Events

CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS

Artist Scientist Dialogue
With Helena Nikonole and Alvaro Rodriguez

Thu, 2 July 2026, 7:30 pm (on-site + online)

Welcome to the next “Artist Scientist Dialogue” in context of the current research project CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS. Artist Helena Nikonole will introduce aspects of her artistic practice, including her projects Acoustic Agriculture and Speculative Species Evolution, and share some ideas behind her collaboration with Alvaro Rodriguez on microbial communities and sound. Dr Alvaro Rodriguez will introduce metagenomics, the technique he has been applying for studying microbial communities, and discuss its possible applications to understand the behaviour of the microbial communities exposed to sound stimuli. During 2025 and 2026, Art Laboratory Berlin is unfolding the new innovative project CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS with an interdisciplinary exchange between art and science in Berlin science laboratories, kindly supported by Lottostiftung Berlin. We are currently receiving strong outcomes in transdisciplinary knowledge transfer, artistic research, art science communication, and some new artworks critically highlighting 21st-century innovations. Join us for the event on-site or online. Read more

Event | Workshop

CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS

Sonic Mind. Sound, Consciousness, and Technology
Workshop with Julius Holtz

Sat, 27 June 2026, 11 am - 6 pm (booked out!)

Welcome to the workshop “Sonic Mind. Sound, Consciousness, and Technology” with sound artist and researcher Julius Holtz, presented within the CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS programme by Art Laboratory Berlin. The workshop examines how emerging technologies and increasing human–machine interrelations transform concepts of identity, consciousness, and community. Positioned at the intersection of sound art, neuroscience, and technological innovation, Holtz presents his research through projects such as Introspective Garden, focusing on the generation of sonic environments via sensor technologies, data sonification, and participatory methodologies. Participants can engage in embodied listening sessions that integrate theoretical reflection with practical experimentation, addressing mindfulness, collective perception, and human-machine interaction. The workshop further investigates the relationships between neural activity and adaptive soundscapes, considering their social, artistic, and ethical implications, and is open to artists, designers, researchers, and other interested participants. Read more

Event | Long Night of Science

Art Laboratory Berlin at Long Night of Science (Berlin Dahlem)

Collaborative Art Science Projects with the Rillig Lab | Ecology of Plants (FU Berlin)

Sat, 6 June 2026, 5 - 10 pm (Berlin Dahlem!)

Art Laboratory Berlin joins the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2026 (6 June, 5–10 pm) together with the Rillig Lab | Ecology of Plants at the Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 12/14, 14195 Berlin. Founded in 2006, ALB is an award-winning platform at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Our decade-long collaboration with the Rillig Lab has produced various artist residencies, the research group “DIY Hack the Panke”, festivals such as “Matter of Flux” (2023) and “Bodies of Water” (2025), and the ongoing programme “CHRYSALIS. Artists in Labs”. Get a LNDW ticket and join us in Berlin Dahlem — everyone welcome! Read more

Event | Colloquium

IN PROGRESS… | COLLOQUIUM

Research in Art, Science, and Humanities
With Aisen Caro Chacin and Zahra Mokhtari

26 May 2026, 8 pm CET (online only)

close up of a sculpture, circles with metal mesh, yellowish cat to the photograph

Trees photographed from below with a green-yellow cast to the photograph

The Colloquium (on 26 May online only) addresses an international interdisciplinary research audience to present and discuss past, present, or future projects by artists and scholars, curators or editors from the fields of art, science, and the humanities. Artist and researcher Dr Aisen Caro Chacin will discuss a performance artwork exploring human dependency on critical care machines and our co-evolution with AI. Physicist Dr Zahra Mokhtar will discuss how groups (ants, cells, or social media users) can form coherent movements or sudden opinion shifts without a central leader. Following the original meaning of colloquium as “speaking together”, we want to provide a platform for exchange and embrace various kinds of work processes which are often not seen or talked about. Read more

Event | Talk

CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS

Artist Scientist Dialogue
With Margherita Pevere and Germán Joosten

Thu, 21 May 2026, 7:30 pm CET (on-site + online)

“Their world-building power lies in holding”: ponds and their ecology is marked by apparent stillness. The small water bodies that constellate the urban territory of Berlin unfold their intricate ecology in an apparent absence of motion, so different from the perpetual flow of rivers or the large tidal motions of lagoons. Drawing from her performance practice, artist and researcher Dr Margherita Pevere places the capacity of ponds to “hold” and transform living and dying matter at the heart of her research in the context of the ongoing research project Chrysalis. Artists in Labs. In the talk Margherita Pevere and her research partner, environmental anthrolopologist Dr Germán Joosten, will present their exchange across art and science, share the results and observations on their recent workshop “Pond Codex: Of Life and Death in Berlin’s Small Water Bodies” (10 May 2026), and bring the audience into the shallow but powerful depths of Berlin small water bodies. Read more

Event | Workshop

CHRYSALIS. ARTISTS IN LABS

Pond Codex: Of Life and Death in Berlin's Small Water Bodies
Workshop with Margherita Pevere and Germán Joosten

Sun, 10 May 2026, 11:00 - 18:00

flasks and graduated cylinder son a table people sitting in the background

Margherita Pevere and Germán Joosten invite the audience to join the life cycle of Berlin’s ponds and small lakes. Acting as biodiversity hotspots and regulators of temperature, these small water bodies play a key role in urban ecology. Among their dwellers is Daphnia – commonly known as water flea – a small invertebrate which feeds on phytoplankton (microscopic algae), thus keeping phenomena like algae blooms in check. Its life cycle is fascinating: it reproduces mostly through cloning itself, but when things get rough, it can adapt to the environment, switch to sexual reproduction, and produce eggs that remain dormant in the sediment until better conditions arise. Daphnia can reveal much about the health, history, and possible futures of the small urban water bodies. Through hands-on sessions and speculative storytelling, workshop participants will assume a pond’s more-than-human perspective and explore Berlin as seen by its small aquatic inhabitants. Read more

Event | Meet up, Talk

ART SCIENCE MEET UP

Research Exchange and Get-Together
With Fara Peluso, Jemma Woolmore, and Matthias Rillig

Wed, 29 April 2026

Art Laboratory Berlin and the Rillig Lab host an Art Science Meet Up in Berlin, bringing together artists and scientists interested in interdisciplinary research. The first session, open to the public, features presentations on current projects: Fara Peluso explores DIY bioplastics and community gardening to rethink human–ecological relations; Jemma Woolmore investigates chemical pollution through collaborative and embodied artistic methods; and Matthias Rillig presents research on how ecosystems respond to combined environmental pressures such as climate change, pollution, and land use. The second session invites participating artists and scientists to collaboratively design experimental approaches, discussing methods, concepts, and formats for joint research, followed by group exchange and collective reflection. Read more

Archive

Event | Conference

THE CAMILLE DIARIES Symposium

Current Artistic Positions on M/otherhood, Life and Care

26 September 2020

The symposium discusses current conditions of our world (environmental changes, gender aspects, biopolitics), an ‘aesthetics of care’ as the basis for inter-species coexistence. The conference brings the exhibiting artists together with researchers from the humanities and natural sciences.

Event | Talk

A Future for Food

Discussion and Livestream
Amy Youngs | Ken Rinaldo | Anna Paltseva | Daniel Lammel | Regine Rapp | Christian de Lutz

4 June 2020

Can we break away from agricultural practices which are intimately connected to desertification, water and soil pollution, antibiotic resistance, climate change and social and economic inequalities? This discussion considers a sustainable, multispecies perspective to farming.

Event | Talk, Workshop

Mind the Fungi

Material Driven Design | Workshop
Fara Peluso

6 May 2020

Based on material driven design methodologies Fara Peluso in this workshop explores possibilities and limits of mycelium-based materials. The participants discuss and work together on growing material, building sculptures, and drawing and cutting patterns on a new material made of biofilm.

Event | Course, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

Microplastics and Coexistence | Online Workshop Discussion
Kat Austen and Joana MacLean

22 April 2020

Central to the discussion is the coexistence of microplastics in the environment. Approaching the plastisphere as artists, chemists and biologists, trees and bacteria, humans and particles, we will negotiate together a plan of coexistence with microplastics on this planet.

Event | Talk, Visit

Mind the Fungi

Open Lab Night | Bioprocess Engineering

21 January 2020

Scientists will give an insight into the world of lichens and their potential for new natural products is presented. Afterwards, production tools, in particular bioreactors, that are used to reproduce the lichen cultures and their valuable materials, will be presented.

Event | Performance

The Lumenses Project

Florence Razoux

5 January 2020

Artist and scientist Florence Razoux will be presenting the Lumenses Project, a series of creative initiatives that offers a new perspective on menstruation and examine how the taboo that surrounds menstruation impacts society, and especially the biomedical research.

Event | Course, Performance, Talk, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

Science by Doing
With students from the Gustav-Freytag Schule

February - December 2019

The project offered the pupils of the Gustav-Freytag-Schule a wide range of events about the river Panke. Through workshops and visits the art science collective DIY Hack the Panke made it possible for students to artistically explore biology, chemistry, design and ecology.

Event | Talk

Symbiosis in intra-flux of the Anthropocene

Project Presentation
Saša Spačal

29 November 2019

For the month of November 2019 bio media artist Saša Spačal undertook artistic research at the Rillig Group, Ecology of Plants, Institute of Biology, FU Berlin, addressing pressing societal and environmental issues such as climate crisis and plastic pollution.

Event | Walk & Talk

Mind the Fungi

Walk & Talks
Theresa Schubert and TU Berlin

Autumn 2018 and 2019

In the Walk & Talks artist Theresa Schubert and biotechnologists from TU Berlin explore with public groups the potential of sustainable biomaterials from fungi in the forests of Berlin and Brandenburg. After collecting tree fungi, the public is invited to the TUB lab to cultivate them.

Event | Course

Mind the Fungi

Mushroom Cultivation Courses | TOP Lab

Spring 2019 and Autumn 2019

TOP Lab will host a mushroom cultivation course where the participants will learn how to isolate and grow mushrooms for different purposes, such as packaging materials, furniture, building materials and even leather. The course will show how to set up a culture to grow edible mushrooms.

Event | Workshop

Local Area Network (LAN)

Part of the project: Invisible Forces
Martin Howse

13 October 2019

Local Area Network (LAN) open workshop is a collective, speculative investigation of local fields/particles, and energetic exchanges, towards the hacking and re-routing of energy flows and networks at all stacked levels of local geological, environmental and technological…

Event | Performance, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

Wasserpank | Workshop & Jam Session
Kat Austen and Nenad Popov

5 October 2019

Artist and chemist Kat Austen together with sound and new media artist Nenad Popov take the Panke river and its water as a starting point for this exciting workshop on sound experimentation from water and the environment, experimenting with hydrophone recordings.

Event | Performance

DIY Hack the Panke

Pankquelle
Sarah Hermanutz and Nenad Popov

5 October 2019

The artists perform a new work based on their involvement in the art science collective DIY Hack the Panke. The two artists’ previous collaboration have mixed Hermanutz’s artistic research into wetland ecologies with Popov’s sound and programming-based work.

Event | Walk & Talk

DIY Hack the Panke

Summer Walk & Talk #2
India Mansour | Nenad Popov | James Whitehead

22 September 2019

For the last day of summer, sound and new media artist Nenad Popov and biologists India Mansour and James Whitehead walk along the Panke and give a series of short talks interwoven with participatory inter/actions between visible and invisible ecological layers.

Event | Walk & Talk

DIY Hack the Panke

Summer Walk & Talk #1
Eliot Morrison and Daniel Lammel

13 July 2019

During the event we will discuss the interaction of water, soil and atmosphere from the molecular level and how this effects and is affected by organisms up to the larger ecological level and how water, plants and soil take part in cycles of carbon and nitrogen that support life.