How does knowledge move? What transformative potential lies in movement for sharing and shaping ideas? Does research have a rhythm, a form, a choreography? How do bodies, materials, concepts and spaces interact and dance together in the dynamic co-creation of knowledge?
These questions form the foundation of Irina Demina’s work as a choreographer, dramaturg, and artistic researcher. Since February 2025, she has been commissioned with the development of participatory, body-based formats for knowledge exchange and public engagement at the Center for Cultural Techniques’ Object Lab.
Irina understands choreography not as something that occurs exclusively on stage, but as a way of thinking movement, a strategy for organizing knowledge and exploring relationships between ideas, bodies, objects, space, and time. With SCARBOD Lab (a name derived from Science, Art and Body), she founded an experimental platform and investigates how body-based artistic practices can open up new approaches to scientific research and public engagement.
The Object Lab at the Center for Cultural Techniques provides the space and setting for Irina to conceptualize and explore formats with the potential of transforming scientific concepts into embodied, tangible experiences. The aim of this practice is to build bridges between science and society and to bring focus to the body as a medium of thinking and researching — an approach Irina calls ‘bodyation,’ where ideas are shaped and directly experienced through movement. This holds potential for creating spaces of encounter— between people and objects, between movements and ideas, between theory and practice.
Upcoming events in the Object lab:
„Choreographies of knowledge“ (performative encounter)
04.07.2025 and 05.07.2025 5 – 7 pm
„Bodyation“ (movement workshops)
Wednesday 30.04.25 12.30 – 13.30h (for ZfK members only)
Wednesday 07.05.25 09 – 10 h (open to all HU members)
Wednesday 04.06.25 09 – 10 h (open to all HU members)
Wednesday 02.07.25 09 – 10 h (open to all HU members)
If you would like to engage in a deeper exchange about object, body, and movement, please feel free to contact us at wissensaustausch.hzk@hu-berlin.de
Photo: Philipp Weinrich