The dissolution of established knowledge systems is currently being discussed worldwide. In the academic context, it is above all the sciences and the arts whose boundaries are being re-examined and explored. While artistic practices are constantly expanding the realm of what can be known, current scientific research is simultaneously undergoing a methodological and representational differentiation, so that something like a shift in paradigms is increasingly taking place in the specific territories of knowledge.

At the Berlin University of the Arts, art and science have been working together in a very close space for decades. It is a venue where the connections between arts and sciences are experienced seismographically and negotiated with attention and commitment. In the process, it becomes clear that the traditional demarcations between knowledge cultures are becoming increasingly questionable. Inter- and transdisciplinary projects, cross-faculty encounters and a sensitive reaction to social changes and impulses, even before they acquire a conceptual contour, enliven the intersections and overlaps of scientific and artistic knowledge.

The end-of-year conversation at the Berlin University of the Arts, which took place on December 17, 2021 at 4 p.m. with representatives from science, art, and politics, considers the current situation of knowledge cultures from the perspective of an expanded concept of research in interaction with Berlin's diverse scientific institutions. The image of a border or threshold, which is always present from an institutional perspective, will be reconsidered, evaluated using examples of hybrid research, and overlaid with alternative models. While the focus seems to be primarily on the arts in the effort to institutionally frame artistic research, it is often lost sight of the fact that research questions and methods in the sciences and the arts have always been intertwined. A broader understanding of research opens up sustainable development perspectives for Berlin as a location for science. The conversation could be followed via livestream. You will find the recording here soon.
 

Prof. Dr. Vera Bühlmann, Member of the UdK Berlin University Council and Professor of Architectural Theory and Head of the Department of Architectural Theory and Philosophy of Technology at the Vienna University of Technology

Prof. Dr. Florian Dombois, Artist and head of research focus transdisciplinarity at the Zurich University of the Arts

Prof. Dr. Barbara Gronau, Professor of Theory and History of Theater and Dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts

Prof. Dr. Ariane Jeßulat, Vice President of the Berlin University of the Arts

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christoph Johannes Markschies, President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Professor of Ancient Christianity (Patristics) at the Humboldt University in Berlin

Prof. Dr. Norbert Palz, President of the Berlin University of the Arts