The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science was excited to present at several events as part of Berlin Science Week in November 2023.

The kn/own/able Project—Handloom Weaving as Knowing and Owning

The Berlin Science Week CAMPUS at the Museum für Naturkunde, which took place on November 3–4, 2023, was organized around the motto “Dare to Know: Our Narratives, Our Future.” MPIWG researcher-practitioners Annapurna Mamidipudi, Vivek Oak, Uzramma, and Gauri Nori presented an interactive exhibition on "The kn/own/able Project,” a new framework for thinking about knowledge ownership. The two-day exhibition consisted of handloom weaving, multimedia, and engaging discussions around the connection between how we can know and own.

The exhibition was accompanied by a short talk "How is Knowledge Owned? Thinking beyond Intellectual Property" in the CAMPUS speaker’s corner, given by Dagmar Schäfer and Annapurna Mamidipudi.

The exhibition was coordinated by the MPIWG Communications Team—Verena Braun, Stephanie Hood, Niclas Look, Lara Pfister, and Lucy Salmon—in collaboration with Mila Albrecht and Alberto Gobber of the agency DGA*Design. 

Click to view photo gallery.

Modern Historiography Relies on Artificial-Intelligence Historians

On November 4, 2023, BIFOLD Berlin and MPIWG researchers Matteo Valleriani, Jochen Büttner, and Hassan El-Hajj, with colleagues Oliver Eberle and Julius Martinetz, presented the talk "Wissenschaft setzt Künstliche Intelligenz ein, um unsere Vergangenheit zu entschlüsseln” ("Science uses artificial intelligence to decipher our past"). As part of the event at the Berlin Science Week CAMPUS they demonstrated the latest technologies in historical research and gave the public the opportunity to explore and analyse historical data and sources themselves using electronic tools.

Click to view photo gallery.

Falling Walls in the Humanities

Traditionally, the humanities and social sciences are less focussed than STEM on the issue of scientific breakthroughs. In the roundtable “Falling Walls in den Geisteswissenschaften,” which took place at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW) on November 6, 2023, MPIWG director emerita Lorraine Daston, director Dagmar Schäfer, and Ursula Rao (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), in discussion with BBAW president Christoph Markschies, explored why this is the case and which walls in the humanities and social sciences and between disciplines could fall next. 

Thank you to the Berlin Science Week organizers and to all of you who visited our talks and exhibitions—we enjoyed meeting and engaging with you on communicating for the humanities and social sciences!