"Seeing Truth - Kunst, Wissenschaft und Museen bei der Herstellung von Wissen" at the Mark Twain Center, Heidelberg, April 2025

Aiming to tackle no smaller issues than how truth is being generated, furthermore, whose truth is the ultimate truth and from which perspective, the exhibition presented a selection of artworks of various media aiming to showcase the arts, sciences and museums´ joint roles (and responsibilities) in producing, altering or distorting knowledge. Based on the intriguing multidisciplinary research project "The Future of Truth" of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut, the exhibition had both its simplicities and complexities hence allowing multiple readings for multiple audiences. I appreciated the theoretical and political questions posed by the show, while assisting in more straightforward reading of some of the artworks to my daughter.

Despite of her initial discomfort in being surrounded by works displaying the human body (some of which were depictions referring to visual narrations of colonial history) her current fascination with the underwater world draw her immediately to the prints based on the paintings of Toshio Asaeda. Asaeda´s coral reef environments of the 1930s were crucial in recording and cataloguing tropical fish in color, when color photography was not yet around to be applied on scientific expeditions. My daughter loved the vivid nature of the paintings and referred to her currently favourite book series, "The Octonauts". The concept of imagining a time when mobile phones or cameras were not around is a long stretch for now, but having heard the idea of drawing and painting nature or natural phenomenon to be able to analyse them later on was something she could also get on board with. She found the Charles Alston´s prints depicting the water cycle in forests (Weather in the Forest Mural, 1958) and with vulcanos (The Origin of Life Mural, 1964) intriguing, sparking her curiosity to know more about these special mountains. Most of her attention though were captured by the very first dinosaur-themed projects on display, since the idea of recreation of something extinct was something she encountered perhaps now for the first time (artist Rebekka Meah working on a real life model of the Tyrannus rex for an exhibition). This exhibition also allowed us to have our first conversation about why and how dinosaurs became extinct, and observe how she is trying to comprehend the concept of the Earth, as much as she can. Looking forward seeing in which context these new experiences will come up again.

Back home, we pulled out our related books and Yoto Cards that supported her comprehension of all these new impulses. For the past few days she has been completely immersed in the worlds of dinosaurs and deep sea adventures. It has been a pleasure observing her getting excited about learning all these new ideas and facts and join her in the discovery.

Books:

• Nicola Davies: Surprising Sharks

• Nicola Davies: Big Blue Whale

• Vivian French: T.Rex

• Tolki: Dinoszauruszok

• Wieso Weshalb Warum: Dinosaurier

• Katie Daynes: Gab es Dinos wirklich?

• Valerie Thomas: Winnie´s Dinosaur Day

• Was ist das? Sehen und lernen!: Das Meer

• Meomi: Octonauts book series

• Kiss Ottó: A Piros Tengeralattjáró

Toys:

• Schleich and non-Schleich Dinos

• Sarah´s Silk

• Georgie Porgy Children's Projector Torch: Marine Life

Audio:

• (MYO) Spotify Podcast: "Deep Blue Sea"

• (MYO) Ladybird Audio Adventures: "Dinosaur Times"

• (MYO) Ladybird Audio Adventures: "Deep Sea Dive"

• (Yoto) BrainBots: Our Planet "Oceans"

• (Yoto) BrainBots: Our Planet "Volcanoes"