DIY Hack the Panke

What we consider to be our environment unequivocally and ubiquitously contains plastic. It has been found at the outskirts of human reach: at the top of Mount Everest, in Arctic ice, and at the bottom of the Mariana trench. Plastic is becoming part of our geology and the lively surrounding of many organisms on this planet – a new material and habitat providing new stories and life forms.

This Earth Day, join Kat Austen and Joana MacLean to discuss the coexistence of microplastics in the environment and what it means for nature and ourselves. During this online talk, we will invite your minds with us to go visiting the plastisphere as artists, chemists and biologists, trees and bacteria, humans and particles – negotiating together a plan of coexistence with microplastics on this planet.

The project Science by Doing offered the pupils of the Gustav-Freytag-Schule a wide range of events about the River Panke, spread throughout 2019. 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, and to implement their own ideas.

In addition to workshops on the topics of urban ecology, microplastics, microbiodiversity and wetland ecology, there were performances such as the Wasserklang Orchestra, where the pupils examined the Panke using self-made instruments, which was later presented as an installation at the Berlin State Opera.

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. Mixing hydrophone recordings, DIY water and soil sensors, participants make their own recordings and the workshop ends in a group jam session along the river.

The research group DIY Hack the Panke was founded in January 2018 and consists of a group of artists and scientists applying artistic and scientific research at, in and around the river Panke, and promoting Citizen Science projects along the Panke River in north and central Berlin.

Artists Sarah Hermanutz und Nenad Popov 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. For the project Pankquelle, the artists draw inspiration from the Panke river’s source in Brandenberg, and it’s journey through the changing urban landscapes of Berlin.

The research group DIY Hack the Panke was founded in January 2018 and consists of a group of artists and scientists applying artistic and scientific research at, in and around the river Panke, and promoting Citizen Science projects along the Panke River in north and central Berlin.

This workshop will research the diversity of invisible life in the Panke River. Choosing a site along the river in Berlin-Wedding artists Fara Peluso and Sarah Hermanutz and microbiologist India Mansour will show participants how to investigate the microbial life and ecologies of an urban waterway.

The workshop will explore the river and floodplain as microbial habitats, with special emphasis on water, sediment and soil along the riverbanks. Microbial community characteristics, interactions with the environment, and nutrient cycles will be discussed and examples sought out.

Plastic has pervaded water, soil and our bodies. It is the new icon of our time. During the (Un)Real Ecologies: Microplastics workshop we will explore the presence of microplastics in the Panke River, near Art Laboratory Berlin. How do organisms and microorganisms exist with microplastics and construct with these human-made materials? We will investigate water samples, to discover a new understanding of the reality of the Panke’s ecosystem, with plastic present and wholly a part of it – a microcosm that allows us to ask “What is nature?”

In the workshop participants will use DIY chemistry methods to separate microplastics from mineral and organic matter, and discover the origins of the plastics they find by creating density columns. They will also learn about the ecology of the Panke River and the Citizen Science project DIY Hack the Panke.

Plastics come in different shapes, textures and material properties. Their chemical properties makes them generally very resistant to natural degradation processes by fungi, algae or bacteria. However, the term plastisphere has been used by biologists to describe the living microworld attached to plastic particles in the environment. Surprisingly, plastic seems to be much more than just an human-made waste product: In marine ecosystems it was found that pieces of plastics carry a very specific community of fungi, algae and bacteria. Using a microscope, we can get a close and intimate look into their habitat.

The workshop examins the plastisphere of the Panke and observes the shapes and forms of how organisms interact with plastic. For this step, we choose some interesting particles from our catch and use the available microscopes to get a close look at plastics and living creatures.