Greeting Modern universities have long distinguished themselves by applying the term research not only to the academic world, but by involving the sphere of art as well, at least in an exemplary manner. Historically, this has been expressed, among other things, through honorary doctorates, such as the one the University of Jena awarded to Auguste Rodin. A similarly strong impulse was expressed by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude receiving an honorary doctorate from the Humboldt University even before they had wrapped the Reichstag. Attempts to create new structural bonds between the fields of natural sciences and humanities, whose antagonism is only superficial anyway, focused on visual artists in particular, since they possess a profound knowledge of the matter in question, which is also employed, albeit in different ways, by natural scientists. This led to a broad discussion within the Humboldt University during the 1990s, ultimately resulting in the establishment of the Hermann von Helmholtz Center for Cultural Techniques (HZK). The term “cultural techniques,” widely used today, was invented in this context and has held currency ever since. Today, natural science and humanities are entering into a lively dialogue at the Humboldt University’s “laboratory” at the Humboldt Forum as well. Together and from their own perspectives, they have seized upon the theme of the inaugural exhibition, Nach der Natur, to examine global environmental changes and processes of trans formation, some of them violent, caused by the Anthropocene. This does not simply imply a transfer of science into the Humboldt Forum; instead, the Humboldt Labor offers a chance to establish productive exchange and relations between various disciplines, and also between what is commonly labelled excellent science, student science, and citizen science. The challenge of decolonizing knowledge is a main motive for our work with the partner institutions at the Humboldt Forum. The exhibition Nach der Natur at the Humboldt Labor is a successor to the exhibitions Theatrum Naturae et Artis, which was the first to present to a wider public the Humboldt University’s near unfathomable holdings pertaining to the history of science; Weltwissen, the great bicentenary exhibition; and +ultra, the third large-scale scientific
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