Science and art have nothing to do with each other. The disciplines think, work and observe differently – even tackling questions in opposite ways. Or?

“No one wants to understand that the highest and only operation of nature and art is design,” complained Goethe.

The Art and Science of Design

Yes, art turns clay into vases, color pictures, a tree trunk into a lasso-swinging cowboy. And nature? Rain creates furrows in the ground, rivers dig whole gorges, the wind grinds rock surfaces, people and animals build houses and create tools. Reason enough to dedicate an exhibition to this topic. “Design reflects and constructs the relationship between people and the environment”, “Design is tied to technology”, “Design is interdisciplinary”

The Interdisciplinary Laboratory Exhibition

In one of the rooms, tunicates are circling on the ceiling, moving against a black background in a glowing bubble of slime – their house. The biologist Khashayar Razghandi examines the construction, which is equally interesting for biologists and engineers, in his research. The visitor is invited to lie down and follow the mystical hustle and bustle. When moving to the next room, a plant is in its own climate box, which opens or closes its buds depending on the change in the temperature of its habitat – a process that appears natural. Only that the plant was made from paper and a 3D printer.

Putting the known in a new or unknown context and thus stimulating thought, that is the concept of the exhibition. The plant made of paper, fractals as 3D printing or traced ant streets as inspiration for the structures of a city: The exhibition captivates visitors with technology and colors, and lets their exhibits appear almost without a description.

All exhibits, the exhibition, and the entire concept were developed by the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Design at the Humboldt University in Berlin. The exhibition is an open laboratory. In the exhibition are objects from interdisciplinary research teams not to mention the Building Data Science Team made up of biologists and historians, computer scientists and designers, men and women who want to think further than within the narrow limits of their fields – and they succeed by collecting, presenting and preparing knowledge.