The Elephant borderless collaboration and scientific cooperation in an unequal world Berlin has always been regarded as a world-class metropolis à la the great Austrian moviemaker Fritz Lang but I didn’t know what to expect when I spent a month as a co2libri visiting fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moder ner Orient (ZMO) I resided in the leafy suburb of Nikolassee that provided considerable solitude and comfort for intellectual reflection Nikolassee is definitely a far cry from the hustle and bustle of your average world-class city One would imagine that a metropolis of the future would be fairly populated by quasi- It would also imply desensitised algorithms and high-tech post-industrial dystopia in which the meaning and purpose of what is considered to be “human” would have been stretched beyond all imaginings Indeed we’ve ushered in a (post-) Babylonian new world order an international conference organised by the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) on academic freedom and themes revolving around borderless academic collaboration drew participants from Britain which was held in the cool and clinical interiors of the Berlin Institute for Critical Inquiry focused on “Negotiating Scientific Cooperation in an Unequal World” as its main subject matter The gathering at the event was not too large which provided for a really intimate experience Keynote speakers struggled to offer a visual superhighway of what “the university of the future” would look like a genuinely philosophical problem unfurled the tussle between universals and particulars or the same/other distinction in which issues of cultural diversity and equally implacable regimes of homogenisation and standardisation jostle for dominance we can expect the commingling of normal science Perhaps even more than the academic delegates at the conference a short drama interlude best captured the spirit of the Orwellian brave new world proffered by two starkly attired thespians in orange overalls we are confronted by the omnipresent surveillance of Big Brother the deep state with its enormous spatial reach and the accompanying moral panics caused by an overwhelming sense of human superfluity Such spatiality is now being complemented by psychological depth and manipulation The human would be reduced to an inconsequential speck or organism while institutions of power and hegemony would attain the apex of a totalitarian (d)evolution the merely human has been superseded by post-humanism an old colleague from African philosophical circles Hountondji – Paulin Hountondji: African Philosophy as Critical Univeersalism (2019) – disclosed to me that he now had a job with BUA working on the management aspect of scientific development as well as the ethics of AI having worked previously with colleagues dealing with similar issues in Cape Town presentations attempted to navigate the gulf between globality and locality Keynote speaker Patricio Langa of Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique spouted a flurry of statistics illustrating the problems of scientific research in Africa and concluded that the huge challenge continues to be the hindrance caused by extraversion as first theorised in economics by Egypt’s Samir Amin and then in philosophy by the Beninese thinker Adenike Adebukola Akinsemolo from Nigeria offered captivating accounts of the struggles of women dwelling in riverine areas against the ravages of climate change in her country To bring home the lopsidedness of the global system Phoebe Sanchez made fervent calls for decolonial vigilance and critique in building a more equitable global order As if to poke at the very limits of academic freedom there were unequivocal denunciations of Zionist Israel in its ongoing purge of the people of Palestine anyone who dared to do so outside the confines of the conference would be promptly blackballed It appeared there were indeed quite vocal friends of Palestine at the conference the goal of the organisers of the event was to ensure cooperation between European tertiary institutions and universities in the developing world the commemorative moment of the conference was the adoption of the “African Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations” I presented a talk at ZMO on “Two African Thinkers in the Climate of Decoloniality” My presentation dwelled on the work of Kwasi Wiredu (Ghana) and Paulin Hountondji (Benin) in establishing two distinct and yet interrelated kinds of legacies in late 20th century African philosophy Wiredu formulated a theory of conceptual decolonisation which in my view is one of the most cogent approaches in decoloniality it incorporates a programme of comparative linguistics as well as cultural analysis scientific dependency and global knowledge production are no less instructive I was to attend a seminar – that was ultimately postponed – titled practices of thought: anthropology of intellectual life in the sultanate of Oman” that was to be delivered by Mehdi Ayachi at ZMO status and possibilities offered to the public intellectual by the sultanate of Oman if she is dependent upon the state for her livelihood and well-being then she is naturally constrained to promote the official narratives of the nation-building project in order to enjoy the material and symbolic benefits that come with doing so she chooses to adopt an independent stance and becomes a critic of both state and society her status becomes more precarious as she attempts to navigate the pitfalls of shame and dishonour This scenario particularly resonates with the options available to the public intellectual in Africa where she is confronted by the possibility of repression Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ken Saro Wiwa are some of the well-known cases on the continent I was compelled to contemplate this all-too-familiar reality notwithstanding being present in a post-industrial context Perhaps Martin Heidegger wouldn’t have winced too much at the discomfort of having to descend from his secluded hill to visit the neighbourhood I went on short excursions to glean parts of Berlin that provided opportunities for gaiety sightseeing and refreshment away from the usual highbrow pursuits the elderly walk their well-groomed dogs without leashes Much younger folk go for early evening jogs around the undulating neighbourhood – even in winter – amid magisterial trees and leafy vegetation I received quite a few invitations to lunch and dinner some of which I couldn’t attend for one reason or the other A month is quite a short period to be able to meet different people within our research network and beyond The boys politely suggested to me a few elements on contemporary style Joy busied herself with items that would keep the entire family smiling and contented After all Christmas was just around the corner Kai and Joy took me to areas around the wall that had divided Berlin before 1989 We visited shops that produced hand-crafted items: wristwatches hats and other mementos that serve as reminders of the more delectable side of Berlin we bonded even further over hot water garnished with lemon honey and ginger at a bar in which a singer regaled us with the guitar and lovely R&B hits There were achingly beautiful renditions of songs by Sting We also visited a courtyard lined with artists’ studios where the walls were covered with graffiti like a punk-era subway station bang in the middle of ultra-futurist Berlin a sliver of genuine earthiness that acted as a rage against the ceaseless grind of the machine Kai and family surpassed this experience by hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for a cast of international guests from the Philippines Dessert was probably the most elaborate course of the lavish dinner rich pies and cream topped with strawberries This isn’t to say the two huge turkeys specially prepared for the occasion were any less impressive whose husband served as a distributor of her movies had visited some of the most spectacular places in the world such as Chile and Brazil but remains a true European at heart as he informs me Perhaps to underscore his European sense of identity he revealed that he had successfully transitioned from a Catholic to an atheist He beams with enormous pride and a sense of accomplishment when he announces his atheism she didn’t fail to make an impression on me as a feisty super-achiever She emphasised that she doesn’t make feature films but documentaries one of which explores the plight of illegal migrants in Europe If we are attempting to grapple with the dilemmas of scientific cooperation in a chronically unequal world perhaps it is always best that we begin by jointly extending a simple hand of genuine friendship In this apparently simple gesture of humanism miles of understanding can truly be gained This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker director Simon Rattle: The Making of a Maestro and you'll find details of the pieces we chose throughout this page In October 1997 Simon Rattle conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the first performance of Thomas Adès’ work for large orchestra when he was leaving the CBSO after 18 years Rattle chose to include Asyla in his farewell concert To then start his inaugural concert as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002 with Asyla shows an extraordinary confidence in the startling power of Adès' Surrealist symphony "I wanted to bring what was new and extraordinary to Berlin," he told us Our still shows Simon about to bring Tom out of the audience and up onto the stage after that 2002 performance For the Playlist we chose the third movement – Ecstasio with 1990s techno/rave music replacing the 19th-century dance rhythms of Beethoven and Brahms The recording that Simon made with the CBSO was nominated for the 1999 Mercury Music Prize As chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra between 1971 and 1975 Pierre Boulez had a profound effect on the British musical landscape – revolutionising the repertoire orchestras played and how they played it "He taught a whole generation of us how much great music there was that we simply didn't know," says Rattle The still is his 1973 BBC publicity shot – frustratingly no matter how hard I look I can’t make out what the score on his desk is In Taiwan we filmed a vast, outdoor audience listening with rapt concentration to Simon conducting Boulez’s Notations for Orchestra. On the Playlist is the first brief miniature from the original 1940s piano piece 12 Notations Some of the first music that the Berlin Philharmonic performed back in the late 1880s was Brahms We were lucky enough to film Sir Simon conducting Brahms on two very different occasions First in a rehearsal of the Violin Concerto in D major with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Berlin Philharmonic during the 2014 Baden-Baden Easter Festival Then a month later we captured the conductor on the podium for Brahms' 1st Symphony He was back for the day with the CBSO in Symphony Hall for a concert in support of The CBSO Benevolent Fund We’ve included a bit of this 1st Symphony rehearsal at the end of Simon’s interview. But for the Playlister selection we chose Simon with the Vienna Philharmonic and soloist Kyung-Wha Chung playing the final movement of the Brahms Violin concerto We filmed Simon and the Berlin Philharmonic performing Bruckner's 7th Symphony in Taiwan In our interview he explained how he first encountered this piece as a 15-year-old percussionist in the National Youth Orchestra – under the baton of the Austrian conductor Rudolph Schwarz During the Second World War Schwarz was held prisoner in both Auschwitz and Belsen After the war he was also the conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and in the BBC picture archive I discovered a still of the conductor with Benjamin Britten discussing the score of Britten’s Nocturne for Tenor and Small Orchestra which was broadcast by the BBC Third Programme In Norman Lebrecht’s book The Maestro Myth Simon Rattle is quoted as saying Schwarz taught him "the paramount importance of imposing his pulse on the music he played" The Playlister selection is a 1950s recording of Bruckner’s 7th performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Otto Klemperer I was a percussionist so of course this music with all its colouration was absolute food and drink to me." The picture below shows Oliver Reed as Debussy with Annette Robertson as Gaby in a sequence from the Monitor Special shown on BBC One on 18 May 1965 Produced and directed by Ken Russell and scripted by Melvyn Bragg The Debussy Film was a clever exploration of the composer’s life and works We see a film company making a film about Claude Debussy is set the life of the composer - a life far from simple or straightforward The personalities of Debussy and the people in his life are interwoven with those of the director and cast of the film company making the feature For the Playlist we selected Rattle and the CBSO performing the little-known masterpiece Gigues from Debussy’s Images for Orchestra It's interesting to think of Debussy in Abstract Expressionist terms rather than as an Impressionist – if La Mer is a burnished Mark Rothko then perhaps Gigues has some of the subtle shifting colours of one of Willem de Kooning’s paintings "I think he's the great underrated genius of them all," Simon told us For the documentary we filmed him rehearsing for a period instrument performance of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment There’s a little extract at the end of Simon’s interview On the Playlist we have selected his interpretation of The Creation as recorded with a modern symphony orchestra - the CBSO The still is one of four Roy Lichtenstein-style illustrations commissioned for the 2009 BBC series The Birth of British Music and neatly captures the composer in one comic-book panel Mahler is indisputably Simon’s touchstone composer: “almost like a family member” The Playlister suggestion had to be Magdalena Kožená singing Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am Lost to the World) from Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder song-cycle and in this recording you get to hear them both together making profoundly beautiful music with the Berlin Philharmonic In his interview Simon Rattle said: "I love Mozart but I often make a terrible hash of it." As Tom Service’s recent BBC Four documentary argued there are real reasons why Mozart’s music still affects The still below from the BBC picture archive shows Jack Tarlton as the composer in BBC Two's drama The Genius of Mozart extracts of which featured in Tom’s documentary The Playlist features the overture to Così fan tutte performed by Sir Simon and the OAE Simon told us that before he started to conduct Puccini "I'd loved a number of the pieces for years The Playlister choice is a "guilty pleasure" - an unashamed crowd-pleaser from Act 3 of Turando: Nessun dorma sung by Plácido Domingo The BBC picture archive revealed this atmospheric still of the tenor from a 1982 BBC programme called An Evening With Andrew Lloyd Webber The Italian conductor Simon refers to in the clip is Giuseppe Sinopoli who sadly passed away in 2001 Simon describes Schumann's music as a kind of miracle "It's asking a very different thing of people 'If you're going to think of this music as a cat think of it as something hunting all the time'." The Playlist features the Piano Concerto played by Lars Vogt Sibelius is at the centre of Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic's visit to Britain in February 2015 In Simon Rattle: The Making of a Maestro we were able to feature a great clip of a very young-looking Simon at the BBC Proms in 1979 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra He is conducting Tapiola – Sibelius' last major piece after the 7th Symphony and before the composer's last 30 years of silence a character from the Finnish epic the Kalevala a sprite of the pine forests with a beard of lichen and eyebrows of moss The Playlister selection provides an alternative with the Sibelius Violin Concerto where virtuoso Nigel Kennedy and Sir Simon demonstrate that they have a real chemistry between them The Rite of Spring is the most startlingly revolutionary score in 20th-century music and has been established as one of Rattle’s signature pieces by numerous recordings and concert performances "It was one of the first pieces I conducted It's lived through my career and it really doesn’t get old," he says In the BBC picture archive I found a wonderful relaxed photo of the composer rehearsing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Maida Vale studios in 1958 From his suede loafers to his fluffy cardigan On our Playlist is the opening to the Rite of Spring. In the programme we had great fun using this music to evoke the spirit of Cold War Berlin. Hear a selection of music from the composers featured here via BBC Playlister A special rehearsal and performance at the Barbican The Barbican chief tells the story of Britain’s leading conductor Simon Rattle's Live in Concert series plus clips, links and more Watch the major new documentary on BBC iPlayer until 17 March 2015 Watch the complete Sibelius cycle from the Barbican on BBC iPlayer until 17 March 2015 But conductor says Britain's concert halls are not up to international standards but little-explored Steglitz has a lot to offer More residential than the central districts Schlosspark Theater and the 1970s architectural curiosity ‘Bierpinsel.’ With the Wansee and Nikolassee just a few train stops away Steglitz is a treasure trove of eclectic offerings that the city center just can’t provide © Assenmacher/WikiCommons Stadtpark Steglitz is another quiet and secluded escape from the city This lesser-known city park is even more precious for the few people there and calmness it exudes dog walk or picnic – though a little trek from the center – a breath of fresh air from the more hectic patches of green in the middle of the city awaits you fairytale-like fountains and a rose garden Stadtpark Steglitz is a more pleasant way to wander when in the area import PrebidBidService from "/v1/js/PrebidBidService.js"; import AmazonBidService from "/v1/js/AmazonBidService.js"; window.addEventListener('intersecting',async (e) => { const element = document.querySelector('[data-id="in_article_2"]'); const slot = element.getAttribute('id'); if(e.detail.slotName !== slot) { return; } let promises = []; if(window.canRunPrebid) { const prebidService = new PrebidBidService(); promises.push(prebidService.requestPrebidBids(null [slot])); } if(window.canRunAmazon) { const amazonService = new AmazonBidService(); promises.push(amazonService.fetchBids(null [slot])); } if(promises?.length) { await Promise.all(promises).then(() => { googletag.pubads().refresh([window.addSlot[slot]]); }); } else { googletag.pubads().refresh([window.addSlot[slot]]); } }); Allied Museum Museum and so this museum takes a fascinating look at the immediate and lasting impacts made by Allied intervention Sign up to our newsletter to save up to $800 on our unique trips See privacy policy Harriet moved to Berlin initially to learn the language for a month and continuing to work with a love for the written word in as many different ways as possible a general pursuit of continuing to find new ways to communicate with writing remaining curious and learning about the people and world around us Art 10 Masterpieces You Can Only See in Munich See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in July See & Do Germany's Most Beautiful Abbeys and Monasteries Design The Most Beautiful Churches in Berlin See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in September Guides & Tips The Best European Cities to Visit in December See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in October See & Do A Guide to River Cruises in Germany: What to Know Guides & Tips The Best European Cities to Visit in November See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in Summer See & Do The Best Weekend Trips From Heidelberg See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in Autumn US: +1 (678) 967 4965 | UK: +44 (0)1630 35000 tripssupport@theculturetrip.com © Copyright 2025 The Culture Trip Ltd