Water is the element of life. It has countless forms and functions: be it as ocean and cloud, raging river and tiny droplet, as catalyst and carrier substance. The research dedicated to the topic of water is just as diverse as the element itself. This diversity of research will be on display in a new exhibition at the Humboldt Laboratory from next fall. The exhibition team at Humboldt-Universität is working closely with researchers from the BUA network. Anna-Lisa Dieter is the exhibition’s curator, and she explains in an interview what exciting and surprising exhibits are planned, how she makes the science behind these visible, as well as why puddles are exciting bodies of water.

Ms. Dieter, a new exhibition dedicated to the element of water is slowly taking shape behind the scenes at the Humboldt Lab. What specific topics are involved and why is water – of all things – the focus?

In Berlin and Brandenburg in particular, water is a highly controversial issue. This is an area that is rich in water, and yet poor in water. Water occupies many researchers at the Berlin University Alliance and, at the same time, water is a topic that is relevant to everyone. How will we secure the water supply in tomorrow’s world? This is a big question that touches on many other aspects, such as climate change. Real life and research become intertwined here. Starting from Berlin, we will broaden our view and look out into the wider world. We want to make the great diversity of research visible: researchers in Berlin are looking at local bodies of water – such as the Müggelsee, the Spree and the Panke – as well as rivers in Latin America and Asia. They are dealing with water infrastructures and phenomena as diverse as puddles, clouds, whirlpools, and glaciers.

Is there research on puddles?

There are actually various “puddle researchers” in Berlin. The impetus for this research stems from art. The artist Mirja Busch has long been concerned with the puddle, which has often been both overlooked or underestimated. She has analyzed and archived puddles. In doing so, she has served as a source of inspiration for two Berlin scientists: Ignacio Farías from the Humboldt University in Berlin is currently working with Busch on a cultural history of the puddle. And hydrologist Thomas Nehls from the Technical University of Berlin has developed a method for the 3D measurement of puddles in a seminar with the artist. What is particularly interesting about puddles is that they are the smallest standing bodies of water in the city. They form an ecosystem of their own, in which the influence of humans can be seen.

The exhibition will focus on research. How do you succeed in getting the researchers on board?

We first had to find out who was actually doing research on water at Berlin’s universities. At the beginning of last year we, therefore, initiated a call in which we invited all researchers from the Berlin University Alliance to get involved. We were delighted that many scientists wanted to present their research to the general public and were also keen to use the exhibition format. There was plenty of enthusiastic feedback from a wide range of disciplines, as well as from researchers at all career levels.

In this exhibition project, you are working together with the Berlin University Alliance as curator of the Humboldt Lab. What does this collaborative effort look like in specific terms?

 The Humboldt Lab team and the colleagues within “Fostering Knowledge Exchange” of the Berlin University Alliance have been working intensively together on the development of the water topic for over a year. While we at the Humboldt Lab are primarily concerned with analog content, the “Fostering Knowledge Exchange” team primarily develops digital applications. There will be several digital stations in the exhibition that will allow visitors to get to know the day-to-day work of researchers, for example. The BUA team is also designing two framing program lines, which were launched in October 2024 and will run until the summer of 2026. On the one hand, the TD-Lab – the laboratory for trans-disciplinary research – is developing the DIALOGE program, in which researchers and experts are networked. On the other hand, the Knowledge Exchange Office is organizing the PARCOURS, which brings science, art, and urban society into an exchange at Berlin’s cultural venues and along the waterways. In the exhibition, we have also planned a water workshop with civic science activities, in order that ideas and knowledge from different social contexts can flow in and enrich scientific thinking about the element of water.

What unusual and special exhibits and installations can visitors look forward to?

One special exhibit will be a three-dimensional model of urban water management. It renders visible what otherwise remains invisible: the groundwater and the sewer system. There will then be a water bar where visitors can filter and drink Spree water themselves. Furthermore, the rich acoustic research on water is made audible in the bar. In the article by cultural scientist, Walther Maradiegue, for example, we learn how the “El Niño phenomenon” – which has become more frequent due to climate change – affects traditional Andean music.

What do you find particularly exciting as the curator of an exhibition on the subject of water?

This is always the ambivalence of water. It is the element that gives life, but it can also destroy, and bring with it death. I was recently on an expedition to Samos and experienced the beauty of the sea and the beach. At the same time, traces of people who had fled across the sea were visible in the sand: life jackets left behind, rucksacks, tablets. We heard later that a boat carrying refugees had also sunk that day. This simultaneity of beauty and death, of lightness and danger – which is associated with water – touches me.

It will be a while before the exhibition opens. What will happen in the coming months?

We are currently working intensively on translating the scientific projects and themes into the exhibition space. We aim to complete the conceptual phase in the spring and then the trades will work intensively on implementing our plans and building the exhibition’s architecture. We will then celebrate the opening in fall 2025.

Anna-Lisa Dieter has a doctorate in literature. After working at the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden and at BIOTOPIA, the new natural history museum in Munich, she has been a curator at the Humboldt Lab since January 2024. Her work combines cultural and natural sciences.