• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible interactions between Museology, Material Studies, STS, Visual Studies

How does digitisation in museums influence the way objects are staged and how visitors are confronted with them, and how is the collection itself influenced, both the objects in storage and those on display? Asking these questions also means asking about the way meaning is produced and stabilized in museums and how cultural/natural heritage objects are presented, constructed and also preserved.

The digitisation of objects is also linked to the preservation of analogue, material objects when they are converted into digital objects, which techniques are used in the process and how the data is stored and made accessible. Questions of material preservation and its durability are thus not only equally important for digital and analogue objects, but above all for the planning and implementation of the transformation process of the objects.

• Dr. Francesc Rodríguez

Through an examination of media reports, online videos, official statements, scientific papers, and NGO and international organization publications, this study project will focus on how river transformations caused by hydraulic warfare are framed in Ukraine. For this study project, it is desirable to approach rivers through three main dimensions (hydrosocial relations, more-than-human beings, and water infrastructures), although this can be decided at the outset.

• Dr. Francesc Rodríguez

This study project will be centered on the everyday hydrosocial relations between people, more-than-human beings, water, and infrastructures along the Spree in Cottbus. The methodological approach will draw on the development of mobile ethnographic methods, such as water walks, which help reveal how humans, non-humans, and water infrastructures, co-constitute the Spree in different parts of the city. Once a potential set of practices and relations around the river has been identified, the study project will guide either policy recommendations or artistic interventions (or both) to amplify these practices and relations, or to rethink them.

• Dr. Lora Koycheva

How can robots and advanced AI systems be developed for large forest regions and ecosystems, for biodiversity preservation and disaster management, such as forest fires? How do designing-with-nature frameworks and designing-for-purpose imperatives mesh in the creation of such systems?
 

Note: For all theses topics, students are encouraged to use the following questions are an orientation and develop their own research interests and agenda. Working with empirical material is expected. These can be either originally generated datasets (i.e. interviews and fieldwork with relevant actors) or secondary (i.e. popular media sources). Working with startups and companies developing robotics solutions is highly encouraged. Students are welcome to select descriptive- theoretical approaches (i.e. ethnography-inspired), approaches with an interventional and normative import and implications  i.e, exploring the “should”) of all the chosen question) or to pursue a more artistic, experimental, speculative vein of engaging with the topics. Ethics is an element of the topic of robotics and automation which is one of the most important and rapidly developing branches of scholarship; therefore, while mandatory for consider for each and every possible thesis, it should not be the central focus of the work. This means that, as an example, a thesis “AI-Enabled Soil Monitoring: Promises, Perils, and Ethics” is preferred to “The Ethics of Data Use in AI-Enabled Soil Monitoring.” Students should expect to work closely with Dr. Koycheva, and the possibility to co-author peer-reviewed articles, reports, or white papers will be explicitly pursued.

• Dr. Lora Koycheva
   

Hardware robotics systems and products are poised to enter pervasively a world inhabited not only and exclusively by humans, but also by a large number of animals. Whether it is birds and drones; vacuum cleaners and pets; or aquatic robots and submarine fauna, robots are expected to increase their presence in various ecosystems in a myriad of ways which have the potential to do both harm, and good; to both enable greater data capture and research and to disrupt these ecosystems in unforeseen ways. Potential starting questions to investigate here are not limited to: how are robotic systems designed with animals in mind (if at all)? How are their deployment escaping the design imagination and what kind of machine-animal interactions emerge in these slippages in predictability? What kind of more-than-human methods, paradigms, and vocabularies exist currently in this techno-socio-biological space – and how will they and should they change in the future? How are cyber-physical systems, and LLMS specifically, poised to enable greater human-animal communication, and allow humans to “talk back” to animals? How do such technological advancement change existing cultures of natural stewardship, reorganize human-animal relationships?
Elsewhere, in the agricultural sector, precision (or, “smart” farming) is already gaining traction in creating and IoT-enabled robotized farming industry – from robotized harvesting machines and livestock management to pest and disease prevention and soil monitoring and improvement. What cultures of care and husbandry emerge in these contexts? Does that – and how – change humans´ relationship to food?

Note: For all theses topics, students are encouraged to use the following questions are an orientation and develop their own research interests and agenda. Working with empirical material is expected. These can be either originally generated datasets (i.e. interviews and fieldwork with relevant actors) or secondary (i.e. popular media sources). Working with startups and companies developing robotics solutions is highly encouraged. Students are welcome to select descriptive- theoretical approaches (i.e. ethnography-inspired), approaches with an interventional and normative import and implications  i.e, exploring the “should”) of all the chosen question) or to pursue a more artistic, experimental, speculative vein of engaging with the topics. Ethics is an element of the topic of robotics and automation which is one of the most important and rapidly developing branches of scholarship; therefore, while mandatory for consider for each and every possible thesis, it should not be the central focus of the work. This means that, as an example, a thesis “AI-Enabled Soil Monitoring: Promises, Perils, and Ethics” is preferred to “The Ethics of Data Use in AI-Enabled Soil Monitoring.” Students should expect to work closely with Dr. Koycheva, and the possibility to co-author peer-reviewed articles, reports, or white papers will be explicitly pursued.

• Dr. Lora Koycheva

Popularly known as robots, cyber-physical systems – LLM-enabled AI and hardware mechatronic machine bodies – have fascinated the human and remained outside of the grasp of engineering for millenia until recent parallel advancement in robot-enabling technologies, such as cloud computing advanced sensors, additive manufacturing, and now genAI are converging to create the perfect conditions for an accelerated development and deployment of robotic systems in society at large. This opens up a wide and exciting front for technoscience and cognate disciplines to engage with the topic of robotics in exploring what the implication are for society, nature, and the meaning and experience of being alive in this time of the robot. Theses concerned with the broad topic of Robots, Nature, Culture are possible under the supervision of Dr. Lora Koycheva.

Note: For all theses topics, students are encouraged to use the following questions are an orientation and develop their own research interests and agenda. Working with empirical material is expected. These can be either originally generated datasets (i.e. interviews and fieldwork with relevant actors) or secondary (i.e. popular media sources). Working with startups and companies developing robotics solutions is highly encouraged. Students are welcome to select descriptive- theoretical approaches (i.e. ethnography-inspired), approaches with an interventional and normative import and implications  i.e, exploring the “should”) of all the chosen question) or to pursue a more artistic, experimental, speculative vein of engaging with the topics. Ethics is an element of the topic of robotics and automation which is one of the most important and rapidly developing branches of scholarship; therefore, while mandatory for consider for each and every possible thesis, it should not be the central focus of the work. This means that, as an example, a thesis “AI-Enabled Soil Monitoring: Promises, Perils, and Ethics” is preferred to “The Ethics of Data Use in AI-Enabled Soil Monitoring.” Students should expect to work closely with Dr. Koycheva, and the possibility to co-author peer-reviewed articles, reports, or white papers will be explicitly pursued.
 

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible interactions between STS, Heritage Studies, History of Science/Technology, or Landscape Studies (including questions of conservation)

For several decades now, the largest artificial lake landscape in Germany has been emerging from the coal mining landscape of Lusatia. In this region, coal mining is not only a phenomenon of the 20^th century, but has a long-lasting tradition that goes back to the 18^th century and more. Many currently visible smaller and larger lakes are a direct result of these mining activities. Water can take on very different meanings in the context of these landscape changes and also in mining technology itself. It is used for purification and transport, it can become a hazard, it is a resource for drinking and industrial water, it is added to, removed from and transferred to other states and geo-cultural environments. Accordingly, water is crammed with different meanings and codes and loaded with cultural and natural heritage references.

What would be an adequate description of the natural and culture heritage with respect to the role of water in this multifaceted historical mining area? How do the new “water landscapes” relate to the former landscapes, before and during the mining period? Which concrete infrastructures have already been realised here, which current difficulties arise, also in the mediation with historical infrastructures (keyword channeled rivers, sluices, dams)? What makes these new landscapes uncanny, inaccessible, and at the same time a hot spot of landscape design and landscape conservation? What role does the water deficit play in connection with climate change? How can these transformations be adequately described, what become artificial lakes as technoscientific objects in this radical change of landscape and socio-technical conditions?

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible focus on Philosophy of technology, STS, or environmental anthropology

For several decades, the largest artificial lake landscape in Germany has been emerging from the open-cast coal mining landscape of Lusatia. Many concrete infrastructures have already been realized here and have produced a whole series of problematic technological consequences, also with respect to historical infrastructures (rivers, dams, canals, locks). These large-scale technoscientific experiments can be analyzed on the basis of various theories and concepts, such as the apparatus-world complex (Harré), as phenomeno-technical processes (Bachelard), or as biographies of technoscientific objects (Bensaude-Vincent et al.). The radical changes of the landscape and its socio-technical conditions are then accentuated differently in each case, and accordingly produce different scopes, but also necessities, of action.

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible focus on history of science, cultural history of gardens, natural/cultural heritage, or environmental anthropology

Wine from Lusatian open-cast mining? Fruit export from Lusatia to Berlin and Sweden? Both are correct, both can be proven with sources that go back at least to the 18th century. This is about the horticultural mechanization of Lusatia and the associated cultural techniques. Topics for the historical processing of the garden culture in the Lausitz, particularly in city and region Spremberg are assigned. Different periods of time are possible, the focus is on the epoch of industrialization until today. The object of research is the investigation of the development of urban gardening, viticulture and orcharding, as well as the cultural landscape close to the city and the accompanying horticultural practices and cultural techniques. Archival work in Spremberg, Meissen and Dresden is planned.

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible cross-references between philosophy of technology, visual studies, history of science/technology

This project is about visualization strategies of ecological research and about changes of images during the transfer from science to society - and back. Depending on the historical, cultural or methodological context, different visual images of nature are generated and defended. These images each represent different metaphysical ideas and epistemic models, they differ in image technique, strategy and staging. Ecological research, we argue, can be read as a mapping program of conceptions of nature from different scientific, national, philosophical, and geographical cultures. Whether a piece of nature is considered worthy of protection, a resource worthy of capitalization, unreliable and dangerous, or worthy of contemplative experience is largely dependent on the cultural environment and thus, in our knowledge society, on visual and conceptual representations of science (see www.b-tu.de/fg-technikwissenschaft/bildkulturen)

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

For several decades, the largest artificial lake landscape in Germany has been emerging from the coal mining landscape of Lusatia. Which concrete infrastructures have already been realized here, which current difficulties arise, also in the mediation with historical infrastructures (keyword dams), which role does the water deficit play and how can the concept ‘technoscientific apparatus’ be used to adequately describe this radical change in landscape and socio-technical conditions.

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Research on technology and science has arrived in the university subject canon in Germany only with some delay compared to the Anglo-Saxon area. At the BTU Cottbus, there were already efforts in the 1990s to establish research on technology in the humanities and social sciences in close cooperation with the Association of German Engineers. These activities were visible both institutionally and in terms of content and were reflected, for example, in the founding of institutes (Center for Technology and Society), a study program (Culture and Technology) and professorships (philosophy of technology, history of technology, general science of technology). The project is medium-term and consists of several sub-projects, such as the development of an archive and a website, a history of institutions, the question of how technoscience studies were conducted in the GDR, etc. (see also our project Technology as Epistemic Culture).

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible focus on STS, Philosophy of Technology, or Technology Assessment

As part of the coal phase-out, a number of initiatives have emerged in Lusatia that deal with decarbonization techniques. These include the real laboratory at the Schwarze Pumpe industrial park (near Spremberg). The reference power plant is being developed in the sense of a prototype for a hydrogen storage power plant; the aim is to produce green hydrogen for use in the transport, industry and heat sectors. The format of the real laboratory is to be critically reflected and the prototype is to be located as a technical object in the rapidly changing field of discourse of politics, science and technology. This can be about the analysis of future narratives or/and so-called socio-technical imaginaries or about the intrinsic life of technoscientific objects.

• Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Possible interactions between STS, environmental anthroplogy, history and philosophy of science/technology, cultural history of gardens, or nature/heritage.

In cities and municipalities of Brandenburg, there are conspicuously large proportions of land devoted to allotment gardens compared to the rest of Germany. Gardening practices are thus a widespread activity and so far little used socio-economic and ecological source of knowledge. The GartenWissen project focuses on the gardening skills of citizens and their presence in the media. Under the conditions of structural change in Lusatia, garden knowledge takes on a special relevance, especially if transformative innovation is to mean "sustainable global transformation of the economy and society" (WBGU, 2011, p. 5).

Organizational and social structures of allotment gardens, colonies, or even front gardens are historically established and widespread, the actors are economically diverse, and they have gardening and ecological knowledge in the concrete reality of climate and structural change in the region. This makes gardening practices an important influencer of responsible nature use in the region, historically and currently.

As socio-technical practices in the garden are to be addressed, for example, collecting and harvesting, soil bar cultivation and compost tilling, exchange of seeds, in the digital sphere the creation of good practice examples, recording and systematization of garden plants, the establishment of contact exchanges, of recipe collections or equipment flea market.

Local knowledge about environmental changes (e.g. endangerment of local species occurrences) or the effects of climate change on the region lies to a large extent with local actors. It is a knowledge that also differs in structure and content from scientific knowledge, such as that offered by national institutes or global agencies. In particular, the concept of developing a so-called creole as a new first language in a hybrid community of knowledge actors (Fuller, 1993, Stoddard, 1991) can be used here. It may be expected that knowledge elaborated by local actors, on the one hand in the sense of citizen science projects, on the other hand on the basis of a gardening Creole in the local context, can have a greater authoritative and action-guiding effect. Such knowledge elaborated by different actors can then also present and convey local impacts of climate change or agribusiness more credibly than, for example, environmental ministries.

The analysis of already established patterns of action and bodies of knowledge suggests that various socio-technical practices and actors can be identified, which can be used for the analysis and conceptualization of a positively understood structural change "from below" in order to promote empowerment and participatory learning and design formats - GardenKnowledge is thus of relevance far beyond the garden shed.

Various projects are conceivable in this framework, socio-cultural and ecological conditions in regional urban gardens can be investigated, what are the social interactions in the garden and how are they coupled with material cultures; which interspecies concepts are suitable to analyze the handling of "beneficial organisms" and "pests", which animal-human relationships exist in the garden and what changes possibly occur in them through the concrete encounter in the garden; are there forms of resilience that are promoted or even brought about through gardening practices (example therapy gardens in retirement homes, hospitals, migration context, climate gardens etc.)?