Living the Forest Lab in Corsica
A two week excursion to Corte (Corsica): Merging Environmental Challenges with Electrical Engineering.
Collaborators
- project co-lead | research associate
Graduated from the Technical University of Berlin in 2017 with an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. She implemented an experimental space at City LAB Berlin and developed a passion for prototyping, open hardware, and participatory development. Currently pursuing her PhD at TU Berlin, she researches tools for prototyping to discover the optimal composition of electronic components. Her mission is to develop tools that empower a wider audience to become inventors.
- project co-lead | research associate
Graduated from the Technical University of Berlin and University of Artis in Design & Computation, a transdisciplinary study program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from the Berlin University of the Arts and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Her interests include feminist perspectives on digitalisation, queering technology and human-machine interaction and relationships. Her practical work moves between media such as installation, print, video, wearables, illustration and prototyping.
- research associate
Ines Weigand graduated in 2020 from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) with a Master’s degree in Communication in Social and Economic Contexts. In her collaborative Master’s thesis, she investigated potentials of the Open Science movement for a change in the relationship between humans and nature. In order to investigate this problem, which is typical for the Anthropocene, she used methods of critical making and experiential learning.
After gaining experience in (knowledge) transfer and participatory urban development for two years at the University of the Arts and the public innovation lab CityLAB Berlin, she returned to the University of the Arts in October 2022. Here, she conducts research in the project “Design, Diversity and New Commons“, at the UdK Berlin / Weizenbaum Institute.
Ines Weigand builds bridges between science, society and politics and benefits from her interdisciplinary background and pragmatic attitude.
She is interested in alternative learning environments, new forms of knowledge production and concepts of sustainability that lead to a socio-ecological transformation.
- student assistant
From a small town in Mecklenburg (Northern Germany), surrounded by mostly forests and lakes, with my head always in the clouds and interested in every book I could get my little hands on. I’ve gone from studying mechanical engineering, history, classical archaeology, to now finally trying to finish my degree in informatics.
While working IT at Radbahn Berlin to finance my studies, I met Sara and later joined her project. Now I’m teaching myself electrical engineering, endlessly tinkering with things, and trying to be useful while learning along the way.
I also help seniors at a local library and am part of a nonprofit trying to improve Berlin.
- student assistant
Linhtan is studying business informatics at the Technical University of Berlin. In addition to the content of his studies, he is interested in gathering knowledge from various specialist areas in order to broaden his horizons and create added value for society in the future.
He is involved in various projects in the Reallabor Wald and has worked particularly intensively on the topic of “3D forests”. In this project, he works at the interface between microcontrollers and 3D graphics software and combines technical expertise with creative visualization.
- Musterrolle1 | Musterrolle2
For two weeks in Corsica, we intertwined the principles of regenerative and systemic design with electrical engineering and hands-on experimentation, searching for common vocabularies, practices and methods. With this excursion, we aimed to integrate ecological and design perspectives, as well as a practical approach to specific planetary challenges, into the teaching of electrical engineering. To achieve this, we used the ‘living lab’ approach, which situates scientific endeavors in lived realities and test them in practice. This transdisciplinary methodology allows us to speculate about desirable social futures and to initiate transformative processes.
However, while transdisciplinarity is widely encouraged, science often prefers to remain within its comfortable boundaries, with institutional and personal barriers to cross-disciplinary collaboration – such as mistrust, fear of friction, or the risk of exposing vulnerabilities – often outweighing the potential benefits.
To explore the potential of the ‘living lab’ approach in electrical engineering education, we organized an excursion to Corte, Corsica (a French island in the Mediterranean Sea), where we focused on real-world issues such as forest fires to highlight the critical role of forests in biodiversity, climate regulation and ecosystem conservation. The group consisted of sixteen participants, including electrical engineers, computer scientists, designers and sociologists.
After a long two and a half-day journey from Berlin to Corte by train and ferry, we began the excursion with a workshop led by Ines Weigand on Human-Nature-Technology Entanglements. In this workshop, participants explored the environmental humanities, looking at human-nature relationships, ecological integration, and ethical, political and design challenges. They engaged with systemic design approaches, eco-literacy, and regenerative practices and learned how to understand and apply ecological principles in real-world contexts, particularly through site-based explorations in Corsica. The workshop also encouraged reflection on how to design and interact with natural systems (read more about the workshop ).
After the workshop, we started experimenting with the material and electrical components we brought with us to Corte. We explored the surroundings of Corte, walking through areas affected by forest fires in 2023, experiencing the rainy forest just before spring, and walking through wild mountains hidden behind low clouds and cut by strong rivers. We had a chance to appreciate the quiet before the high season, take field recordings, experiment with LoRa technology and sensors, and work on other collaborative projects.
During our stay, each participant had to prepare a short presentation on a variety of topics, including politics, geology, flora and fauna, energy, communication, climate change and forest fires. In this way, we encouraged them to engage with the island on a deeper level.
Corte is home to the Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli, the only university in Corsica. As forest fires are a common problem there, we connected with the university’s “Fire” project, which works at the intersection of physics, ecology, chemistry, computer science and image processing to model and experiment with forest fires.
We also visited the FabLab Corte, an open workshop for students and the public, organized by the Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli. Located in the heart of the citadel of Corte, the FabLab is equipped with various machines, including 3D printers, a laser cutter, woodworking tools and a co-working space. In order to improve the exchange between the people of the Fab Lab and us, we organized an Atari Punk Console workshop open to all participants.
The excursion ended with a final presentation of all the projects completed during the nine days we spent in Corte, followed by a long journey back to Berlin.