Nina Horstmann

She holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Business Strategy and Environment (Birkbeck, U. of London), and a Magister Artium in History of Art and Classical Archaeology (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

In 2019, Nina co-curated and edited “Hybrid Encounters in the arts and sciences. A dialogue.”, a publication and pilot project where artists, scientists and experts investigate future-oriented topics and issues. She also published works dealing with sustainability and climate change, and conducted a live panel on the topic of “fruitful misunderstandings. Art+Science (Im)possibilities”.

NINA HORSTMANN: Social change needs to be approached from many different directions. The debate should be less about which is the one leading role; but about how to act collaboratively and complementarily and achieve success. Arts and culture can and should play a crucial role in this. They can work on many levels to enable rethinking, to stimulate change and also to make possible futures tangible. The list of issues that need to be addressed is long (climate change is high on my list, but many issues and developments are intertwined under this term), and the solutions are complex. There will not be a so-called "golden bullet", i.e. a single solution for everything. The future resembles a kaleidoscope in which many different and ever-changing patterns can be recognised. The arts have their role here: they help to imagine these patterns, through words or images, by evoking emotions, etc. They change our imaginations, expand our perceptions. They change our ideas, expand our levels of perception - and thus drive (cultural) change and provide a basis on which we can evolve.

NH: Is it not rather a question of whether we should dare to hope? For me, 'hope' has something passive about it, but what it needs is immediate change. We all have to actively participate in this new shaping of our everyday life and our environment, if we want to have the legitimate prospect of a good future. But at least this should be the goal, and to be able to imagine it, new narratives are needed. In addition to dystopias that give us glimpses of undesirable scenarios, there must also be narratives of all kinds and forms that allow us to imagine a positive future. They must go beyond science reports and a purely rational understanding, they must touch us. This requires creative approaches. Film, music, visual arts, literature, etc. can open up new perspectives or give an impulse that resonates and stimulates oneself.

NH: Especially when dealing with multi-layered problems that are characterised by an entanglement of challenges from different parts of society, science and art can find a good match. I myself have been involved in projects, exhibitions, events and more at the interface of art and climate change for a long time and found it particularly striking how the arts can transform the issue from an intellectual challenge to an emotionally charged desire for change.

My work at the university is different, where the transdisciplinary dialogue is about enabling the mutual integration of knowledge and experience through reciprocal transfer, allowing new cultures of knowledge to emerge and driving synergies between disciplines. In particular, the aspects of self-reflection, dissonance and irritation as well as communication are capable of producing decisive productive moments of cooperation in this context. Art and its actors can bring complementary levels of knowledge and experience to the exchange and contribute to the development of specific methods.

The commonality of my diverse experiences at the interface of art and science is that surprising things can emerge from any form of exchange. For me, narrowing down to specific experts and disciplines is not desirable or necessary. Much more important for a fruitful dialogue than expertise in content is openness and mutual interest!

NH: Does anyone have an answer to this? Utopias also have their dangers, since their good intentions can also produce negative side effects... And a society also needs the dissonances that can make cooperation with different actors so challenging, but also so rewarding.

But in any case, the future should allow more space, time and relevance for the economically "unproductive". Freed from the compulsion to produce something "meaningful", surprising things would surely emerge that could allow a more playful existence to grow. In short, a better tomorrow will definitely produce more art and creativity!

NH: You can see that I am not an artist: For me, a new project usually starts on the basis of past projects, current themes or interesting connections that are thought about and developed further. The new emerges much more in the process and in dialogue with others than at the very beginning, alone with a blank sheet of paper....