Event Reports

On June 11, 2025, the Panel, together with the ‘Planetary Agency/Politics’ summer fellows – Danilo Olivaz , Ingvild Syntropia & Erle Ellis , went on an excursion along the banks of the Lahn River in Weilburg, following the Lahnwanderweg (Lahn Hiking Trail) from Weilburg to Fürfurt. The excursion was organized to enrich the fellows’ project of creating an AI Avatar for the River Lahn. This project is part of a broader effort to envision political agency for natural entities, empowering rivers, forests, and ecosystems to express their needs and advocate for their rights. During the excursion, valuable insights were gathered on how the Lahn River has historically shaped the region’s ecosystem, as well as the socioeconomic and cultural life of local communities. Since ancient times, the river has played a vital role in shaping human settlements, trade routes, and cultural landmarks, serving as a living witness to the intertwined relationship between nature and humans.

Starting the hike from Weilburg town also known as the “Pearl of Lahn”, we encountered both geological and cultural landmarks. Among them was the Weilburg shipping tunnel built between 1844 and 1847. It is the oldest, longest and the only navigable ship tunnel in Germany, stretching 195 meters from north to south beneath Mühlberg hill, where the town of Weilburg is situated. The tunnel allowed vessels to bypass a roughly two-kilometer long bend in the Lahn River. It bears witness to importance of the Lahn as a transport route in the past, which from the late Middle Ages was used to carry mined ores.

We then passed the 18th-century Weilburg Castle, renowned for its impressive garden and the orangery. The castle was envisioned by Count John Ernest of Nassau-Weilburg and inspired by King Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles. From this high vantage point, we enjoyed sweeping views of the river and the surrounding forests, vibrant with early summer life.

The hiking trail was dotted with many interesting points, including the Ernst-Dienstbach Bridge (Ernst-Dienstbach-Steg), also known as the Chain Bridge (Kettenbrücke), which has a fascinating history. This steel pedestrian bridge, rebuilt in 1946, replaced earlier structures that were vital for the town’s water supply across the Lahn River. Originally, the Red Bridge (Rothe Brücke), built between 1709 and 1710, carried lead water pipes over the river. After floods destroyed it in 1784, the Chain Bridge was constructed—the first suspension bridge of its kind in continental Europe—to support the water pipes. This system ensured a reliable water supply for Weilburg until technological upgrades in the late 19th century made it obsolete.

One of the most beautiful stretches of our trail was the part where we walked alongside the river, surrounded only by the quiet sounds of nature. At the Kirschhofen double weirs, we saw grey herons standing still at the water’s edge, while canoers passed by in a calm, steady rhythm.

The excursion provided us both physical exercise and a restorative pause for body and mind, as we reconnected with nature and reflected together on our relationship with the natural world.

Photo © Muthuwahandi

The three-month long residence of Aisling O’Carroll & Lukáš Likavčan - Planetary Times winter fellows in the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program, culminated in the two-day workshop on the topic: “ Reading the Earth & Stars: Field Methods for Narrating Geological & Cosmic Time ”. The events from November 28-29, 2024, took place in the Physikalischer Verein in Frankfurt that houses an observatory and the Hermann Hoffmann Academy of the University of Giessen respectively.

The workshop comprised of series of talks, participatory experiments, and collective discussions that introduced and tested approaches for reading histories in the archives of rocks, soil, planets, and stars. The workshop aimed to expand our understanding of planetary time through geohistories found below our feet and in surrounding materials, as well as cosmological histories found in the night sky.

Day one of the workshop was conducted by Likavčan who focused on “reading the stars” which expanded our understanding of planetary time through cosmological histories found in the sky. The event began with an introduction from Markus Röllig , the Research Director of the Physical Society who explained the history and the importance of the Society which celebrated its 200 years in 2024 since its foundation in 1824. It was initially created to promote physics and chemistry and later grew to play a key role in the city's scientific landscape, from the regulation of tower clocks to pioneering weather observations.

Then, Adriana Knouf (artist, writer, musician, xenologist; tranxxenolab) conducted an engaging lecture on the topic “Orienting for Transitioning Times”. With a hands-on approach Knouf made the participants explore one of the methods that were used in the past to orient ourselves to the skies using a DIY astrolabe. An astrolabe is an ancient instrument used for measuring the positions of stars and planets, determining time, and navigating. Knouf emphasized that in these transitioning times; a contemporary astrolabe would not only orient ourselves to the stars, but perhaps include exoplanets and black holes in addition to standard stars as well as orient us to our current needs such as measuring the rise of sea levels.

Afterwards, András Cséfalvay (artist; AFAD Bratislava) screened his video “ Cosmogony 1: Self-similarity of Models ” that tackled the genre of origin myths. A Cosmic Jellyfish with a thousand million arms, contracting and waving its tentacles was seen on the screen. Cséfalvay’s narration revealed that the jellyfish represented the foundational element of existence, as the primary mover, as the shape of all things, as the first form out of which all has been created, and made in its image.

Day one wrapped up with a stargazing session at the Frankfurt Observatory where the participants could “read the stars” through a telescope on a clear sky in the Rhine-Main area.

Day two of the workshop was conducted by O’Carroll on “reading the earth” with a workshop on circular soil chromatography. The workshop conducted by Danielle Hewitt (artist, historian; London Metropolitan University) was a practical example to show the interdisciplinary nature between art and science which used photographic chemistries to reveal components held within samples of soil that the participants brought to the workshop.

The day started with Hewitt, Knouf and O’Carroll guiding the participants with their soil samples. The soil extracts were first made with sodium hydroxide – a substance that reacts actively by breaking down rigid, solid substances, long and complex molecules making them smaller and more mobile. Then the filter papers were soaked in a diluted solution of silver nitrate – a substance with extremely sensitivity to light that created a photographic record of the components held within each sample. The group then tested and observed how the solution spread across the circular filter paper separating the organic matter of the soil, creating a natural banding effect which effectively took the entirety of the day.

The workshop was enriched further with impulse talks by Hewitt and JLU professors Markus Fuchs (geomorphologist) and Jan Siemens (soil scientist). The topics they elaborated were on “ Soil Chromatography: Producing Images of and with the Soil , How to Read Time in Sediments through Light , and How to Assess the Impact of Time and Humans on Soils , respectively.

Alexandra Arènes (landscape architect, researcher; IPGP Paris) then conducted a hybrid lecture on “Gaia-graphies: Inside the Critical Zones”. The Critical Zone (CZ) refers to the thin layer of the Earth’s surface that sustains life, where rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms interact. Arènes argued that emphasizing the importance of soil and the Earth's surface (CZ) is difficult using the traditional planetary view and proposed an "anamorphosis"—a shift in perspective from the conventional geographic grid to a "Gaia-graphic view." The new perspective focuses on the Earth's surface and better highlights the role of the CZ, making it more suitable for understanding the Anthropocene and the new forces shaping the planet.

The workshop concluded with participants presenting the soil chroma they had developed and sharing the stories behind the significance of the soils from which their samples were collected.

Our sincere gratitude goes to Aisling & Lukas for conceptualizing this multifaceted program, to our keen participants, to Prof. Siemens for providing the essential material for the soil chromatography workshop as well as to Johannes at Veganatural for their support in making this workshop series a huge success!

On November 26-27, 2024, Planetary Times Winter Fellows Charlotte Wrigley (human geographer) and Christian Kosmas Mayer (artist), in collaboration with Adam Searle (human geographer), organized the Planetary Colloquium and Workshop Frozen in Time: Interrogating Methods of Cold Storage and De-Extinction at the Hermann Hoffman Academy in Giessen. The event brought together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners, including Sarah Bezan (literature scholar), Veit Braun (sociologist), Thomas Lemke (sociologist), Alexis Rider (historian of science), and Sophie J. Williamson (artist), to explore the complex intersections of time, life, and preservation.

The two-day workshop focused on the role of frozen preservation as a temporal and existential practice. As all life on Earth is bound by temperature, the warming of the planet has catalyzed the need for artificial cooling technologies. This has led to the rise of ‘cryo-banking,’ in which biological material is frozen for potential resurrection. In this context, cryobanks present a paradox: they offer a way to "buy time" against accelerating ecological timelines, while simultaneously reshaping our understanding of life and death in the Anthropocene.

The debate was introduced by artist Christian Kosmas Mayer and human geographer Adam Searle, who shared their years-long research project The Last Bucardo: Making De-Extinction Public . Their presentation provided insights into the Von Genen und Menschen exhibition at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden (2023), which showcased archival materials and artistic objects related to the Pyrenean ibex, extinct since the late 1990s, and its failed cloning attempt. Mayer and Searle critically examined the philosophical, artistic, and ethical implications of de-extinction as both a scientific and social practice.

The event continued with Sarah Bezan’s presentation, The Rekindling: Fictions and Desirable Future Natures , and Veit Braun’s talk, Times of Extinction: Cryopreservation and Its Presents . Bezan explored how literature imagines desirable futures through narratives of the “rekindling,” while Braun examined the category of the human body in discussions of cryopreservation. After the keynotes, the group visit the University of Giessen Systematics and Biodiversity collection (UGSB), which is equipped with explosion proof freezers (-20 and -80°C) and security measures such as a temperature-alarm system and a CO ₂ fire extinguishing system.

Artist Sophie J. Williamson concluded the first day with a video lecture performance, Future Eaters , offering a performative exploration of Siberian landscapes, their ecosystems, and entangled temporalities. Williamson’s work highlighted the fragility of permafrost regions and the uncertain futures they face, integrating perspectives from indigenous rights activists, scientists, and artists.

The second day opened with Charlotte Wrigley and Alexis Rider’s presentation, Melting Memories or Frozen Fossils: Ice, Time, and the Arctic Archive . Wrigley and Rider, along with Alissa Theiss , Head of the Collections at the Hermann Hoffman Academy, discussed the archive as both a scientific and social practice. Rider addressed the use of ice by naturalists and scientists to study deep time, while Wrigley explored human-made freezing technologies, such as cryobanks, as archival tools.

The colloquium’s public keynote was delivered by Prof. Thomas Lemke, who presented Anticipating and Deferring: Elements of a Politics of Suspension . Lemke connected two seemingly disparate research strands: the critical analysis of cryopreservation technologies and the politics of anticipation. Focusing on wildlife cryobanks and the freezing of human eggs, Lemke argued that cryopreservation technologies are embedded in a broader politics of suspension. By placing biological material in a liminal state—neither fully alive nor dead—these practices extend temporal horizons, allowing for the deferral and anticipation of futures.

The workshop concluded with an interactive session led by Wrigley and Rider. Participants selected objects from the Hermann Hoffman Academy’s collection and developed speculative histories for future audiences. These presentations were documented, as a part of Wrigley's project " Archiving Giessen ", and will be sent to the Arctic World Archive, a secure subterranean vault in the Svalbard permafrost.

From November 4-10, 2024, the window exhibition The Temple of Science by landscape architect and researcher Aisling O’Carroll (Planetary Times Winter Fellow in Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program) was showcased at Kunsthalle Giessen. As the Panel’s third collaboration with Giessen’s main space for contemporary art, the exhibition continued Kunsthalle’s INSIDEOUT series by exhibiting O’Carroll’s installation in the window of Kunsthalle for the viewing of all passersby.

O’Carroll’s extensive archival research and fieldwork on the entwined geological, glaciological, and human histories of the Unteraar glacier in the Bernese Alps brought the installation to life as an alternative “temple” of science: A scaled-down representation of the Hôtel des Neuchâtelois – an improvised mountain hut occupied by a group of pioneering glaciologists during their summer expeditions in 1840 and 1841. The hut was built under the shelter of a huge erratic block of micaceous schist found on the Unteraar glacier’s medial moraine. The mountain hut was lost when the boulder broke apart in the winter of 1842. In the sands of time, the geological, glaciological, and human timescales converged in the valley. Later, Western scientific and Alpine narratives romanticized the Hôtel as the ‘Temple of Science’ as homage to the authority and intrepidity of the expeditioners.

In a 1:10 scale, the installation entails three reconstructed parts of the hut, based on a digital model which O’Carroll created by scanning and geolocating its former shape and position by using archived images and on-site field work. To cast these parts into rock-like shapes, O’Carroll used the traditional plaster technique of scagliola. The resulting sculpture bears a striking resemblance to the original micaceous schist block! To mimic the original dry-stone wall, the three casts were assembled into a mirrored enclosure, positioned upon metal stands.

O’Carroll’s alternative Temple of Science offers its spectators different perspectives - both human and more-than-human - on long-term planetary changes. Due to the glacial movements, the original Hôtel constitutes a lost architectural space today, with its debris scattered across the Grimsel Valley, Aare River and eventually to the Rhine and beyond. Keeping it from being lost in planetary time, this reconstruction translates the geological histories that once converged the planetary and human chronologies splendidly and opens up our minds to think through more inclusive relations with the Earth.

It is central for O’Carroll to acknowledge that her reconstruction is not an accurate recreation of the Hôtel that delivers any definitive or absolute truths about its histories but rather an interplay of reality, speculation, interpretation and originality of the artist. For example, she consciously decided to remove the white flag that was placed on top of the Hôtel by the original expeditioners from the reconstruction. Rather than reconstructing the human-made and -occupied architectural space in a manner that emphasizes the imperial and colonial notions of forcible demarcation of ownership that fed into it, O’Carroll reimagines a more inclusive “temple” of science. Her emphasis on the agency of the different types of rocks lending the Hôtel its shape and of the violent geological and glaciological events causing its destruction (more-than-human agency) attest to this.

The opening of the exhibition showcased O’Carroll’s creative process by turning the interiors of Kunsthalle Giessen into a space where visitors could trace her year-long archival collection of maps, images, rocks and get the chance to engage with the artist. Nadia Ismail (Director of Kunsthalle) and Liza Bauer (Scientific Manager of the Panel) welcomed the audience, discussing the collaboration between art and science and how aesthetic practices can shape our climate future and promote sustainable thinking. Exhibition curator Theresa Deichert discussed the key themes of O’Carroll’s work: the intersection of scientific methods and artistic practices, and the use of environmental reconstruction as a design methodology.

The exhibition also unveiled Charlotte Wrigley’s (Planetary Times fellow) project " Archiving Giessen ", where Wrigley collects personal narratives from the people of Giessen to be preserved for eternity in a time capsule in Svalbard, Norway. To make a contribution to the archive, please visit her website .

The following day, Kinocenter Giessen hosted a screening of 'Last Things' (2023) by Deborah Stratman, which explores evolution and extinction through rocks and minerals—those that predate humanity and will outlast us. After the screening, O'Carroll delivered a keynote on environmental reconstruction as a design practice, connecting her work with Stratman’s film. A discussion moderated by Planetary Times Fellow Lukáš Likavčan and Liza Bauer followed, exploring human and non-human relations, and the role of fiction and storytelling in engaging with non-Anthropocentric narratives of evolution and habitability.

Before the event, Björn Gauges interviewed O'Carroll, Bauer and Ismail for Gießener Anzeiger to get insights to the artist's creative process and rationale to showcase her work. Karola Schepp for Gießener Allgemeine reported the event, and here you find Gießener Anzeiger reporting a detailed account of the winter semester program organized by the Panel and the fellows.

On October 14, 2024, the Panel went on an excursion with the ‘Planetary Times’ fellows to explore the geological history of a region close to Giessen: the opencast clay mine of Iphigenie Bergbau GmbH in Mahlrain, the Herbstlabyrinth Advent cave system in Breitscheid, and its neighboring Karst and Cave Trail. As our fellows specifically focus on Earth’s formation through time in their projects, the excursion marked a clear highlight in their residency.

First, we visited the Iphigenie Bergbau GmbH in Mahlrain to explore its clay mining process with a guided tour offered by its Managing Director, Mr. Berthold Müller and his wife Andrea Müller. Introduced to the raw clay deposits, the production facility with crushing and mixing units and silos, as well as through a laboratory for quality control, we were educated on the process of transforming mineral clay into defined ceramic clay mixtures. Mr. Müller informed us on the strategies they apply to mind sustainability aspects in their mining practice, such as, backfilling and recultivation of the depleted opencast mines, ensuring us that they are trying to work with the land, not simply extract from it.

On our way to the next stop, we had to wait and adjust our schedule, to make way for a herd of cows who were heading home at their own pace after a day of grazing, demonstrating to us how little they cared about the rush of the humans.

Next, the team visited the Breitscheid Cave (Breitscheidhöhle), the publicly accessible part of the Herbstlabyrinth Advent Cave System , the largest cave system in Hesse that spans 13,128 metres (as of 2024). To learn about the geomorphology of the system, we descended 125 steps down under. Mesmerized by the speleothems stalactites that were hanging down like icicles from the cave ceiling and stalagmites that were protruding from the rocky ground, illuminated by LED lights, we gained a unique insight into parts of Earth’s history.

Our guide, an avid cave explorer, informed the team on the geomorphology of the cave system. 380 million years ago, during the Devonian period, the area was located in the middle of an ocean south of the equator. With the tropical climate conditions, reef-building organisms such as corals lived on the coastal edges of volcanic islands. Thus, appeared limestone from the remains of these calcareous organisms. For millions of years, the rain and surface water enriched with carbon dioxide dissolved the limestone and weathered the rocks in a process known as karstification. This resulted in the impressive cave system and stalactites. An eight-meter long sinter curtain formed by water trickling from an overhanging rock face clearly demarcated Earth’s warm and cold periods that included two Ice Ages. We were also able to see up close fossilized teeth and bones of cave bears who were hibernating in the cave some 30,000 years ago.

Afterwards, we hiked for a while in the rain through the Karst & Cave Trail where sinkholes appeared which dissolved the limestone over thousands of years and created access to the extensive cave system.

A special thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Müller for the tour of Iphigenie Bergbau GmbH and for the delicious cakes as well as to the tour guides of Herbstlabyrinth Advent Cave System. The valuable input from the excursions would come to fruition during our fellows’ colloquium and workshop that would take place Nov. 26-29.

The two-day workshop initiated by media artist & researcher Connor Cook , ‘Planetary Times’ summer fellow in the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program, took place in collaboration with Kunsthalle Giessen from 28-29 May 2024. Cook along with his collaborator Darren Zhu (synthetic biologist) conducted a transdisciplinary workshop on the theme “ Bioreactors & Biospheres: An Audiovisual Exploration of Evolution as Planet-building ”. The workshop took the participants through what they call “the informatic evolution of the planet”: Starting the discussion on the origins of life in the emergence of single-cell and multicellular organisms and delving into the emergence of complex species, Cook and Zhu argued that Artificial Life (A-Life) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue this evolutionary lineage.

The open public event craftily combined the theory and philosophy of computational and evolutionary biology with an artistic performance. The events included a roundtable discussion, a film screening, a hands-on experiment with the video game software Unreal Engine taking input from a Raspberry-Pi enabled bioreactor (Pioreactor), and an audiovisual performance by Cook on the “bios-technosphere.”

Day one of the workshop set the theoretical and scientific foundation for the transdisciplinary project of Cook and Zhu who invited three experts to the roundtable discussion on the topic “Informatic Evolution of the Planet”. The evolutionary lineage that weaves together biosphere and technosphere through informatic feedback loops was discussed at length by Dr. Cécile Malaspina (Collège International de Philosophie, Paris), Dr. Jochen Blom (JLU) & Christina Lu (Oxford University) representing the fields of philosophy of science, computational biology, and AI research, respectively.

A warm welcome by Nadia Ismail (Director, Kunsthalle Giessen) and Liza Bauer (Interim Scientific Manager, Panel on Planetary Thinking) and an introduction to the concept of Planetary Thinking by Claus Leggewie (Director, Panel on Planetary Thinking) kick-started the workshop. Cook commenced the discussion by explaining his work and specifically the project he carried out during the three-month fellowship where he used the game engine Unreal to create distinct environments that enabled the manipulation of information into different formats, thus creating a connection between biological and technological spheres. Stating that, today, information is used synonymously with digital information; Cook explained his interest in situating the emergence of computation and digital information along a much broader evolutionary trajectory that began with the origin of life on Earth.

Cook’s collaborator Zhu explained what piqued their research interest to chart the historical evolution of information. Taking inspiration from the seminal work of John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary, ‘ The Major Transitions in Evolution ’ (1995), which explains the informatic increase in complexity across different Phase Changes in evolution, Zhu pointed out their overarching questions; does Artificial Life too represent these kinds of evolutionary transitions? How can we think of A-Life in terms of individuality and information processing?

Continuing the discussion on a philosophical trajectory, Dr. Malaspina talked about what information really means by drawing inspiration from the ‘Theory of Individuation’ put forward by philosopher Gilbert Simondon . As the theory states, information neither depends on the sender’s message and intention nor the receiver’s interpretation of it but it has to be explained in terms of ontogenesis . Attributing this essential biological concept that tracks the lineage of an individual and delves into the history of a species, Simondon states that the “information is whatever catalyzes the pre-individual system into a process of ontogenesis.”

Delving into the hard sciences, Dr. Blom discussed his work which is primarily on comparative genomics of bacteria and how the information flow in bacteria takes a similar evolutionary path as other biological species, constantly exchanging information about the natural world around them in recursive feedback loops that involve mutation and selection. The discussion shed light on the race that exists between the computer capacities ( Moore’s Law ) and sequencing capacities where the latter develops at a much faster rate than the former which brings challenges to bio-mathematicians as Dr. Blom who builds computational tools aligning biological sequences.

The discussion on the temporal, evolutionary trajectory of information from the past to the present took a futuristic turn with inputs from Lu who discussed how her work on AI draws inspiration from biology such as the multiscalar architecture of biological organisms. Thinking of what wants to be in existence rather than what is in existence, her hypothesis stated that the existing machinery models are incapable of evolution and create an ontological stasis of the information they produce. Synthesizing the biological evolution of these existing models, she discussed how AI could lead the next Phase Change in informatic evolution.

The discussion wrapped up after a lively Q&A session where the interdisciplinary audience actively engaged to agree and debate with the panel. Day one closed successfully after the screening of Cook & Zhu’s movie Xenoplex (or the Xenobiology Multiplex) . The computational simulation is a speculative experimental design that leverages the most recent transition (planetary computation) in order to elucidate the first transition (origins of life).

Day two of the workshop started with Cook conducting an intensive practical session, giving 1:1 support to the participants on how to create audiovisual worlds using the Unreal Engine. The participants got to experience firsthand the challenges and mental acuity needed to create complex computational worlds. The workshop was focused on replicating planetary dynamics on a micro-scale using the Raspberry Pi-enabled bioreactor (Pioreactor) that cultivated, monitored, and controlled cultures of algae to create immersive audiovisual worlds. By algorithmically adjusting and monitoring the balance of light, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and algal growth, the Pioreactor acted as a simplified planetary model, illustrating the intricate interplay of biological matter, energy, and information within the Earth system. Connecting the Pioreactor to the Unreal Engine, the participants used the real-time data produced by algae as input to create their own vibrant, audiovisual worlds.

The workshop ended with an artist’s talk and a spectacular audiovisual performance by Cook that he had developed using the Unreal Engine which transported the audience to a bios-technosphere. Most of the audience who also participated in Cook’s super-intensive worldbuilding session earlier was especially in awe of the performance. The Planetary Times summer workshop wrapped up successfully with a cocktail and finger food reception.

Our gratitude goes to our fellow Connor Cook and his collaborator Darren Zhu, our valuable collaborators at Kunsthalle Giessen, the panel of experts of the roundtable discussion, and Veganatural for making this a huge success!

The event covered by the local newspapers can be found here .

This year’s ‘Planetary Spaces’ fellow in the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program , Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano , took us on a journey to understand our relationship to the ocean floor, and what it can teach us about our chances for survival in the face of conditions such as microplastic pollution and ocean acidification. To address this from the coastless city of Giessen, Pacheco Bejarano’s three-day wet workshop created an open (in)disciplinary space to relate to the multiple bodies of water within and around us.  Following the workshop, a complementary audio-visual installation was showcased at Neuer Kunstverein Giessen on November 10, 2023.

The workshop kickstarted with a guided tour of Lahnfenster Hessen , the observation station at a fish pass in Giessen. Here, the participants were educated on the migratory patterns of the fish such as the eel that travels across the Atlantic, the aquatic birds such as the kingfisher that nests by the river bank as well as the changing water- and riverscape of the Lahn through the years where we learned about the infrastructures that allow river species to live alongside a dam. The tour offered a glimpse to the underwater world of River Lahn through the large windows installed to observe the fish in their natural environment. Pacheco Bejarano then conducted a somatic reading session from his wet reader that dealt with the issues of hydrocommons and colonialism. The day came to an end with the group taking a relaxing walk by the Lahn whilst deep listening to the river using a hydrophone.

The second day of the workshop took the group to the aquarium Ocean2100 at the Systematics & Biodiversity Lab of the JLU. Prof. Dr. Thomas Wilke gave an introduction to the aquarium; a global change simulator that exposes stony corals and other organisms living in coral reefs to global change scenarios. He emphasized the importance of artists creating a transdisciplinary discourse to carry the important scientific messages of the conservation of corals to the wider public. Dr. Patrick Schubert then gave the group a guided tour of the aquarium. The group engaged in a somatic reading session at the aquarium before going to the Bergwerkswald ponds, bodies of water that emerged out of bomb craters from World War II. Here, the participants got an opportunity to write a toxic love letter to their favorite body of water. The day wrapped up with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner (Senckenberg Society on Nature Research) on ‘Water as an Engineered Planetary Space’ at Kunsthalle Giessen .

On the final day of the workshop, Pacheco Bejarano conducted floating and underwater communication exercises at the indoor swimming pool at Giessener Bäder . The workshop came to a conclusion with the somatic dance exercise led by Colombian choreographer Catalina Insignares through which participants connected to their bodies as liquid tissues and to the watery origins of life. The sensorial experience was complemented by Pacheco Bejarano’s performance of the water phone (Ocean Harp) which emanated a vibrant, ethereal sound.

Our sincere gratitude goes to Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano, our group of participants, staff at Lahnfenster Hessen, Prof. Wilke, Dr. Schubert, the research team of aquarium Ocean2100, Catalina Insignares, and to MAGIE Makerspace Gießen for the support given to make the workshop a massive success!

As part of their two-day workshop series at castle Rauischholzhausen, this year's ‘Planetary Spaces’ fellows in the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program , Adenika Oladosu and Jason Waite called for a planetary perspective of three different spaces: the severely endangered Lake Chad, the Fukushima exclusion zone following the nuclear disaster, and a Hessian forest area near Biebertal. Through lectures, discussion rounds, workshops, and a mini-exhibition, Adenike Oladosu and Jason Waite provided the participants with insights into the impacts of long-term environmental disasters on planetary spaces and their human and more-than-human inhabitants. A comprehensive art installation of fellows’ projects and the results of the workshop will be showcased at Kunsthalle Giessen from July 6-11, 2023.

Shrinking Spaces: From once Mega-Chad to today's rapidly shrinking Lake Chad

On the morning of 01.06.2023, a group of around 20 participants set off for Ebsdorfergrund to meet at Castle Rauischholzhausen. The group consisted of students from art and veterinary medicine, doctoral candidates from various disciplines, the core team of the Panel, and Prof. Dr. Bronislaw Szerszynski (Lancaster University, United Kingdom) who is a pioneer in the field of planetary thinking. The previous evening, he had kicked off the event series with his Planetary Lecture-Performance on " Drift as a Planetary Phenomenon ". "It's something really special for me to be able to work so closely with a group of planetary thinkers," said a doctoral candidate from the Rachel Carson Center at LMU Munich, who is dealing with the concept of "planetary health" in her dissertation

The morning at the castle was dedicated to the topic "Shrinking Spaces: From Mega-Chad to Lake Chad". Nigerian climate activist Adenike Oladosu (I Lead Climate Action) showed the participants satellite images of how rapidly Lake Chad has been shrinking since the 1960s. She then provided deeper insights into the complex social and ecological conflicts around the lake, which is the basis of life for countless people. To counteract the complete disappearance of Lake Chad, Oladosu calls for more responsibility in the Global North to address the climate crisis, as it contributes significantly to the drying up of Lake Chad. Also, a guest was Dr. Patrick Flamm from the Frankfurt Peace Institute, who enriched the program with research results from peace and conflict studies.

A special highlight of the workshop series took place on the evening of the first day: Oladosu and Waite, together with Claudia J. Ford (SUNY Potsdam, USA), an alumna of the Fellowship Program from the last semester, discussed how the loss of cherished places in the form of climate grief can affect people's psyche. The discussion was followed by a mini-exhibition on the upper floor of the castle. The participants could once again engage with the topics of the workshop through a poster exhibition, a video installation, a VR simulation, and Ford's climate grief diary.

More-Than-Human Adaptation Strategies to Toxic Zones: From Fukushima to Hessen

The second day focused on the more-than-human inhabitants of planet Earth: The Oxford-based curator and cultural worker, Jason Waite (Don't Follow the Wind), showed the participants astounding wildlife camera footage from the exclusion zone around Fukushima, which has become a home to a variety of animals in the absence of humans. Together with his guest and wild boar expert, Dr. Kieran O’Mahony (Czech Academy of Sciences), he also drew interesting connections to a forest area in Hessen near Biebertal. A comparison of the wild boar footage from Fukushima and Biebertal showed incredibly similar images of the particularly resilient and adaptable animals, as European wild boars are closely related to their Japanese counterparts.

The program was rounded off with a joint drawing workshop on the topic of "Imagining More-Than-Human Infrastructure". Here, the participants' imagination was required as they collectively drafted sketches of how a farm in Fukushima could be redesigned to provide a shared home for humans and animals to thrive freely. Liza Bauer, the Interim Scientific Manager of the Panel, noted that from the feedback of the participants, it can be concluded that the Panel truly succeeded in creating a space for interdisciplinary exchange among researchers and artists at different career stages.

Our sincere gratitude goes to fellows Adenike and Jason, our diverse group of participants, and the staff at Castle Rauischholzhausen for the support given to make the workshop a huge success.

This year, our fellow Claudia J. Ford ’s workshop series “ What Earth is Made of ” took place on Oct. 18, and Nov. 10 & 11, 2022. The series reflected on James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis from an indigenous perspective to deepen our understanding of planetary materials and their constellations through art and science. The series connected indigenous ideas about ecology with the climate crisis and engaged the participants in storytelling through all of the senses – hands-on farm labor, film, creative writing, lectures, listening, dialog, and an exhibition of climate change and planetary materials inspired visual art.

The workshop series commenced on Oct. 18 with an excursion to JLU’s Gladbacherhof farm. The focus was on one of the most fundamental relationships between humans and the environment – namely food production and nutrition. To this end, an excursion took the paricipants to the Gladbacherhof farm, which combines organic farming and research: on the productive organic farm, research is conducted in cooperation with the JLU to further develop sustainable concepts for organic farming. The day started with a tour of the newly built dairy cattle research barn, where fully automated milking machines and a fully automated feeding and cleaning system are intended to enable both the study of climate gas emissions in organic farming as part of the Green Dairy project and, in terms of animal welfare, a greater degree of self-determination for the animals.

After a lunch prepared by Veganatural with the farm's own products, the group heard scientific presentations on various topics. In addition to considerations on decision-making criteria for farmers in dealing with sustainable technologies, new approaches in agroforestry and a plea for more care in agriculture were discussed. There was also a tour of the on-site laboratory facilities.

Lastly, the agroforestry techniques discussed in the lecture could be seen in application as Philipp Weckenbrock showed the group around the agroforestry area of the farm. Agroforestry uses a specific planting strategy in an attempt to arrange multiple levels of food production into a single cohesive system. Specifically, the farm's experimental setups are designed to examine the productivity of mixed systems between trees and traditional agricultural crops such as cereals or potatoes. Although they have not been widely used in practice, agroforestry systems promise some advantages, such as greater resilience and resistance to climatic changes, erosion, and increased water storage capacity of the soil. The field trip allowed us to gain in-depth insights into a fascinating combination of research and agricultural practice in organic farming.

On Nov. 10, Ford delivered a stimulating hybrid lecture on indigenous knowledge and the Gaia hypothesis as the second event of the workshop series took place. The lecture memorialized James Lovelock (1919 – 2022), who formulated the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s along with Lynn Margulis (1938 – 2011). Ford reiterated that the earth is a living being in a delicate state of balance and harmony, to whose wellbeing we are all obliged. She also paid homage to the French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour (1947 – 2022), whose ideas resonated with Lovelock’s Gaia theory. Ford raised the point that these esteemed thinkers failed to point out that their ideas of the Earth being an interdependent system were not all that new. Predating Lovelock’s considerations by millennia, indigenous thinkers and storytellers have been reflecting on how the earth as a living self-aware system may be capable of feedback and self-correction, especially in its self-regulation of the climate.

Ford emphasized that in the face of the current climate crisis, the stories we tell about ‘nature’ must shift from global to planetary imaginaries. To do so, she called for acknowledging and drawing on existing indigenous knowledge in Western science, as they offer alternative paradigms that are truly transdisciplinary. The extensive bibliography researched for her lecture can be found here .

The lecture was followed by the film screening of the documentary “ Inuit Knowledge & Climate Change ” (2010), the first-ever Inuktitut language film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro. The film took the viewers on a journey with the Inuit elders and hunters whilst exploring the social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic. The day wrapped up with an informal gathering at the Planetary Hub where the Panel and the guests closed the evening with vegan finger food and pleasant conversations.

On Nov. 11, Ford conducted a writing workshop to express climate grief through creative arts. Participants got an opportunity to practice creative nonfiction environmental writing using planetary materials, which they found in their immediate environment as prompts. Afterward, the participants voluntarily shared their pieces of writing with the audience.

In the evening, the workshop series came to a grand conclusion with a festive opening of the exhibition “Planetary Origin Stories”: a collage exhibit at MAGIE - Makerspace Gießen created by Ford during her fellowship. Mehr Impulse opened the reception serenading the event with their melodies, and Ford explained her inspiration behind the exhibit during an artist’s talk. The exhibit was intricately woven around the subject matter of ecological destruction and climate grief (one might consider unpleasant) yet the beauty and finesse of Ford’s pieces paid tribute to the color, shape, and form of the natural world and recounted our collective responsibility to safeguard the Earth’s beauty and resources.

Our sincere gratitude goes to Claudia for conceptualizing this multifaceted program, to our keen participants, as well as to Johannes and the team at the Makerspace Gießen for their support in making this workshop series a huge success!

In the face of the ongoing loss of biodiversity on the planet, more and more voices are calling for an entrenchment of solid rights of 'nature' within Western legal systems. In our planetary colloquium, questions about whether, how, and why the planet's myriad animal, plant, microbial, and other inhabitants can shape human politics were debated.

In his opening keynote "What rights does nature need?" sociologist Frank Adloff (University of Hamburg) traced the development of different conceptions of rights for animals, plants, and ecosystems. It quickly became clear that Western debates on sustainability, environmental protection, or animal welfare are still far from acknowledging the intrinsic value of non-human life forms.  Adloff therefore proposes a "methodological animism": Based on the basic principle of many indigenous cultures, according to which all planetary components are understood as animate and animate, living beings such as worms, mushrooms, or rivers could be programmatically conceived as quasi-subjects. He thus combines indigenous cosmology with a Western understanding of the law so that non-human life forms can be grouped together as collective legal subjects. In response to Adloff, sociologist Doris Schweizer (Goethe University Frankfurt) raised concerns about the transferability of human conceptions of law to non-human 'legal persons'. Although she acknowledges the political potential behind the idea, legal systems can only relativize their anthropocentric orientation, and never overcome it. Ecosystem researcher Emily Alice Poppenborg Martin (JLU Giessen) followed by raising further doubts: Nowadays, human societies are so closely entangled in the functioning of ecosystems that the term 'nature' is not used at all in Poppenborg's research; moreover, it underpins misguided notions of a nature-culture divide. Nevertheless, lawyer Franziska Johanna Albrecht (Green Legal Impact, Berlin) was able to show that rights of 'nature' - however imperfect they may be - can serve as effective tools in terms of representing non-human interests.

As recently as October 3, 2022, the Spanish lagoon "Mar Menor" was declared the first natural legal entity in Europe. Whether this status will actually help the immensely threatened ecosystem out of its crisis remains to be seen and is already questioned by experts ( cf. Soro Mateo and Álvarez 2022 ). In attempts to further refine the concept of nature as a legal entity so that it can be implemented effectively, indigenous models undoubtedly represent pioneers for orientation. Within these attempts, rights of 'nature' can and should by no means be understood as a cure-all against anthropocentrism, but must always be scrutinized as to their motivations. However, as instruments to be continuously further elaborated, they can contribute to the relativization of anthropocentric thinking - and thus perhaps counteract the extinction of species.

A recording of the hybrid event is available for streaming on our YouTube channel .

On Oct. 27, the Panel visited the Sinclair-Haus , a museum funded by the Kunst und Natur Foundation, to see the international exhibition Eternal Ice .

The exhibition displayed selected works of contemporary artists who showcased the cultural, political, social, and other interrelationships in light of the global ice melt; and its effects on local indigenous communities and on the world climate as a whole.

The exhibition sent us on a sensorial experience through visual and auditory means that included embroidery, photography, and video installations. It showcased work which included (but not limited to) the embroidery work of the Swedish Sámi artist Britta Marakatt-Labba that recounted the (his)stories of Lappish reindeer herders in the far north, a short video collaboration, Rise: From One Island to Another between the Marshall Islander poet Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner and the author Aka Niviâna from Kalaalit Nunaat (Greenland).

Our special thanks go to Madelaine Heck for providing us with a thought-provoking guided tour of the exhibit!

The performative action "Planetary Forest: Bring the Forest to the Garden" from June 23-25, 2022 was the highlight of the first cohort in the Planetary Scholars and Artists in Residence program. This first year of the program centers around the theme "Planetary Materials" and the first Fellows, Claudia Hartl , Clemens Finkelstein , and Mathias Kessler , approached the topic from very different perspectives. As an integral part of trees and thus the forest, wood became the planetary focus material of the semester as well as the central leitmotif for the Planetary Workshop: Led by the Fellows, on Thursday morning a small diverse group explored the planetary dimension of human-forest-climate interactions in the Rosbach City Forest. Clemens Finkelstein, employing a historical and socio-cultural perspective, offered interesting insights into the forest's history of use and the relationship of people to "their forest". Claudia Hartl was able to provide participants with a climatological and dendrochronological point of view: She demonstrated how to take a drill core and used the sample to explain the broad field of tree ring research and the complex relationships between forest health and climate.

In addition to sharing knowledge, experiencing the forest and exchanging ideas in and with the group formed a central part of the day. Thus, among others, a member of the local BUND group, an expert in hydrogeology, an employee of the JLU fleet, various colleagues of the department 09, and temporarily even the Rosbach mayor Steffen Maar added to the workshop with their expertise. The latter was available for questions and explained the background of the disturbed area as well as the planned reforestation measures for the site. Afterward, participants and Fellows alike collected forest material for the living sculpture planned by Mathias Kessler: litter, dead wood, topsoil, roots, and even the odd seedling found their way into the trailer.

On the following day, the Fellows designed the living sculpture as an image of a forest habitat in the Botanical Garden. For now, the fenced-off piece of a disturbed forest site will remain untouched for three years, and its development will be watched expectantly: Will the forest make its way into the garden, will the garden reclaim the area, or perhaps nothing will happen for a while? The sculpture was opened in the festive setting of a vernissage with catering and live music, to which we were also pleased to welcome the President of the JLU, Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee. In a subsequent article (in German), the Gießener Allgemeine newspaper praised the action for its character as planetary food for thought. We cordially invite you all to visit the living work of art and send dated photos to panel@planet.uni-giessen.de . Experience the Rosbacher City Forest in the Botanical Garden Giessen!

For two weeks, the Neuer Kunstverein Gießen e.V. also hosted an accompanying exhibition at its premises, which documented the work of the three Fellows at the Panel on Planetary Thinking. On display were, among others, Line Drawings and "The Arctic Ocean - Failed Hope" by Mathias Kessler, Vibrascapes by Clemens Finkelstein, and Dendro Art by Claudia Hartl.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the city of Rosbach , the forester Eva-Maria Kirchler, the management of the Botanical Garden , the Neuer Kunstverein Gießen e.V. as well as the president of the JLU for their ongoing support in this extensive project!

The Planetary Lecture Series opened with a talk on " Planetary Law for the Anthropocene ." Earth System Law pioneer Prof. Dr. Dr. Louis Kotzé (North West University, South Africa) proposed a transformation of international environmental law in order to respond more appropriately to planetary phenomena than has been the case so far: Instead of humans, legal principles should focus on the Earth System, especially in the so-called Anthropocene. Accordingly, Prof. Kotzé centered his lecture around the question of how such Earth System Governance could be designed. A corresponding governance approach should emphasize the planetarily significant shaping power of humans, but always relate this power to planetary forces and consider humanity as part of the Earth System. The full recording of the lecture as well as the following discussion opened by Prof. Dr. Thilo Marauhn (Public Law and International Law, JLU) is available on YouTube .

The warm spring weather exceeded expectations and set the scene for the subsequent networking meeting of the panel members. The Panel was invited to the new premises to inaugurate the new 'Planetary Hub' and to introduce the current Fellows and their work to the Panel members. First, Geoscientist Claudia Hartl fascinated the assembled with drill core samples of beech trees from the Rosbach city forest and explanations of their history. Colorful, abstract-looking posters formed the centerpiece of Clemens Finkelstein's short lecture on vibrations. The illustrations show the vibration patterns of various ambient sounds of the panel office: Spectators could marvel at the vibratory signatures of church bells across the street, rail traffic behind the building, and a helicopter flying overhead. However, due to its content, the demonstration by Mathias Kessler attracted the most attention: the artist presented his work "The Arctic Ocean - Failed Hope", a refrigerator filled with beer. At first glance, an invitation to socialize, a 3D version of Caspar David Friedrich's "The Arctic Ocean" lies hidden in the icebox. By opening and closing it time and again, the slight recurring increases in temperature cause the ice to slowly melt. Hereby, Kessler points to the serious consequences that human actions can have on the planet.

With the opening of the beer fridge, the formal part of the meeting ended and at mild temperatures, the panel members gathered in the library and on the balcony for a leisurely chat. The panel team would like to thank all participants, especially JLU President Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee, for coming and hopes for further lively exchange among Panel members.

The Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program kicked off with the Panel team and a small group of students heading to the Rosbach city forest - the fieldwork resulted in taking core samples from forty beech trees. In the course of her fellowship project " Tree Ring Reports on Forest Dieback ", dendrochronologist Dr. Claudia Hartl investigated the vitality as well as the reactions of healthy as well as dying beech trees to draught events or extreme weather events. Thanks to the active support of Prof. Dr. Lea Schneider (Institute of Geography, JLU), as well as her students, ~12,000 tree rings, now find their way into Dr. Hartl's long-term study.

Although the April weather did not show its friendliest side, the fieldwork turned out an especially instructive as well as memorable event. Beyond the techniques of sampling, the team learned a lot about the many applications of tree-ring research. These range from determining the origin of construction materials to dating and certifying works of art or musical instruments, to today's widespread research into tree species suitability or climatic change. The annual rings showcase how planetary phenomena, reaching from heat waves to world wars, materialize in locally specific and tangible manners. In addition, the core samples themselves offer a fascinating sight. The beech trees respond to the removal of their valuable cores by creating chemical barriers around the drilling sites and should tolerate the brief procedure well, allowing their vitality to be more accurately determined in the summer based on their by then fully sprouted crowns. News about the unique the unique tree-ring width pattern of the two beech populations in the Rosbach city forest may therefore be expected before long.

The Panel on Planetary Thinking from the JLU Giessen, in cooperation with the Planetary Thinking Working Group (Goethe University Frankfurt, Senckenberg, ISOE) and the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften , organized the planetary colloquium “Planetary Perspectives”. In a pleasant digital atmosphere, around 30 participants from different academic backgrounds exchanged thoughts and ideas on the challenges facing our planet and the urgent need of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches in order to tackle them. Our keynote speaker, David Christian from the Macquarie University in Sydney, opened the floor with an inspiring talk about Big History, a multi-disciplinary approach that examines earth’s and humanity’s past, and by learning from it, it explains the present and contributes to imagining sustainable futures. The discussion was followed by two sessions of short impulse talks from our colleagues from JLU Giessen and the Goethe University Frankfurt. The first session provided input on the planetary perspectives from the social sciences and humanities, provoking a discussion on the ways in which we can learn from past societies, have to extend sociological thought to the earth’s core as well as to outer space, the need to change human behavior and the way we think economics by valuing more the future benefits compared to benefits in the present, and how poetry and human artistic expression can relate us with the planet. The second session offered planetary visions from natural sciences, with nevertheless creative contributions that cross the boundaries of separate disciplines. From conversations on the inherent rights of nature in the context of biodiversity, and what kind of agricultural practices are needed for a sustainable future, to envisioning the planetary by focusing on subatomic elementary particles, were some of the thought-provoking discussions our participants were keen to delve into. The participants agreed to deepen their inspirational discussions in future planetary colloquia to open up a new collaborative research endeavor of both, JLU and Goethe University Frankfurt.