Art | Research | Citizen Science



Mind the Fungi



The art & science project Mind the Fungi is a collaboration between the Institute of Biotechnology TU Berlin and Art Laboratory Berlin, and is dedicated to the research of local mushrooms and current fungal biotechnology. The scientific research is expanded and enhanced through artistic and design-based research.The Institute of Biotechnology works with Berlin citizens, artists and designers to develop new ideas and technologies for mushroom and lichen-based materials of the future. The Artists in Residence programme brings art and design into the project as a constructive source of ideas, multipliers and communicators of scientific issues, and supports the process of sharing research processes and findings with the public.
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In cooperation with the Technische Universität Berlin, Institute for Biotechnology
With the generous support of the Technische Universität Berlin as part of the program Citizen Science - Forschen mit der Gesellschaft:




DIY Hack the Panke



The research group DIY Hack the Panke, founded in January 2018, consists of a group of artists and scientists promoting Citizen Science projects along the Panke River in north and central Berlin. Through interdisciplinary practice, the group aims to explore the Panke River for living organisms and critically examine its complex history of human use. Members of DIY Hack the Panke plan public workshops on topics such as river flora, fauna and microbiology; plastic waste and other pollutants; and the impact of history, culture and technology on the present-day Panke. In addition to workshops, the public is also invited to take part in a walks and talks as well as public labs to rediscover their urban environment, as well as learn and take part in Citizen Science.
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Symbiosis in intra-flux of the Anthropocene

Saša Spačal

Artistic research at the Rillig Group, Ecology of Plants, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with Art Laboratory Berlin

For the month of November 2019 bio media artist Saša Spačal will provide artistic research for her new project Symbiosis in intra-flux of the Anthropocene at the Rillig Group, Ecology of Plants, Institute of Biology, FU Berlin. She will address pressing societal and environmental issues such as climate crisis and plastic pollution in the context of symbiosis as a process of planetary metabolism in the case studies such as red clover-bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. The collaboration is meant as a research project that will delve into the material aspects of interspecies connections that Saša Spačal and her colleagues Dr. Mirjan Švagelj and Anil Podgornik have already researched with previous artistic biotechnological installations such as Myconnect, Symbiome, Plastic_ity, Earthlink. Collaboration with the research team at Free University Berlin will take the form of observations of experiments, interviews, planning artistic experiments and the conception of a new series of works.
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In cooperation with the Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Biology, the Slovenian Ministry of Culture and Slovenian Cultural Center in Berlin




The Silkworm Project

Vivian Xu


The Silkworm Project explores the possibilities of using silkworms to design a series of hybrid biomass machines capable of producing self-organized flat and spatial silk structures. Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to collaborate with the Berlin-based Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) on a four-month research stay in Berlin by Vivian Xu, who lives in Shanghai. Between May and July 2019, Vivian Xu will pursue artistic research at MPIWG, and her artistic practice at a studio at ALB. An exhibition (May - July 2019) and a workshop on sericulture by Vivian Xu will provide the public with insights into the fascinating long-term project.
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In cooperation with Max Planck Institute for the History of Science