by artificial intelligence are changing our awareness of truth and our understanding of the present and history.

In the Humboldt Forum’s Mechanical Arena, presenter Nhi Le (journalist at NDR) takes the accusation of “historical falsification” as the starting point for a discussion with Cornelia Thiele (Berlin Wall Foundation), who talks about the boundaries of fact and factuality in historical exhibitions. Björn Lengers (CyberRäuber) reports on the work of the CyberRäuber on the “Palace of Remembrance” and Yvonne Zindel (author and curator) categorises the ethical questions of “artificial” historical narratives through the use of new media in times of the rise of AI.

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), an old discourse in exhibition work is being revitalised: can history be “reconstructed” physically and spatially or virtually? Is history alienated, reshaped or even faked by media access?

As the influential American historian Hayden White noted, historians always stage our past from the present. Our history can be told and staged as a comedy, drama, tragedy or comedy according to our own political and cultural perspective. What is the truth behind the accusation that history is being reshaped and alienated through the use of new media?

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Participants

Björn Lengers and Marcel Karnapke(Cyber Räuber) have been working together on art in digital space as CyberRäuber since 2016. With an “arguably unique mix of affinity for technology, pioneering spirit, pragmatism and love of theater” (Theater der Zeit), they create productions and projects that are driven by a great curiosity about the creative possibilities of technology and are shown in galleries, municipal theaters and at international festivals.

© Cyberräuber

Cornelia Thiele, born 1978 in Ansbach, graduated from Neues Gymnasium Nuremberg, studied Modern and Contemporary History, Sociology, Psychology and Gender Studies at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

2012 to 2014 scientific traineeship at the Berlin Wall Foundation in the fields of exhibition, project management, political- historical education and contemporary heritage work.. Since 2022 Curator Collection and Archive of the Berlin Wall Foundation.

Thematic focus: Contemporary history after 1945, development of democracy, fundamental and human rights, flight and migration, group-specific discrimination.

Professional experience in various exhibition and digital mediation projects, e.g:

2024 “digital migration memory”: digiS project to improve the accessibility of a collection and the contemporary witness archive (AI-supported audio recording)

2023 “The Berlin Wall. Living in a World Divided”: international traveling exhibition

2021 “Project Neustart Kultur”: digital citizen science project Mauerspuren (www.mauerspuren.de) and a digital educational tool for the implementation of online offers of the education department

2020 “Cold War Berlin” – Augmented reality app on the tank confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie

2018/2019 “Danube Swabians” and “River Stories”: Permanent exhibition on the migration history of the Danube Swabians

2017 “After the flight. How we want to live”: special exhibition on current migration experiences 2011-2017 (www.nachderflucht.de)

2015 “Border experiences”: Permanent and open-air exhibition for a new German-German Museum Mödlareuth

2015 “Risk Freedom”: Online exhibition on the German-German escape aid (www.risiko-freiheit.de)

Cornelia Thiele
© Cornelia Thiele

Yvonne Zindel (*1983, Berlin) is currently researching and working as a freelance curator on digital techniques and participatory processes, having spent the last ten years working as a research and artistic assistant for institutions such as the Staatliche Museen Berlin and the Universität der Künste. 
Mediation and participation play a major role in her independent curatorial work.
 In her current exhibition “Sport. Mass. Power. Football under National Socialism”, she works with digital mediation techniques and closely with communities. She is also curating the pilot project for a documentation center on the NSU complex in Saxony, which is being created in Chemnitz as part of the European Capital of Culture 2025.

Nhi Le is a journalist, speaker and moderator. Her work focuses on society, digital media and pop culture. In 2020/21 she wrote ‘The Female Gaze’ column for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, from 2021 to 2023 Nhi Le was a trainee at Norddeutscher Rundfunk.

Partner

In cooperation with the eCommemoration programme of the Körber Foundation

Körber Stiftung

Related

In the Humboldt Forum's foyer there is a 17 meter high media tower, called "cosmograph". It gives visitors comprehensive information about their visit and can transform into an art and light installation.
© SHF / David von Becker

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