Flowers for Agouti: Epigenetics and the Genealogy of Uplift - Ben Woodard
2024-01-24 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Helsinki) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Abstract:
The notion of uplift has a science-fictional and social justice connotation: it is the raising up of one species by another as well as a historical (and often racially codified) way of speaking of how one group raises itself up above limiting structural conditions. While these notions seem disparate they in fact have a shared history that hybridizes fictional and non-fictional aspirations for future humanity as well as the origins of civilization as such.
This talk examines how recent discussions of epigenetics complicates notions of a too hasty equation of cognition and agency both within humanity and across species that the concept of uplift as championed as an anti-Darwinian politics of Eurocentric teleology.
This event is part of our winter semester 2023/24 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
To take part either online or in presence, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Unfelt Threshold: Patched Phase
2024-01-30 12:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Live Art Installation and Conversation on “Fluctonomous Emergence”
Abstract:
Unfelt Threshold is a project in which Japanese artist Aoi Suwa is indirectly linking together various pieces of objects and images, exhibiting the creations that she has produced over the years. As part of the project, c:o/re Senior Fellow Masahiko Hara and Aoi Suwa will stage a live installation at RWTH Aachen University’s Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) and engage in a conversation on “Fluctonomous Emergence”, a term coined by Masahiko Hara. His research focuses on the integration of art strategies in science and technology and introduces a new concept of natural intelligence based on the emergent functions of autonomous ambiguous systems that exhibit fluctuant behavior.
This project stems from the concept of “shiki-ik” (識閾, the threshold of consciousness), the boundary where sensations and reactions occur in response to stimuli. The threshold through which transitions occur from the unconscious to the conscious, and vice versa, is the gateway of shifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.
Aoi Suwa continues to employ experimental techniques to create works focused on phenomena that can only be witnessed in situ, developing what could be described as an approach aimed at perceiving thresholds that emerge through the process of traversing back and forth between the realms of the perceivable/imperceivable and conscious/unconscious.
Through this project, we would like to explore its potential as a means of expressing the complexity and the lifelikeness of our current age and seek to reconsider our sustainable social systems surrounded by both living and non-living systems.

The installation can be viewed until 22 February 2024 by prior registration with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Bio-inspired Materials and Dreams of Inspiration - Michael Friedman
2024-02-07 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Helsinki) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Abstract:
Materials are found at the very center of our life, situated in the complex zone between nature and society. In the recent decades, new discoveries in the natural sciences and in the materials sciences have enabled to develop new materials, so called ‘active materials’ and ‘Bio-inspired Materials’. These new materials are considered as entities that are able to ‘sense’ and respond to their environment. Furthermore they are not only associated with a technical claim, but also with the hope that they can do ‘more with less’, i.e. perform complex tasks, but use fewer resources and produce less waste to do so. Such materials are considered new ‘ideal’ materials, but they are materials that cannot be taken as such from nature as they have to be constructed in engineered in a sophisticated way. Nevertheless, the model for these manufactured active materials is often organic materials found in nature, such as the grown wood of trees and the bone formation in living organisms – and in this sense the scientists are ‘inspired’ by nature. The scientific analysis of these organic materials may lead to the fabrication of synthetic and bio-inspired active materials, and this in turn raises the question – which I will discuss in my talk – whether the dream of inspiration from nature is not a revision of a much older view, or rather metaphor, to read and finally write the ‘book’ of nature.
This event is part of our winter semester 2023/24 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
To take part either online or in presence, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Workshop „Kunst, Wissenschaft, Öffentlichkeit“ / "Art, Science, the Public"
2024-02-16 10:00 - 2024-02-17 13:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
The workshop takes place in cooperation with the project „Computer Signals: Art and Biology in the Age of Digital Experimentation“, a research collaboration between artist, biologist and the humanities.
During the workshop, different formats and practices of science communication, specially those experimenting with artistic forms, will be discussed. Furthermore, there will be an installation format, where the project Computer Signals presents their archive of sounds, and in the evening an artistic sound exploration by the sound artist Valentina Vuksic.
Please find the programme of the workshop here.
The workshop will be completely held in German.
If you would like to attend, please register with with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Listening to Science - Valentina Vuksic
2024-02-16 19:30 (Europe/Helsinki) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Live performance on the audification of data and computer processes
The artistic research project „Computer Signals: Art and Biology in the Age of Digital Experimentation“ by Prof. Hannes Rickli at the University of Arts in Zürich engages with digital data work as audible and experienceable.
On Friday, the 16th of February 2024, at 7:30pm at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re), Valentina Vuksic, a transdisciplinary associate of the project, is presenting artistic formats that stem from straightforward audifications of computational processes with little aesthetic consideration taken at first, and yet, took on a double life as musical works outside of their context. The electromagnetic, electric and mechanical recordings stem from the research infrastructure of the biological laboratory at UT Austin by Hans Hofmann and the underwater observatory RemOS in Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen by Philipp Fischer (Alfred-Wegener-Institut for polar and marine research). The audio material stays unprocessed; it is merely re-arranged and layered. The sonic works set out from digital data generation as part of scientific procedures to take a specific course outlined by a series of sonic extracts.
If you would like to attend, please register with with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Symposium: Critical Perspectives on the Metascience Reform Movement
2024-03-07 09:00 - 12:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Online
Metascience is often defined as the scientific investigation of science itself with the aim to improve science. This ‘improving’ part of metascience has been called a reform movement. While the intention to improve science is generally laudable, metascience and the associated movement(s) are not without their critics. The metascience reform movement has for instance, been characterized as, among other things, neoliberal, positivistic, atheoretical, technological, moralizing, bureaucratic, homogenizing, mechanistic, quantitative, psychological (psychologizing), social, civilizing, bullying, exclusive, coercive, activist, and normative. Some of those critical perspectives will be presented and discussed in this symposium.
c:o/re Fellow Dr. Bart Penders will contribute with a talk on “Shamed Into Good Science”.
Learn more and register for free.

Workshop "Building on Models: Experiences from a Decade with the Microcircuit model"
2024-04-03 08:00 - 2024-04-04 17:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Organizer: Hans Ekkehard Plesser
Computational neuroscience, the field dedicated to understanding brain function through modelling, is dominated by small ad hoc models of neuronal networks designed to explain individual research questions. Such models are frequently implemented in low-level programming languages (e.g. C++, Matlab, Python) and at best shared as collections of source code files. By their design these task-specific models fail to integrate knowledge across studies of multiple aspects of brain function. And even though publicly available, the nature of custom-written code presents significant hurdles to the re-use of model implementations by other scientists and collide with the aim of FAIRness in modelling.
A model of the cortical microcircuit published by Potjans and Diesmann (2014) took a very different approach. Building their model bottom-up based on a carefully documented analysis of existing anatomical and physiological data, P&D provided a carefully crafted model implementation executable on the domain-specific high-level simulation tool NEST and complemented it with thorough documentation on how to use the model. Indeed, P&D even created an additional implementation of the model in the PyNN language, so that the model can be executed automatically on a wide range of neuronal simulation tools, including on neuromorphic hardware systems.
Ten years have passed since the publication of the microcircuit model by Potjans and Diesmann, providing an excellent opportunity to take stock of how their focus on actively sharing their model and encouraging its re-use has been taken up by the scientific community and whether and how it has changed the culture of research in the field. While hundreds of publications have cited the P&D model and it has become an established standard for tests of both correctness and performance of neuromorphic systems, the tenth anniversary of the model also invites an analysis of why the approach to active model sharing and re-use still struggles to catch on in computational neuroscience.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Conference: Politics of the Machines: Lifelikeness & beyond
2024-04-22 - 2024-04-25 | RWTH Aachen University – Super C, Templergraben 57, Aachen, 52062
From 22 to 25 April 2024, the experimental conference “Politics of the Machines: Lifelikeness & beyond” will take place in Aachen, which seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners from a wide range of fields across the sciences, technology and the arts to develop imaginaries for possibilities that are still to be realized and new ideas of what the contingency of life is.
You can find all information about the program, key speakers and panels on the PoM website.
If you would like to attend, please write an email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.
Please note: During the event, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) will take photos and videos for public relations purposes.

Distilled, Extruded, Suspended: Lessons in Lifelikeness from the Metabolism of Mass Production - Hannah Landecker
2024-04-23 17:30 - 19:00 (Europe/Berlin) | RWTH Aachen University – Super C – Generali Saal 639, Templergraben 57, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Keynote “Politics of the Machines” Conference
Abstract:
This talk is about quite ordinary matters, such as the prevention of perishability in rubbers and oils, and how one makes a non-dairy creamer that lasts without refrigeration. Yet these are also extraordinary matters. The harvesting and remobilization of metabolically powerful objects and processes proceeded apace in the twentieth century, a process of industrialization not just of agriculture or craft production, but of metabolism itself. Cells, enzymes, antioxidant molecules, polymers, fats and many other capacities and pieces of living things were pulled apart and then pieced back together, re-articulated into new sequences of material transformation at augmented volume or manipulated speed, sometimes suspended here, or driven forward there. Three lessons in lifelikeness from the historical annals of enzymes and antioxidants will invite listeners into the maw of a vast and reticulate petro-animate metabolism, where novelty concatenates with mimicry and the synthetic is fed to the natural for dinner. Today, as we begin to ask whether our material things are lasting too long – or not long enough – and the technical parameters of planetary costs of consumption figure prominently in negotiations of ageing, biodegradability and toxicity, it is useful to engage directly with the history and future of these technical lifespan objects into which values and temporalities are built.
This event is part of our summer semester 2024 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

'life.like'
2024-04-26 - 2024-04-27 | PACT Zollverein, Bullmannaue 20a, Essen, 45327, Germany
As part of the conference Politics of the Machines: Lifelikeness & beyond, a cooperation with the Performing Arts Centre PACT Zollverein in Essen is planned for Friday, 26 April, and Saturday, 27 April 2024.
With ›life.like‹, PACT invites you to an experiential, installative, and discursive journey that questions and transcends the boundaries between machines, objects, and biological systems. What spheres exist beyond the dividing lines of the living and non-living? How do data and unknown techno-social interactions influence decisions and our perception of the living? What relationships, realms of possibility, and collaborations emerge between technologies and artistic practices?
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Lifestyle Transitions in Human Microbiome Research: A View from History and Philosophy of Science - Abigail Nieves
2024-05-08 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
This event is part of our summer semester 2024 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

A Crisis of Expertise? - Theodore von Kármán Lecture with Reiner Grundmann
2024-05-15 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Lecture by Reiner Grundmann, University of Nottingham; RWTH Kármán-Fellow
There is a common perception that in recent years, at least in Western societies, official expertise has entered a period of crisis with some even proclaiming the ‘death of expertise.’ The underlying causes and potential solutions are diverse, yet they seem to share a common thread, as outlined in a widely accepted standard view. This view asserts that in matters that are complex and policy-relevant, scientific experts assume a central position. Political decision-makers should heed these experts’ advice and ideally implement their recommendations.
In my talk I want to challenge this standard view. I will do this through an alternative conceptual framework which distinguishes between different forms of expertise, and puts them into the context of social change.
I will also argue that the notion of expertise being in crisis is unhelpful as it implies a temporary state of affairs that will either return to a prior, stable state of expertise, or, indeed, result in its demise. Expertise is in a process of reconfiguration. While official expertise faces challenges, not only from dissenting scientists but also from citizen expertise and AI systems, the impact is uneven across society. Overall, there is a growing demand for and supply of expertise, with a multitude of voices participating. Consequently, a return to a scenario where official expertise holds a monopoly position seems unlikely.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de

Workshop: Epistemology of Arithmetic: New Philosophy for New Times
2024-05-16 - 2024-05-17 | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Celebration workshop of Markus Pantsar’s book Numerical Cognition and the Epistemology of Arithmetic (Cambridge University Press 2024) and Gabriele Gramelsberger’s award of the K. Jon Barwise Prize 2023 for philosophy and computing by the American Philosophical Association.
Please find the program of the workshop here.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Workshop: The Origin of Concepts: Philosophical analyses and historical accounts
2024-05-21 - 2024-05-23 | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Organizers: Giora Hon, Ruth Lorand, Gabriele Gramelsberger
Please find the program of the workshop here.
In this document, you can find all abstracts.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.
Please note: During the event, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) will take photos and videos for public relations purposes.

On the Origin and Development of Scientific Concepts: Light Rays and Lines of Force - Friedrich Steinle
2024-05-22 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Abstract:
In studying the historical dynamics of scientific knowledge, concepts constitute central objects. Their study, however, poses difficulties and challenges that have to do with their specific character as basic components of scientific thought: Much as in everyday life, they are constantly used but scarcely addressed as such. While we speak about chairs, cats and cauliflower, or about temperature, bacteria, and oxygen, we rarely put those concepts themselves in question. At the same time, processes of their formation and development are shaped by a bewildering variety of factors, including wider cultural aspects. Historical studies help us understanding both the complexity of scientific concept formation and its implications, i.e. the historical baggage of scientific concepts. In my talk, I shall discuss those features and illustrate them by two cases from the history of physical sciences: light rays and lines of force.
This event is part of our summer semester 2024 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

c: o/re Movie Nights - Talk: Ideal Locale – her and the envelope function of idealist predication by Ben Woodard
2024-05-29 15:00 - 16:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Spike Jonze’s her (2013) is a near-future science fiction film about the difficulties of romantic relationships particularly in an age of ever-increasing technological mediation. Stemming from this, the film also explores the entangled nature of consciousness and artificial intelligence, the role of emotions and memories, and notions of self.
Alongside the film’s more obvious critical function, this talk examines her as fictional text which tests the limits of predication, of the grasping capacity of language, to encompass interior content of minds whether emotional, rational, natural, or artificial. This in turn requires analyzing a half-forgotten tract of philosophical logic namely, that logic is not about the mathematical or logical-like operations of ‘rational’ thinking but rather an idealist tradition of logic that treats predication as judgments about reality that does not assume a clear link between natural objects and discerning human minds.
The epistolary aspect of her demonstrates how the letter, and the temporal delay inherent in all predication which written language highlights, emphasizes how the expressions of thought are always suffused with feeling, and that feeling is not to be viewed as a impediment to logic but rather its impetus. To this end this talk will read her through the work of FWJ von Schelling (especially via Iain Hamilton Grant) and FH Bradley. The idealist conceptualization of logic shared between these thinkers shows how judgments issued by minds are to be valued not by their correlation to real objects but by their ability to construct shared worlds.
This talk is part of our c:o/re Movie nights.
The talk will take place at the Theaterstraße 75 at 15h.
After the talk, in cooperation with the Filmstudio RWTH Aachen, we will screen the film Her by Spike Jonze. The screeining of the film will take place at the Aula 1 im Hauptgebäude der RWTH Aachen (Temeplgraben 55, 52062). All details and tickets can be found here.
By “Lifelikeness” (Lebensechtheit in German) we mean the representation and/or imitation of living beings of living beings in science and technology in fields such as robotics, synthetic biology or AI and neuromorphic computing. We ask how their increasing complexity mimics not only a fixed notion of life, but also the understanding of “life” as such.
Further information on the lecture series can be found here.

c: o/re Movie Nights - Her
2024-05-29 20:15 - 22:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Aula 1 im Hauptgebäude der RWTH Aachen, Temeplgraben 55, Aachen, NRW, 52062, Germany
We are looking forward to the collaboration with the film studio of RWTH Aachen University! As part of the lecture series of the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities: Cultures of Research in the summer semester “Lifelikeness” we will show the film “Her” by by Spike Jonze (2013).
About the Film:
In a not so distant future our communicative devices take over a lot of our social work. But some things can only be done by humans. It’s Theodore Twombly’s Job to write letters for other people. Just divorced from his wife Catherine he turns towards the new advantages of technology. In this case it is the new operating system that comes with artificial intelligence and a wonderful smooth voice. His OS starts by naming itself Samantha and turns out to be great company in all everyday situations. Theodore attempts to find a new love but he soon discovers that it is Samantha who makes him happy — and he is not the only one.
The film will be screened at the Aula 1 im Hauptgebäude der RWTH Aachen (Temeplgraben 55, 52062). All details and tickets can be found here.
As an introduction before the film, philosopher Ben Woodard (ICI Berlin) will give a lecture entitled “Ideal Locale – her and the envelope function of idealist predication”. The lecture will take place on May 29 at 3 pm at Theaterstraße 75. Please send us an email if you would like to come to the lecture: events@khk.rwth-aachen.de

Life-Like Artificial Music: Understanding the Impact of AI on Musical Thinking - Nikita Braguinski
2024-06-05 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Abstract:
This lecture explores the impact of machine learning on the future of music research and theory. It argues that AI-generated music poses a deep challenge for existing theories: AI systems can learn to imitate musical styles without receiving any information about human music theory concepts, raising questions about the validity of those concepts. Additionally, music-generating AI systems can be trained on audio directly, bypassing notation, while human music theory almost always works with notation as a simplified and abstracted proxy.
As an example of the conceptual challenges and shifts that now arise in music research, the talk examines a recent paper that compares Western music theory concepts with structures that emerge in a machine learning model trained on musical notation. While the paper finds similarities between the two, the talk argues that the machine learning system’s output is still influenced by human biases and choices in the training data and model architecture – and that this influence may in fact be unavoidable.
Finally, the talk argues that while AI may be able to generate novel structures for analyzing music, their applicability to human music theory and practice may prove to be extremely limited due to the differences between human cognition and machine learning. Overall, the talk raises questions about the future potential for AI to disrupt human theory-making – and not only in the discipline of musicology.
No knowledge of musicological concepts is required for understanding the presentation and participating in the discussion.
This event is part of our summer semester 2024 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.
Dr. Nikita Braguinski is a 2023-2024 Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Cultures of Research” at RWTH Aachen University. In his work he currently concentrates on the possible impact of machine learning and big online listening datasets on the future of music research. His book “Mathematical Music. From Antiquity to Music AI” (Routledge, 2022) was translated into Korean, receiving the Sejong book prize in 2023. He was a Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge, and a Researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin with funding from the Volkswagen Foundation. In 2023, he co-convened, together with Eamonn Bell and Miriam Akkermann, the ZiF Bielefeld Visiting Research Group “The Future of Musical Knowledge in the Age of Machine Learning”.

c: o/re Movie Nights - I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
2024-06-11 20:15 - 22:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Aula 1 im Hauptgebäude der RWTH Aachen, Temeplgraben 55, Aachen, NRW, 52062, Germany
We are looking forward to the collaboration with the film studio of RWTH Aachen University! As part of the lecture series of the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities: Cultures of Research in the summer semester “Lifelikeness” we will show the film:
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK by Park Chan-wook. The film will be preceded by a short introduction and followed by a discussion moderated by the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities: Cultures of Research.
The film will be screened at the Aula 1 im Hauptgebäude der RWTH Aachen (Temeplgraben 55, 52062) on the 11th of June at 20:15pm. All details and tickets can be found here.
By “Lifelikeness” we mean the representation and/or imitation of living beings of living beings in science and technology in fields such as robotics, synthetic biology or AI and neuromorphic computing. We ask how their increasing complexity mimics not only a fixed notion of life, but also the understanding of “life” as such.
Further information on the lecture series can be found here.

Indoor Atmospheres: Comfort, Aerial Hygiene and the Microbiome of the Built Environment - Sven Opitz
2024-06-19 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany

Organising Life: Biocuration, Bio-Ontologies, and the Conditions of Academic Work - Sarah Davies
2024-07-03 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Abstract:
In this talk I discuss biocuration as a field of scholarly practice. In creating and managing data and knowledge bases, biocuration is essential to research in the biosciences, but the skilled human labour it involves is often rendered invisible to its users. At the same time, this ordering work is central to rendering scientific knowledge thinkable. I therefore reflect on what biocuration tells us about the intersections of knowledge production with digital tools and the material conditions of academic work. What practices constitute knowledge, and how are these rendered visible and valuable (or not) within academic systems?
This event is part of our summer semester 2024 Lecture Series Lifelikeness.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Anwendungen und Herausforderungen der Technologie der künstlichen Intelligenz in der Schul- und Ausbildung: Eine vergleichende Studie zwischen Südkorea und Deutschland - Chun-Shik Kim
2024-07-09 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
This talk will be held in German.
Abstract:
Wie man sicher weiß, gewinnen die Geisteswissenschaften im Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz und die menschliche Interaktion mit KI Technologien derzeit weltweit als wichtige Forschungsbereiche an Aufmerksamkeit. Dies wird zur Ausweitung von Branchen führen, die davon leben, Emotionen zu erzeugen, wie z.B. Musik, Film und Kunst. Darüber hinaus wird die KI-Technologie bereits in die allgemeine Schulbildung integriert, und wenn sie in Zukunft auch in die berufliche Bildung einfließt, wird sie einen erheblichen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung der Humanressourcen haben.
Das Bildungsministerium Südkoreas hat die ‘Bildungsrevolution 2030’ ausgerufen und angekündigt, ab März 2025 als das erste Land der Welt offiziell digitale KI-Lehrbücher für Englisch, Mathematik und Informationsfächer einzuführen. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Ländern steht Südkorea der Anwendung von KI-Technologien im Bildungsbereich sehr positiv gegenüber. Ähnlich wie Korea fördern Länder wie die USA und Japan aktiv die KI-basierte Bildung, indem sie die Zahl der KI-bezogenen Informationskurse erhöhen und KI-Strategien und Bildungsrichtlinien aufstellen.
Das vom BMBF in Deutschland geleitete Projekt ‘Digitalpakt’ zielt auf den Auf- und Ausbau der digitalen Infrastruktur in Schulen in ganz Deutschland zwischen 2019 und 2024. Auch das BMBF hat sein Budget aufgestockt, um Bildungsmaterialien, Lernplattformen und zukunftsweisende Projekte zur Unterstützung des KI-Lernens bereitzustellen. In Deutschland gibt es derzeit eine rege Expertendiskussion über die gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen durch KI-Technologien wie ChatGPT, insbesondere im Bildungsbereich. Die Experten betonen für digitale Bildung, dass junge Menschen in Deutschland in Zukunft auf dem internationalen Arbeitsmarkt nicht mehr konkurrenzfähig sein könnten.
Aus diesem Grund wird dieser Vortrag die aktuelle Situation in Korea und Deutschland in Bezug auf die Anwendung und die Herausforderungen der KI-Technologie in der schulischen und beruflichen Bildung vergleichen. Zu diesem Zweck werde ich erstens die Bildungssysteme Koreas und Deutschlands vergleichen, zweitens den aktuellen Stand der KI-Politik im Bereich der digitalen Bildung in Korea und Deutschland ermitteln und drittens Fälle von digitaler Bildung in der beruflichen Bildung in Korea und Deutschland (Ansan und Aachen) vergleichen und analysieren. Schließlich werde ich Perspektiven und Herausforderungen für die digitale KI-Bildung und die zukünftige Gesellschaft aufzeigen.
Wenn Sie an der Veranstaltung teilnehmen möchten, schreiben Sie bitte eine kurze E-Mail an events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Workshop "Practical and Epistemic Challenges of Living Lab Research - Perspectives from Australia and Germany" with Darren Sharp
2024-09-09 14:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Aim:
The aim of the workshop is
(1) to inform each other about current activities and thus to inform and inspire each other about current perspectives on living lab research in the respective countries,
(2) to reflect on these perspectives against the background of different research cultures in the respective countries
(3) to identify future perspectives for cooperation.
Approach:
The workshop will be scheduled for four hours and will be structured according to the three objectives of the workshop. Invited speakers will present examples and experiences from the two research contexts. This will be followed by a collaborative exploration of practical and epistemic practices. In a concluding phase, further questions will be identified and perspectives for future cooperation will be explored.
Background:
In the first two weeks of September 2024, Darren Sharp, senior researcher at the Monash Sustainable Development Institute at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), is coming to Aachen based on a Kármán Fellowship. Darren Sharp is leading a challenging project which aims to turn the Monash Campus into a Net-Zero CO2 space following a living lab approach.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to lli@humtec.rwth-aachen.de.

Net Zero Precinct Futures: place-based experimentation for sustainability transitions - Theodore von Kármán Lecture with Darren Sharp
2024-09-11 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais/Online, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Lecture by Darren Sharp, Monash Sustainable Development Institute (Melbourne, Australia); RWTH Kármán-Fellow
Abstract:
Urban experimentation is an emerging field that brings together academic, government, industry and community actors to trial new modes of sustainable development and transition governance approaches. Envisioning sustainable futures involves the co-creation of visions and pathways to orient actors involved in urban experimentation and guide the direction of transformative change.
In this lecture Dr Darren Sharp will present an overview of Net Zero Precincts, a four-year ARC Linkage project to develop and test a new interdisciplinary approach to help cities reach net zero by taking the precinct as an optimal scale for urban transitions. The research takes inspiration from the Net Zero Initiative through which Monash University has committed to achieving net zero emissions across its four Australian campuses by 2030. Net Zero Precincts brings together transition management with design anthropology to support the transition to net zero cities in a way that is responsive to the needs of people, politics and place.
Dr Sharp will discuss the interdisciplinary approach being developed through an overview of the envisioning process that took place via a workshop series with participants from the Monash Precinct community. Walking tours were used as a catalyst to co-create future visions that took the form of ‘Living Worlds’ using speculative prototyping. A portfolio of Living Lab experiments has been activated to provide an enabling environment for research teams and project partners to test and demonstrate net zero innovations in a place-based setting. The lecture will conclude by exploring how transition managers can leverage monitoring and evaluation to support reflexive learning, steer transformative outcomes and build capability for the governance of experimentation.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Towards Expanded STS? - Stefan Böschen
2024-10-09 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin)
This event is part of our winter semester 2024/25 Lecture Series Expanding Science and Technology Studies.
To take part either online or in presence, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Freedom of Research: Art Exhibition
2024-10-21 - 2024-11-05 | RWTH Aachen, C.A.R.L., Claßenstraße 11, Aachen, 52072, Germany
We are pleased to have brought the exhibition “European Archive of Voices” to Aachen.
A team of 50 young international interviewers has interviewed people from across Europe born in the first half of the 20th century in their mother tongue about their experiences, fears and hopes. This diverse collection of memoirs includes activists, artists, lawyers, politicians, scientists, writers, and many more. Through these varied biographies, the project aims to highlight the rich, complex, and polarized histories of Europe and the generation that rebuilt it after 1945.
Young photographer Maximilian Gödecke, focusing on reportage and portrait photography, travels through European countries, capturing personal portraits of the witnesses to history featured in the “European Archive of Voices.” Through his lens, he captures not only their faces but also the spirit of a “last generation.” The project won the European Charlemagne Youth Prize in 2020.
The exhibition will be displayed in the Foyer of the C.A.R.L. at RWTH Aachen University. The opening will take place on Monday, 21 October 2024, at 12:00pm.
This event is part of the “Freedom of Research: A European Summit – Science in Times of Uncertainty” symposium and jointly organized by the Charlemagne Prize Foundation and RWTH Aachen University’s Knowledge Hub and Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (co/re).

Political Philosophy of Engineering and Technology - Workshop organized by Carl Mitcham (Colorado School of Mines)
2024-10-22 10:30 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, Aachen, 52062, Germany
Abstract:
Why political philosophy of technology? Why aren’t the philosophy and ethics of technology adequate? A classic answer is contained in the concluding chapter of Nicomachean Ethics where Aristotle transitions to the Politics: “Ethical arguments may have the power to encourage and stimulate the high-minded and those of noble character, but they are insufficient to encourage the many to nobility and goodness” (NEX, 9). Only in a world blinded by excessive individualism could ethics alone be thought sufficient to deal with questions of good and evil in an engineered and engineering world. Indeed, as Aristotle also notes at the beginning, it is politics that determines how technics and sciences are to be pursued and practiced in the polis (NE I, 2). It’s not just ethics. As engineered technologies increasingly supervene on and threaten the lifeworld through both success and destruction, only politics, political action, and political philosophy can save us.
Speakers:

Avigail Ferdman (Technion, Israel)
Giovanni Frigo (ITAS Karlsruhe)
Lukas Fuchs (TU Eindhoven)
Viet Anh Nguyen Duc (TU Darmstadt)
Please find the prorgam here.
Here you can see the event announcement.
If you would like to attend, please write a short email to events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

An IAEA for AI? The Regulation of Artificial Intelligence and Governance Models from the Nuclear Age - Elisabeth Röhrlich
2024-10-30 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin)

Freedom of Research: Freedom Late Night
2024-11-04 18:30 - 23:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Ludwig Forum, Jülicher Str. 97-109, Aachen, 52070, Germany
We invite you to an inspiring event featuring thought-provoking talks, artistic performances, and scientific presentations. Delve into the critical questions: “Why is science crucial for freedom?” and “How do key technologies ensure our freedom and that of future generations?” Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a vibrant discussion on the power of education and technology in securing freedom for all.
The Freedom LateNight event will be held in the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, offering a unique and immersive experience that explores the multifaceted concept of freedom. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with the theme from various perspectives – artistic, scientific, political, and deeply personal – across three dynamic stages.
This event is part of the “Freedom of Research: A European Summit – Science in Times of Uncertainty” symposium and jointly organized by the Charlemagne Prize Foundation and RWTH Aachen University’s Knowledge Hub and Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (co/re).

Freedom of Research: Symposium
2024-11-05 09:00 - 16:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Forum M, Mayersche, Buchkremerstraße 1-7, Aachen, 52062, Germany
In a conference format, we will explore various aspects of research freedom in times of uncertainty through panel discussions, TED Talks, and interactive sessions. Engage with renowned scientists, hear firsthand accounts from representatives in business, politics, and academia, discuss the ideas of young researchers from across Europe who are currently working on pressing issues that may affect all of us, and reflect with us on the major challenges for the future of Europe.
These thematic discussions will take place on the rooftop of the bookstore “Mayersche” at forum M, right in the heart of Aachen. Whether you are a student, an expert, a media representative or a local, you are warmly invited to join the debates.
This event is part of the “Freedom of Research: A European Summit – Science in Times of Uncertainty” symposium and jointly organized by the Charlemagne Prize Foundation and RWTH Aachen University’s Knowledge Hub and Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (co/re).
