Art Laboratory Berlin is delighted to invite you to take part in our Colloquium (this time both online and on-site!), a discursive format on research in art, science and humanities, curated by Regine Rapp.

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.

The colloquium welcomes informal conversations amongst the participants, and will not be recorded or archived.

Robertina Šebjanič is an artist whose work explores the biological, geopolitical, and cultural realities of aquatic environments and the impact of humanity on other organisms. In her analysis of the Anthropocene and its theoretical framework she uses the term ‘aquatocene’ to refer to the human impact on aquatic environments. Her works received awards, honorary mentions and nominations at Prix Ars Electronica, Starts Prize, Falling Walls., Re: humanism. She gave lectures and presented her works at events and venues, such as Stanford University (Palo Alto), Ocean Space – TBA21 (Venice), UCLA- ArtiSci Center  (Los Angeles), Arte&Ciencia UNAM – The National Autonomous University of Mexico  (Mexico City), ISEA2023 (Paris), Mare Conference (Amsterdam). Šebjanič exhibited and performed worldwide at solo and group exhibitions as well as in galleries and festivals, bienales, and museums, such as ZKM (Karlsruhe),  Gallery Cukrarna (Ljubljana), Kunstgewerbemuseum (Berlin), UCLA – EDA (Los Angeles), Ars Electronica (Linz), Art Laboratory Berlin (Berlin), Tribeca Immersive – Mercer lab (New York), Matadero (Madrid), Biennal Ciutat i Ciència at CCCB (Barcelona), KIKK festival (Namur), Contemporary Art Museum of Istria (Pula), Watermans Arts Centre (London), Akbank Sanat (istanbul), Eastern Bloc (Montreal), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico City), MSU – Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), MONOM (Berlin), Le Cube (Paris), Eyebeam (New York), CCD – Centro de Cultura Digital (Ciudad de Mexico), and re:publica (Berlin).

Marco Barotti is a media artist. After music studies at the Siena Jazz Academy, he began merging sound with visual art. His work is driven by a desire to invent an artistic language in which a fictional post-futurist era is expressed through kinetic sound interventions in natural and urban environments. His installations merge audio technology, consumer objects, and waste into moving sculptures triggered entirely by sound. The primary focus of his work is to create a “tech ecosystem” that plays with resemblances to animals and plants. These artworks serve as a metaphor for the anthropogenic impact on the planet and aim to make people aware of environmental and social issues. Barotti has been awarded the NTU Global Digital Art Prize (Clams), the Tesla Award (Swans) and the Dulux Colour Award (Sound Of Light). His work has been exhibited internationally, such as Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju), Ars Electronica (Linz), Saatchi Gallery (London), Science Gallery (Melbourne), Futurium (Berlin), Fact (Liverpool), Wro Art Center (Wroclaw), Isea (Montreal), silent green (Berlin), Dutch Design Week (Eindhoven), NTU (Singapore), Kikk Festival (Namur), Zer01ne, (Seoul), Lisboa Soa (Lisbon), La Boral (Gijón), and many others. Barotti has received numerous grants, for example S+T+ARTS, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Emap / Emare, bbk and Music Board Berlin. He has been selected for prestigious residency programs such as Art of Entanglement, Science Gallery Berlin / BIFOLD at TU Berlin (2023) or Zer01ne Creators project, Seoul (2022).

In the Colloquium Robertina Šebjanič and Marco Barotti will talk about their new research project Fossilized Futures: Insects' Symphonies Across Time, their first collaboration. Premiering at KIKK Festival 2025 (Namur, Belgium), this work explores deep time, interspecies coexistence, and the connections between past and future. Anchored in the 365-million-year-old Strudiella devonica fossil and the La Meuse and La Sambre rivers, the project bridges archaeology, ecology, and speculative futures. Supported by CO_VISION EU, Šebjanič and Marco Barotti welcome further collaborations. Both artists have spent years developing works at the intersection of ecology and sound, fostering deep collaborations with scientists, philosophers, and other researchers. They bring their extensive experience and interdisciplinary approach to this project, creating a dialogue between art, science, and speculative futures.