Journey of discovery through data: New exhibition in the COSMO Science Forum!

Journey of discovery through data: New exhibition in the COSMO Science Forum!

On June 6, 2025, the new exhibition "[in]visible. Visualizations in Science" opened at the COSMO Science Forum in Dresden. This interactive journey of discovery invites visitors to explore complex systems and scientific visualizations. The exhibition shows exhibits from both current research at Dresden institutions and from the international initiative Places & Spaces: Mapping Science. The term extends until August 6, 2025.

The motto of the exhibition highlights the importance of making data visible, which is essential for research, everyday life and democracy. Exhibits are diverse and address current global challenges, including pandemics, the climate crisis and election research. The numerous exhibits include a 3D journey to the creation of the universe and interactive maps that visualize political networks on Twitter.

Interactive worlds of experience

Numerous events will be offered to accompany the exhibition, including lectures, workshops and discussion formats. Particularly noteworthy is the lecture by Prof. Katy Börner, who is not only involved in the exhibition as a curator, but also talks about the “Atlas of Macroscopes”. These interactive software tools are designed to identify patterns and trends in large amounts of data and enable both scientists and interested laypeople to ask their own questions and find answers.

The macroscopes shown in the exhibition help visitors to better understand the big picture and to navigate the changing world in a targeted manner. They enable a new perspective on data collection, understanding and communication. One goal is to make clear the relevance of big data for information processing and to promote the interactive experience of data.

Diverse exhibits and partners

The diversity of the exhibits is supported by the collaboration of numerous institutions. The actors involved include the Technical University of Dresden (TUD), the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTW), the Barkhausen Institute and the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). This cooperation underlines the strength of Dresden's research landscape and its commitment to innovative data visualization.

The exhibition is supported by the Society of Friends and Supporters of TU Dresden and organized by the Center for Open Digital Innovation and Participation (CODIP) and the Department Speculative Transformation (DST) of TU Dresden.

Visitors can visit the COSMO Science Forum from Tuesday to Thursday between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., excluding public holidays. The venue can be found at Schloßstraße 2 in Dresden.

Finally, the exhibition “[un]visible” not only showcases the latest developments in data visualization promoted by initiatives such as Places & Spaces, but also describes the importance of these technologies in today's data-driven world. [tu-dresden.de] reports that a variety of interactive applications and visualizations were provided to encourage audiences to understand the importance and value of data for research and daily life. Increasing developments in the open data and citizen science movements are also creating new opportunities for effective data analysis and visualization, as highlighted by [vrvis.at].