Tech Tales
Discover Tech Tales: an immersive exhibition blending art, science & technology to explore forests, ecology & digital futures — opening at TU Berlin’s UNI_VERSUM.
Collaborators
- lecturer | architect
- 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.
- lecturer | architect
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- student
- student
- student
A fairy-tale-like tree fills the room, while lights change in a barely perceptible rhythm. Freely available real-time data on forest edges are translated into a play of color and brightness, revealing the current state of forests in different regions of the world. Interactive technical experiments from the research project Living the Forest Lab invite visitors to explore and try things out. They explore the complex interweavings of nature, culture, and technology using multiperspectival approaches to understand our environment, and they playfully experiment with different forms of data visualization.
Ultrasound waves and sounds hidden within fungi warn animals of approaching wildfires. A game experiments with climate variables that alter a digital forest. A buoy drifting on the water collects sensor readings and offers insight into the health of a body of water in Berlin. An open-source instrument makes invisible electromagnetic waves audible and invites visitors to listen, for a moment, with animal senses.
TechTales brings scientific topics to life through artistic installations and interactive elements, raising ecological awareness and communicating science. The exhibition highlights the importance of forests for biodiversity and climate regulation, as well as the mitigation of climate change. It also aims to emphasize the need to explore alternative epistemologies – those that recognize the agency of plants, animals, and machines – and how these might inform more relational and reciprocal modes of technological development.
The immersive space invites visitors to consider future scenarios, discuss them, and explore ways to shape them in fair and sustainable ways. Developed and produced at TU Berlin, the exhibition is a contribution to innovative science communication.
TechTales is a collaboration between the Living the Forest Lab research project in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Department of Communication Systems), the Master’s program in Stage Design and Scenography and the Science & Society department of the Executive Board at TU Berlin. The Living the Forest Labresearch initiative, which is funded by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education, focuses on knowledge transfer and forest fire prevention.
The exhibition will be presented in the UNI_VERSUM in the main building of the TU Berlin and will be part of Berlin Science Week 2025. The UNI_VERSUM is the pilot phase for the TULIUM project, a new transfer and exhibition building on the TU campus that is currently under construction. It tests various formats that are intended to be continued later in the building’s exhibition and event spaces.