Prototype / Model | Science Communication | Achievements We warmly congratulate Cluster Member Felix Rasehorn: His design and research lab WINT won the eco-design award 2023 in the category concept for the collaborative research project »GOLD Bio-textiles for sustainability«. As part of a research initiative, the GOLD project investigated goldbeater’s skin, a type of tissue found in cow gut. This elastic membrane was characterized biochemically to develop a recyclable, bio-based and vegan high-performance textile. more

Researchers from the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) can now apply for start-up funding as part of the Next Grand Challenge initiative »Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation«.
The Berlin University Alliance is providing a total of €1.4 million for transdisciplinary research projects (Exploration Pilots) on the topic of »Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation«. Researchers can apply for two-year funding for Exploration Pilots until 29 April 2024, 10 a.m. Earliest start of funding: July 01, 2024
Latest end of funding: October 31, 2026
Duration: 24 months
Total available funding volume: max. 200,000 € in 2024 and max. 600,000 € in 2025 and 2026 (funds available until October 31st, 2026) Learn more on the call for proposals

Object Space Agency | Fungi/Mycelium | Biodesign | More-Than-Human | Prototype / Model | Textiles | Temporality Architecture and nature inevitably compete for space. That poses a dilemma when resources are finite and the demand for space keeps growing. Besides, we know that the construction sector generates huge waste and emissions. All this has raised issues about the role of architecture: Does it need a shift in perspective? Could we build with nature instead of against it? The exhibition »Closer to Nature« at the Berlinische Galerie showcases three Berlin-based projects, that utilize the potential of mushrooms, living trees, and clay. This gives them an ecological quality, but also a completely new character: the buildings breathe, grow, and thus become alive themselves. One of the showcased projects is the experimental building MY-CO SPACE, which was developed, designed, and built by the interdisciplinary Berlin SciArt collective MY-CO-X, an initiative of the Department of Applied and Molecular Microbiology at TU Berlin under the direction of MoA member Vera Meyer with contributions by Dimitra Almpani-Lekka. more

Material Form Function | Cellulose | Collactive Materials | Science Communication | Biodesign | Speculative Design | Climate | Forest | Prototype / Model | Tree Bark | Textiles | Fungi/Mycelium »Matters of Activity« und das Experimentallabor für Wissenschaftskommunikation »CollActive Materials« starteten im März eine neue Veranstaltungsreihe im Futurium Lab. Unter dem Titel »Materialzukünfte besuchen« finden über vier Monate vier Workshops statt, die die Forschung des Clusters mit der Zivilgesellschaft zusammenbringen und in denen gemeinsam über Materialzukünfte spekuliert wird. Begleitet werden die Veranstaltungen von einer temporären Ausstellung im Futurium Lab, die ab 4. Mai besucht werden kann. more

Material Form Function | Temporality The workshop »Critical Times. Part II: Ecologies of Relation« brought together Post-Doc’s, PhD’s and advanced MA students from the humanities, social science, as well as arts and design to engage in a discussion about critical times and materialities, postcolonial and posthuman critique, non-European perspectives, and notions of »deep time« of materialities. »Critical Times. Part II: Ecologies of Relation« unfolded a critical conversation, contesting linear conceptions of time, reductionist notions of materiality, and teleological solutionism, by focusing on ecologies and relations. Either term, ecology and relation, has received much attention over the last decade, especially in the arts, design, and humanities. Both emphasize the intersection of different domains of knowledge, media and practice to understand and navigate the challenges of an increasingly complex present. With the workshop, we aimed to critically address and resituate the multi-faceted dimensions of both through in-depth and creative formats. more

Material Form Function | Bacteria | Biofilm | Cellulose | Publications | Tree Bark | Fungi/Mycelium »Trazos« is a pioneering publication in Spanish in the interdisciplinary field of biomaterials developments. The book is divided into three sections which explore, interrogate, shape, and reflect on these scientific and creative advancements. This book encourages interaction between the Spanish-speaking community and provides access to a topic predominantly discussed in English. It seeks to stimulate dialogue and amplify the reach of the Latin American biomaterials field to a broader audience. Likewise, it aspires to foster collaborations that transcend language barriers, promoting enriching exchanges of ideas and knowledge. The book, edited by MoA Associated Member Heidi Jalkh and Gisela Pozzetti, and designed by Paula Rodríguez, includes contributions by MoA researchers Bastian Beyer, Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten, Wolfgang Schäffner, Daniel Suárez, Charlett Wenig and by Rodrigo Martin Iglesias, Coordinator of the Master Open Design. more

Filtering | Teaching | Water | Prototype / Model In the »Shaping Water« project, starting in the summer semester of 2024, Prof. Carola Zwick, design researcher Dominic Eger Domingos, and design students want to examine and challenge civilizational standards, usage patterns, and experiences to rethink the medium of water and how we experience it. Through this exploration, we aspire to develop new interaction concepts and product ideas, brought to life in prototypes and exhibits that resonate with users on a tangible level. The project is part of the Design Research Studio within the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« (Filtering) and is constantly supported by eLAB (Laboratory for Interactive Technologies of KHB) throughout the project starting with a hands-on workshop delving into physical computing as expression of design. more

Cutting | Brain | Graphic Anthropology | Haptics | Performance The NTMI (NonTrivial Musical Instrument) embodies the idea of making complex sound worlds playable by intuition. It enables children and laypersons to explore many sound synthesis processes playfully and allows expert musicians to realize their sonic imagination by adapting/expanding its open-source architecture. In the workshop on April 18th, organized by MoA member Maxime Le Calvé and conducted together with Alberto de Campo, Professor for Generative Art / Computational Art (Berlin University of the Arts), sound researcher Nico Daleman, and the Speculative Realities Lab,  the team explained and demonstrated the central concepts, then dedicated time to hands-on playing, experimenting, and improvising, first on individual setups, and finally as multiple sources of influence on a single NTMI environment. more

Cutting | Material Form Function | Achievements | Prototype / Model | XR Last Monday, April 22nd, 2024 the Charité Foundation awarded the Max Rubner Award 2024 to three members of »Matters of Activity«, Zeynep Akbal, Moritz Queisner, and Igor Sauer, among others. Our warmest congratulations on this prestigous award!
The researchers and their colleagues from the Experimental Surgery /Digital Surgery Lab at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin want to use the award money to advance the PERISKOP project, which focuses on reducing preoperative anxiety and uncertainties of patients in the operating theater environment. As part of a cinematic journey in virtual reality, patients will be given an understanding of the typical procedure on the day of the operation, from arriving at the clinic to anesthesia and waking up. more

Weaving | Achievements | Bacteria | Biofilm The symposium is to celebrate the key scientific contributions of Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge and her laboratory over the past 35 years in the field of Microbial Stress Responses: from the stationary phase and general stress response to regulatory networks, second messengers, biofilms, and the interface of science and art. Talks will feature Hengge Lab members, collaborators, and colleagues, presenting personal and historical research perspectives and, importantly, vignettes of their latest exciting discoveries and insights. more

Material Form Function | Teaching | Biodesign | Textiles Rapidly increasing socio-ecological damage and the urgent need for care, repair, and recovery have led to renewed calls for regenerative design as a means of wayfinding towards new forms of just and sustainable life on earth, prompting critical questions concerning the reconfigured pasts they invoke to the possible futures they open up. Aiming to (re)design the way we live to support our interdependence on natural ecosystems, regenerative systems thinking is being applied to fundamental fields of human activity, from food production and agriculture to medicine, textiles, architecture, rural revival, and the urban built environment to other-worldly materialities. The lecture series organized by Lucy Norris, which begins on May 2nd, will, among other things, explore how traces of former ways of being in the world and concepts such as ›indigenous knowledge‹ are referenced as ways to move forward and ask what futures are being imagined by whom and for whom, and how some forms of living are enabled while other possibilities are negated. more

Object Space Agency The images of chaos and fractal geometry are probably the best-known mathematical symbols of the rise of computer visualization in the sciences. While these popular pictorial inventions of the mid-1980s and 1990s had a rather low epistemic potential and no direct relation to the operations of the thinking mind, the situation was quite different in the years before their popularization. In her talk on May 2nd at the workshop »Writing the History of Computer Visualizations in the Sciences« at Paris, MoA researcher Nina Samuel will discuss the relationship between abstract reasoning and visual imagination in complex dynamics and fractal geometry from 1960–1980. more

Material Form Function | Sand | Air The building masses produced by humans have a direct impact on the weather. Buildings and construction account for 30 percent of Germany's CO2 emissions. The concretization of the land not only creates new heat phenomena with urban heat islands, but also a largely uncontrolled and far-reaching exploitation of natural resources such as sand and gravel. Cluster member Michaela Büsse will be part of the lecture performance and talk »100 Neue Wörter für Wetter: Verbautes Wetter«.

Material Form Function | Robotics | Cellulose | Water | Collactive Materials | Speculative Design | Science Communication In diesem Workshop geht es um flexible Materialien wie Cellulose, Bio-Plastik und Silikon als mögliche (neue) Materialien für Soft Robotics oder gar biologische Maschinen. Soft Robotics ist ein relativ junges Forschungsfeld, das sich mit alternativen Ansätzen zur Gestaltung der Maschinen von morgen beschäftigt. Wie können wir Maschinen bauen, damit sie sensibler und anpassbarer werden? Können wir dafür adaptive vielleicht sogar nachhaltige Materialien nutzen, statt immer mehr Metall, Plastik und Energie zu verbrauchen? Mit den Design-Forscherinnen Anna Schäffner und Eva Bullermann spekulieren wir darüber, wie die Maschinen der Zukunft gestaltet sein könnten. Wie sieht deine Magic Machine aus? more

Sketching has long been the mark of the designerly knowing. At the core of the modern forming process, there is a mysterious act that evades partly the intentions of the maker: when hand, paper and idea meet, an intuitive digestion of spatial knowledge happens through quasi-conscious gestures. Like the motile fingers of mycelium networks growing through their environment, these lines embrace forms, making sense of their relations. Together in the space of the museum, small groups of visitors equipped with augmented reality headsets will be invited to sketch in 3D following a score inspired by design research, graphic anthropology and the neurobiology of fungi. We will bring the visitors to experience the collections of the KGM through the luminescent movement of digital lines, repurposing a contemporary immersive design technology into a mediation tool. We kindly invite you to participate in this Pop-up exhibition with workshops on 29-30th May at the Kunstgewerbemuseum including short lectures and activities by Elaine Bonavia, Paulina Stefanovic, and Maxime Le Calvé. There will be hands-on 3D sketching guided tours in the following weeks. more