News & Events
November 3–4, 2023: Handloom Weaving as Knowing and Owning
A multimedia exhibition at Berlin Science Week CAMPUS.
- Date: November 3–4, 2023
- Time: 09:00–20:00 CET (both days)
- Location: Museum für Naturkunde Museum Berlin (Stand 9)
- Participation: Entrance is free as part of Berlin Science Week, no registration required.
We see throughout history and across societies that there are many ways people can own knowledge. Knowing words enables us to name a human gene, making it ownable as intellectual property. A dancer owns knowledge of a performance through the skilled use of their body. An artisan owns knowledge of a loom as they weave threads into intricately-designed fabrics.
In this multimedia exhibition at the Berlin Science Week CAMPUS (November 3–4, 2023) join Annapurna Mamidipudi, Gauri Nori, and Vivek Oak to explore how diverse ways of knowing handloom weaving in India came to be replaced by singular algorithmically-encoded patterns owned as “intellectual property.” Practice weaving at our tablet loom and be ready to question your assumptions about knowledge! How do we own it? What happens to that knowledge, and to ourselves as social beings, when these diverse ways are replaced by a singular idea of what it means to know and own? And how can we rethink this issue towards social change?
"People follow the chemist or the indigo dyer. In doing so they miss the forest for the trees. In following the kn/own/able, the person who knows chemistry, and practice, and is able to hold the diverse ways of knowing and owning knowledge together allows us a glimpse into a world where knowledge and ownership are not split. This gives us an opportunity to challenge the hierarchies and inequities that we face in any knowledge ownership regime.In our stall, we follow the kn/own/able in hand weaving through different forms, and attempt to communicate this. Come to the stall and learn to apply it to your instances" (researcher Annapurna Mamidipudi).
More on the Berlin Science Week website: https://berlinscienceweek.com/campus/
Media Images
Annapurna Mamidipudi showing visitors the interactive "grid for splitting," Image Credit: Verena Braun, Niclas Look.
Photograph of various dyes exhibited at the "The kn/own/able Project" stand, Image Credit: Verena Braun, Niclas Look.
Gauri Nori explaining how to use the handloom, Image Credit: Verena Braun, Niclas Look.
Vivek Oak at Berlin Science Week, Image Credit: Verena Braun, Niclas Look.
Dagmar Schäfer in the CAMPUS speaker’s corner, Image Credit: Verena Braun, Niclas Look.
About Berlin Science Week CAMPUS
Located in the impressive building of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, the Berlin Science Week CAMPUS is a festival center in the heart of Berlin. Dedicated to dialogue, engagement and exchange, the CAMPUS brings together experts, researchers, scientists, and the general audience for two days of open dialogue, knowledge sharing and discovery. Taking place on 3–4 NOVEMBER 2023, the CAMPUS will reunite interactive events, temporary exhibitions, public lectures, hands-on experiments, film screenings, networking opportunities, and community building formats.
This year, the CAMPUS is organized around the motto “Dare to Know: Our Narratives, Our Future.” The scientific discovery is ever accelerating – where are we heading? The way we frame our desirable future defines how we act today to make it a reality. At the same time, the people who get to create this narrative have a vital role – but who are they exactly? What knowledge do we need, who can offer it, and to whom?
At the CAMPUS, (future) scientists, knowledge-seekers, science dummies, curious citizens and families will all join in on co-creating visionary spaces and a dialogue between science, civil society, art, and technology, in formats which go beyond the conventional.
