What role do materials and different media have in the transmission of knowledge? How do different cultural influences intersect in concrete objects? How does such embodied knowledge change experiences, social practices, or teaching traditions? How do new traditions of knowledge emerge? This conference, conceptualized and organized by Anne Eusterschulte, Professor of the History of Philosophy, and Klaus Krüger, Professor of Art History, both of Freie Universität Berlin, aims to address the role of different media and materials for such transfers of knowledge.

The space of the museum makes it possible to not only discuss "figural knowledge" but also to experience objects with the senses. Workshops, guided tours, musical interludes, and an extensive lecture program will refer to the exhibits in the Bode Museum or take the exhibits as the starting point for theoretical considerations.

The Collaborative Research Center 980 “Episteme in Motion” began its work in July 2012. It includes 20 subprojects that investigate knowledge transformation and knowledge transfer projects in the period from antiquity to the early modern from a transcultural perspective. The Collaborative Research Center draws in many of the smaller departments such as Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Egyptology, and Iranian Studies. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science are cooperation partners. The spokesperson for the Center is the Classical philologist Prof. Dr. Gyburg Uhlmann.