Research > DIY Hack the Panke

DIY Hack the Panke

Art + Science Research Group

DIY Hack the Panke/ Microplastics, Workshop, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2018

DIY Hack the Panke/ Microplastics, Workshop, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2018

DIY Hack the Panke/ Microbiodiversity, Workshop, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2019

DIY Hack the Panke/ Microbiodiversity, Workshop, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2019

DIY Hack the Panke/ Microplastics, Workshop, particles found using Nile Red method, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2019

DIY Hack the Panke/ Microplastics, Workshop, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2018, photo: Vik Alexander

The research group DIY Hack the Panke was founded in January 2018 and consists of a group of international, Berlin-based artists, scholars, 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.

In the next few years the upper part of the Panke, in Berlin-Buch, will be re-wilded according to new EU standards, while the river’s two points of entry into the Spree, currently underground, will be uncovered. DIY Hack the Panke is interested in these fluctuating areas and the effects of re-wilding, and our main area of focus is the Panke in Wedding and southern Pankow. This part of the river, known only a century ago as the ‘Stinkpanke’ because of pollution from nearby factories and tanneries, is now a popular urban green space sought after by local residents.

Through interdisciplinary art science practices, the group investigates the Panke river for living organisms and critically examines its complex history of human use. The members of DIY Hack the Panke regularly offer public events on topics such as river flora, fauna, and microbiology, bio matter, plastic waste, and other pollutants – using life science practices, artistic research and cultural anthropological approaches. They also consider the influence of history, culture, and technology on today’s Panke. The public is invited to take part in workshops, walk & talks, reading sessions, art performances, lab activities in order to rediscover urban ecology and ultimately also to understand water as an active material in the context of the more-than-human.

In addition to public participation in the research formats and their related results, the actions and the agents of DIY Hack the Panke are made publicly available on this project web archive. A publication in book form is planned.



Previous topics and fields


#river flora #river fauna #river science #source of information #urban wetlands #urban nature #urban landscape #urban planning #regionality

#(eco)system #water chemistry #climate crisis #fluidity #permeability #symbiosis #pollution #sustainability #taphonomy #transformation #source #cycle #interaction

#(micro)plastic #biomatter #algae #diatoms #cyanobacteria #microbiodiversity #water pollution #carbon cycle #hydrophone #sound/scape #sound/scenery #water music #nitrogen cycle #Winogradsky column


Previous methodological and discursive references


#Water as active matter #hydrofeminism #ecofeminism #posthumanism #new materialism #anthropocene #plastisphere #capitalocene #material aesthetics

#artistic research #art-science collaboration #interdisciplinarity #transdisciplinarity #micro/macro #DIYbiology #DIYchemistry #participatory #dialogues #cultural education #community coalescence

VenueS

Art Laboratory Berlin,
Prinzenallee 34, 13359 Berlin
River Panke

PROJECT RUNNING TIME

2018 – ongoing

Team

Ink Agop (artist and photographer)
Dr. Kat Austen (artist and chemist)
Sarah Hermanutz (artist and researcher)
Dr. Daniel Lammel (microbiologist, Rillig Lab | Plant Ecologies, FU Berlin)
Christian de Lutz (curator, researcher, co-director of ALB)
Dr. Joana MacLean (microbiologist, Rillig Lab | Plant Ecologies, FU Berlin)
Prof. Dr. India Mansour (microbiologist, Rillig Lab | Plant Ecologies, FU Berlin)
Dr. Eliot Morrison (biochemist and illustrator)
Sybille Neumeyer (artist and researcher)
Fara Peluso (designer and artist)
Nenad Popov (media and sound artist)
Prof. Regine Rapp (art historian, curator, and co-director of ALB)
Dr. James Whitehead (biologist)

Project Platform

Art Laboratory Berlin

Cooperation partners

Rillig Group | Plant Ecologies
Institute of Biology, FU Berlin
Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB)

Supported by

Activities

Event Festival

BODIES OF WATER

  1. Learning from the River Panke through Art, Science, and Storytelling
  2. Workshops, Walks, Talks, Reading Sessions, Panel Discussions, Performances
21 – 22 June 2025
Art Laboratory Berlin welcomes you to the two-day festival BODIES OF WATER exploring themes around urban waterways, in context of the ongoing series ON WATER | PARCOURS by the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). With the art science collective DIY Hack the Panke and scientists from the fields of eco hydrology and medicine, we will explore what forms an urban river takes and what lives in and around the Panke river. There will be workshops, walks, talks, reading sessions, panel discussions, and performances for participants of all ages. Let’s embark on a multi sensorial and transdisciplinary journey along one of Berlin’s fastest flowing bodies of water! Join us on 21 and 22 June to explore our connectedness to water, urban waterways, and the river Panke through learning, crafting, sensing, walking, and listening. Read more
Event Workshop

PERMEABLE BODIES

  1. Hydrofeminist Ecologies
  2. Workshop | With Sarah Hermanutz, Fara Peluso, India Mansour
16 September 2023
a laboratory vial filled with soil and green biomaterial, held by fingers green circles on a beige and pink background
Together the artist Sarah Hermanutz, the designer Fara Peluso and the biologist India Mansour continue their ongoing research collaborations along the Panke River, with an introduction to ecofeminism and hydrofeminism as both academic theories and as lived artistic and scientific practice. Flowing together formats of reading groups, meditative sensory experience, DIY and traditional methods of scientific inquiry, and discussions both affirmative and critical, this workshop invites fluid practices of connection and care between and beyond humans, ‘staying with the trouble’ in laboratory practice with algae. Read more
Event Residency, Talk

Echoes from Waterlands

  1. Presentation of Winter Studio Residencies
  2. Fara Peluso | Sarah Hermanutz
27 – 29 January 2023
In connection with their winter studio residencies at Art Laboratory Berlin, artist designer Fara Peluso and artist Sarah Hermanutz will invite the public to learn more about their current artistic practices from 27 to 29 January 2023, with a public conversation on 29 January 2023. Fara Peluso will share an in-progress prototype for her latest project Tecuitlatl, a collaboration with sound artist Hüma Utku. Tecuitlatl is a hybrid algae sound installation which focuses on how living machines can tell stories of the destruction caused by the current pace of industrialisation around water ecosystems, like the algae bloom that causes aquatic life forms to suffer. Sarah Hermanutz will share notes, sketches, writings, and material fragments of her artistic practice, as well as documentations of past experimentations with water as potent source of movement, life, awe, and deep unease. Read more
Event Festival

PANKE INTERVENTIONS

  1. Program Overview
  2. Series with artists and scientists
August – November 2022
After two years of social distancing, Art Laboratory Berlin proposes a season of collaborative action, building together our ecological and technological future. We use the Panke River in Berlin-Wedding as an artery for a series of interdisciplinary participatory workshops and talks with artists and scientists. Creating future visions about a green(er) world, exploring possible taphonomies of trash, discussing paths and origins of food, sharing cultural investigations and storytelling. Eight interventions seek to build engagement through exploration and empathy. With contributions by plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers), Ariel Orah & Michelle Lai, Kat Austen, Sarah Hermanutz, Fara Peluso, Cammack Lyndsey, Ink Agop, Tad Ermitaño and India Mansour. Read more
Event Festival

HACK THE PANKE Festival

  1. Program Overview
  2. Festival with artists and scientists
September – October 2022
Art Laboratory Berlin welcomes you to the HACK THE PANKE Festival on art, science and sound in Berlin Wedding during summer 2022. In 2018 ALB initiated the research project DIY Hack the Panke applying artistic and scientific research at, in and around the river Panke, and promoting Citizen Science projects bringing together artists, scientists and the public along the Panke river in the north and central Berlin. As a continuation of our long-term research project, the HACK THE PANKE Festival brings together artists and scientists to realise encounters in the form of workshops, performances and Walk & Talks along the Panke river. Contributions by artists Ariel Orah, Johanes “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi (Soydivision Kollektiv), Cammack Lindsey, Tad Ermitaño, Sybille Neumeyer, Nenad Popov, Martin Howse and Saša Spačal as well as biologists India Mansour, James Whitehead and Matthias Rillig. Read more
Exhibition

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Learning from the River
  2. Documentary Exhibition with Artists and Scientists around the Collective
26 March – 30 April 2022
The documentary exhibition presents the research of the art science collective DIY Hack the Panke. Critically exploring the river near by the event space of Art Laboratory Berlin the group has offered public workshops on topics such as river flora, fauna and microbiology, plastic waste and pollutants. The focus has been also on bio matter as part of artistic research, the impact of history, culture and technology on the present-day Panke. The exhibition also shows presents various art science installations by artist designer Fara Peluso, artist Sarah Hermanutz and biologist India Mansour with artist Sybille Neumeyer. The exhibition invites to reflect what Hybrid Art and shared knowledge through transdisciplinary research mean in times of ecological mega crisis in a posthuman era. Read more
Event Walk & Talk

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Walk & Talk
  2. With members of the art science collective
31 October 2021
After an 18-month hiatus we are happy to announce the next event of the artist and scientist collective DIY Hack the Panke. The research group DIY Hack the Panke was founded in January 2018 and consists of a group of artists, art theoreticians and scientists applying artistic and scientific research at, in and around the river Panke, and promoting Citizen Science projects along the Panke River in northern and central Berlin. On 31 October members of the collective will meet for a walk along the Panke river, together with the public, to talk about their previous research on the river, its flora, fauna and ecologies. We will also give a preview of our upcoming DIY/ DIWO program for 2022. Read more
Event Course, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Microplastics and Coexistence | Online Workshop Discussion
  2. Kat Austen and Joana MacLean
22 April 2020
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. Read more
Event Course, Performance, Talk, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Science by Doing
  2. With students from the Gustav-Freytag Schule
February – December 2019
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. Read more
Event Talk

Symbiosis in intra-flux of the Anthropocene

  1. Project Presentation
  2. 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.

Read more
Event Workshop

Local Area Network (LAN)

  1. Part of the project: Invisible Forces
  2. 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…

Read more
Event Performance, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Wasserpank | Workshop & Jam Session
  2. 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. 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. Read more
Event Performance

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Pankquelle
  2. Sarah Hermanutz and Nenad Popov
5 October 2019
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. Read more
Event Walk & Talk

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Summer Walk & Talk #1
  2. 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.

Read more
Event Walk & Talk

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Summer Walk & Talk #2
  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.

Read more
Event Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. Panke Life. Microbiodiversity
  2. Sarah Hermanutz | India Mansour | Fara Peluso
26 May 2019
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. Read more
Event Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. (Un)Real Ecologies. Microplastics
  2. Kat Austen and Frithjof Glowinski
13 – 14 April 2019
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. Read more
Event Workshop, Workshop

DIY Hack the Panke

  1. (Un)Real Ecologies. Microplastics | Workshop
  2. Kat Austen and Joana MacLean
6 – 8 July 2018
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. Read more

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