On Water… from the sea
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| Suitable for: 12 years and older |
| Which languages: German |
| Venue: Humboldt Lab, 1st floor |
| Belongs to: On Water |
Marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, jellyfish, and seaweed have shaped life in the ocean for millennia. They are habitats of extraordinary diversity, protect coastlines, and contribute to the ecological balance. Yet today, they are among the most threatened systems on Earth. Rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, and human interference are taking their toll on them worldwide.
As part of Berlin Science Week, the Humboldt Lab will focus on these fascinating life forms on November 7. The event opens up new perspectives on organisms that defy scientific and cultural interpretations. Researchers and artists from various disciplines will share their perspectives and explore what marine ecosystems reveal about Earth’s history, the climate crisis, and the relationship between humans and the non-human world.
The focus is on the question of a culture of care: How does our view of these ecosystems change when we understand them as co-creators of complex communities? What role can art and science play in developing new forms of attention, knowledge, and responsibility toward the oceans?
The event invites participants to rediscover marine habitats as bridges between nature and culture, the pastand the future, science and art, and to reflect together on what it means today to care for the vulnerable ecosystems of the sea.
Programm
Participants
Since January 2024, Dr. Anna-Lisa Dieter has been a curator at the Humboldt Laboratory at Humboldt University in Berlin. Anna-Lisa Dieter studied literature at universities in Germany, France, and the United States, with a focus on French literature. She received her doctorate with a thesis on the writer Stendhal and has taught literature at the Universities of Munich and Konstanz, among others.
In 2018, she started working at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden. From 2019 to 2023, she was a curator at BIOTOPIA, the new natural history museum in Munich. She writes regularly for various newspapers, magazines and publishing houses. Her latest book “Susan Sontag: 100 Seiten” was published by Reclam in 2022.
Elena Alonso Fernández was born in Vigo, Spain. She studied fine arts in Salamanca, Helsinki, and Barcelona and earned a master’s degree in “Art in Context” from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). Her work has been shown at venues including the New Media Society in Tehran, the AHNE Festival in Helsinki, the 13th Havana Biennial, and the Museo del Mar in Vigo, as well as in several group and solo exhibitions in Berlin, where she has lived since 2011.
Elena Alonso Fernández’s artistic practice is participatory and research-based. In recent years, she has focused on marine ecosystems and explored their complex relationships with humans. In collaboration with scientists, coastal communities, and more-than-human beings, she seeks to bring underrepresented narratives and ecological challenges to light.
Dina Fluck has been working as a freelance visual communication designer since 2013. She specializes in exhibition graphics, book design, and visual identities for institutions and projects in the fields of art, culture, science, and education. Her work centers on a conceptual design practice with a particular focus on typography and curatorial processes.
After studying design in Mainz and Malmö, she has designed exhibitions for, among others, the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden, the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt, the Humboldt Laboratory, and the Berlin Sports Museum. In addition, she develops and designs book covers and publications, for example for dtv Verlag in Munich, diaphanes Verlag in Zurich, and the City Laboratory for Multimodal Anthropology at Humboldt University in Berlin. She is a lecturer at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences.
Laura Lehnhoff is a doctoral candidate and adjunct lecturer at the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin. She studied biology first in Marburg, then in Bremen—since the latter university offered specializations in marine biology and geosciences—and spent a year in China. After working in laboratories and museums, she returned to her research niche at the intersection of biology and geochemistry. In this role, she examines tropical stony coral skeletons using geochemical and imaging analyses to study the effects of global warming on corals.
Daniel Tyradellis is a philosopher and curator. He holds the Humboldt Forum Chair for the Theory and Practice of Interdisciplinary Curating, funded by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media. In his work, he explores the various media and modes of thought in art, science, and philosophy. Since 1997, he has been conceiving exhibitions for various museums, including “Fire & Forget,” KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; “Shame,” German Hygiene Museum, Dresden; “FAKE,” Stapferhaus, Lenzburg (Switzerland); since2021, he has served as deputy director of the Hermann von Helmholtz Center for Cultural Technology at HU Berlin.
Rasa Weber is an experimental designer, academic, and diver whose practice-oriented research explores the intersection of critical ecology and anthropogenic environmental change. Her work combines design, biology, and anthropology. The ocean is at the center of her design research, particularly in relation to queer ecological concepts. She is a lecturer and researcher at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and is pursuing a practice-based Ph.D. on the topic of “SymbiOcean. Design in Troubled Waters,” in which she examines artificial reefs and the creation of marine habitats as a form of sympoietic design. She is part of the “Interfacing the Ocean” project (ZHdK), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and an associate researcher at the “Matters of Activity” Cluster of Excellence at Humboldt University of Berlin.
