Art Laboratory Berlin is delighted to invite you to take part in our Colloquium, a discursive format on research in art, science and humanities, curated by Regine Rapp. It takes place in tandem with our Reading Club, curated by Tuçe Erel.

The colloquium addresses an international interdisciplinary research audience to present and discuss past, present or future projects by artists and scholars, curators or editors from the fields of art, science and the humanities. The topics could refer to an art project, a book, text or chapter, a research or exhibition project, a lab experiment, a lecture series, a conference concept or other.

The presentations and exchange will focus on the work-in-progress. Methodological approaches – theoretical or practical – are also of great interest here. While researching, we often tend to shift between practical inquiry and theoretical research, browsing various disciplines. Following the original meaning of colloquium as “speaking together”, we want to provide a platform for exchange and embrace various kinds of work processes which are often not seen or talked about.

Structure of the sessions: Each session will include two presentations followed by discussions, altogether 90 min. The colloquium welcomes informal conversations amongst the participants.

Speakers on 17 October 2023 Session

Kristina Stallvik | Zine Ecologies

Kristina Stallvik (b. 1999, NYC) is an artist and researcher with a dual BA in environmental and gender studies from Swarthmore College (2021). Working at this multidisciplinary intersection, their practice aims to subvert normative understandings of the “natural” and examine the ways in which more-than-human beings are utilized within human nation building projects. Supported by a grant from the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Kristina has engaged in a long-term artistic research project on the changing fishing legislation in Iceland; the results of which have been exhibited at Automat Collective gallery (Philadelphia, USA) and Nylistasafnid (Reykjavik, IS). Their writing on this topic has been published by Inland Academy, in cooperation with the lumbung press of Documenta 15. With work currently on view at Magma Maria (Offenbach, DE), their solo practice focuses on the green screen as a technological tool that legitimizes scripts for interspecies relationships. In collaboration with Kunsthall Trondheim, Kristina has additionally developed a workshop for children around these themes of animal corporeality. Kristina is currently a Chancellor fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with Art Laboratory Berlin as the host institution. They work alongside Art Laboratory Berlin to research the collective structures that comprise independent artist book and zine publishing. Their risograph printing/publishing project, cover crop, has exhibited at the Bergen Art Book Fair and is soon to travel to the Vienna Art Book fair this October.

In the colloquium Kristina will discuss their current research as a Chancellor’s fellow, Zine Ecologies, focusing on the process of embedding themself within the book-making ecosystem in Berlin, designing an interactive library, forging a risography practice, and curating artists’ books. They will elaborate on questions such as, what does it mean to publish? how do book-objects interface with the somatic? and how do printing techniques work to shape community formation?

Louise Mackenzie | Non-Human-Sense

Louise Mackenzie, PhD, is an Edinburgh-born interdisciplinary artist, curator and writer. Her practice explores human relationships with the non-human world. With an interest in experimental and experiential practices, sound and new/found media play an important role in her work. She is co-founder and curator of interdisciplinary cinema project Black Box and co-founder of Alive Together, an interdisciplinary community for research in human/ animal relationships. Current projects includes BioDwelling, an exploration of human/microbial relations in the context of the built environment and BE THE SEA, an exploration of our relationship to and impact upon coastal marine life through sound and listening. Louise’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including ZKM (Karlsruhe), ISEA Montreal (Canada), Pomona Museum of Art, California (USA), National Library of Spain, Madrid (Spain), BALTIC CCA, Newcastle (UK), Charles Darwin House, London (UK), Basement 6 Collective, Shanghai (China) and Lumiere Durham (UK). Louise has written for MIT Press, PUBLIC Journal, Manchester University Press, Routledge, Bloomsbury and Intellect.

In the colloquium Louise will talk about her research approach non-human-sense to develop a greater planetary consciousness. This is most recently manifested in the project BE THE SEA with composer Hayley Jenkins, which uses deep listening, field recording and imaginative listening techniques to try to understand the subject positions of coastal marine life and in the nascent project Transgenic Petting Zoo, with animal behaviour scientist, Dr. Anna Olsson.