A lecture and discussion series as part of the collaboration between the Technical University of Munich, the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, and Haus der Kunst on Astrophysics and Art.
November 24, 2025
6:30 PM – Get-together with light drinks and snacks
7:00–8:00 PM – Theorien ausstellen?
With Christian Sicka (Curator of Astronomy, Planetarium, Deutsches Museum, Munich)
How can abstract ideas from cosmology and particle physics – by definition immaterial – be experienced spatially? This very question of translating scientific content into tangible forms is addressed in the lecture ‘Theorien ausstellen?’ ('Exhibiting Theories?') by curator Dr. Christian Sicka. Building on the historical development of the projection planetarium and selected examples from his curatorial practice, Sicka’s lecture will examine the social role of the Deutsches Museum at the intersection of culture, education, and technology. A Q&A session will follow the presentation.
The event will be held in German.
December 15, 2025
6:30 PM – Get-together with light drinks and snacks
6:45–8:45 PM – Telling Stories, Making Worlds
With Ruth Müller (Professor of Science and Technology Policy, TUM Munich Center for Technology in Society) and Florian Dirnberger (Research group leader at the Center for Quantum Engineering in the Physics Department, TUM School of Natural Sciences)
What gets to count as nature? For whom, and when? The documentary 'Storytelling for Earthly Survival' (2016) by filmmaker and activist Fabrizio Terranova is a cinematic portrait of scholar and feminist thinker Donna Haraway, whose groundbreaking work envisions more-than-human futures, collective survival, and ethical coexistence within the entangled worlds of nature, culture, and technoscience. With particular reference to Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS), the subsequent panel discussion between Ruth Müller and Florian Dirnberger will focus on how one can develop methodologies to critically engage with science through sustainable and holistic thinking. The event is a collaboration with the seminar ‘Physics as Practice: Science and Society in the Making of Knowledge’ of the Department of Science, Technology and Society (TUM).
The event will be held in English.
December 16, 2025
6:30 PM – Get-together with light drinks and snacks
7:00–8:00 PM – Black Holes: A Trading Zone Between the Sciences and the Humanities
With Peter Galison (Joseph Pellegrino University Professor & Director, Black Hole Initiative Science Team Lead, Black Hole Explorer Harvard University).
It is too easy – and false – to see the humanities and sciences as opposed. Black holes are objects of equations and code, but they also resonate culturally as symbols of passage from life to death. The Black Hole Initiative (BHI) at Harvard University has, over the last decade, brought together mathematics, physics, astronomy, history and philosophy, around these massive distortions of space and time. In his lecture, Peter Galison will discuss the BHI’s interdisciplinary and cutting-edge practice in responsibly locating future telescopes and engaging communities across the Pacific, the Americas, and Africa.
The event will be held in English.
At the intersection of physics, history & philosophy of science, and filmmaking, Galison’s practice explores the interaction between principal subcultures of physics, and the embedding of physics in the wider world. As part of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, he shared the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for capturing the first image of a black hole. His books include How Experiments End; Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps; with Lorraine Daston, Objectivity. Peter’s latest film is Black Holes | The Edge of All We Know. He collaborated on The Refusal of Time and Refuse the Hour with William Kentridge (2012).
January 26, 2026
New building | room E.O1.23
7:30 PM – Get-together with light drinks and snacks
8:00–9:00 PM – With Mónica Bello (art historian and independent curator)
Mónica Bello will give a lecture on her curatorial practice at the intersection of art and science. Drawing on her previous experience as Head of Arts at CERN – the arts programme of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva – she will discuss methods of fostering exchanges between artists, particle physicists and engineers. Bello will also introduce a newly launched programme, outlining its forward-looking objectives and significance within the broader field of contemporary culture.
The lecture will be held in English.