_matter Festival 2025

Beetle Galleries in Spruce Wood. Photo: Pelin Asa, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Matters of Activity, 2024

»Syntopolis« reef prototype in STARESO, Rasa Weber & Atelier Marie Drouet. Photo: Till Timmermann, 2024

2.5.2025–16.5.2025
What if the Ocean Were a City?
Exhibition and Interactive Program

Still of MAKING Artificial Reefs with Rasa Weber. Copyright: Matters of Activity

30.1.2025
MAKING Artificial Reefs
This Episode of MoA Mini Documentary Series Highlights the Work of Rasa Weber

Film Still taken from a film by Oula A. Valkeapää. Still: Oula A. Valkeapää, 2021

10.4.2025–13.7.2025
Johtingeaidnu – The Path Within
Exhibition, Talk and Tours
On Berlin Winters and Shared Memories of Humans and Animals

Studio Visit Emilia Tikka. Photo: Molnar for Berlin Art Link

Latent Accumulations: Walking Along Paraffin Pollution at Nida Coastline. Film still: Anna Luise Schubert 2025

9.5.2025–31.5.2025
Latent Accumulations
Exhibition, Roundtable and Workshop

Samples of woven cotton cloth dyed with mud (vouwo), Adama Séré - Marka-Dafing master dyer, 2020. Photo: Salif Sawadogo 2020

16.5.2025–6.7.2025
Fermenting Textiles – Weaving Together Traditional Craft, Anthropology, Microbiology and Art
Exhibition and Talks

Ailanthus altissima, Musée national d’histoire naturelle Luxembourg, title: Specimen № 15467, MNHNL 2000, license: CC BY 4.0, color and framing of this image were modified

13.5.2025–28.6.2025
Vegetal Companions: Arts, Sciences and Temporalities of Co-Existence
Exhibition, Workshops, Audio Walk and Movie Night
11.4.2025
MoA Co-Director Peter Fratzl New Member of Leopoldina
The Renowned Materials Scientist was Elected to the Mathematics, Natural and Technical Sciences Class

The eight most common biological structural design elements (from upper left to lower right): Fibrous: high tensile strength in one direction, minimal compressive strength; Helical: toughness in multiple directions, in-plane isotropy; Gradient: gradual property transition to reduce interfacial stress, enhancing toughness; Layered: complex composites that improve toughness, especially in brittle materials; Cellular: lightweight porous structures for stress distribution and energy absorption, often in sandwich forms; Tubular: organized porosity for energy absorption and crack deflection; Overlapping: layered plates or scutes for flexible, often armored surfaces. In the center, a 3D printer is shown schematically; Suture: interdigitating interfaces for controlled strength and flexibility (figure inspired by: Naleway et al. 2015). Figure by Konrad Eyferth.

5.1.2025
A Bio-Inspired Perspective on Materials Sustainability
New Article Emphasizes Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration For Developing a Sustainable and Resilient Materials Economy

Open Space Event, 9 November 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity

Activarium
MoA's Showroom and Workspace

Bacterial Cellulose: Co-Weaving Biofilms. Copyright: Bastian Beyer

10.4.2025–2.11.2025
Bauhaus Ecologies
Installation »Bacterial ­Cellulose: Co-Weaving Biofilms« Featured at Exhibition in Dessau

Automated elevator system for harvesting BC. Detail of fig. 6 in: N. Rackov, N. Janßen, A. Akkache, B. Drotleff, B. Beyer, E. Scoppola, N.E. Vrana, R. Hengge, C.M. Bidan, S. Hathroubi, in: Bacterial cellulose: Enhancing productivity and material properties through repeated harvest, in: Biofilm Volume 9, June 2025, 100276, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioflm.2025.100276

14.4.2025
Enhancing Productivity and Material Properties Through Repeated Harvest
New Paper on Bacterial Cellulose Out Now

Microverse III-3, 2025 © Kathrin Linkersdorff

20.3.2025–8.6.2025
Microverse
Photographs Created by Kathrin Linkersdorff in Collaboration with Regine Hengge Exhibited at Haus am Kleistpark

Drawing Together, Judith M. Dobler. Copyright: Kulturverlag Kadmos

31.1.2025
Drawing Together – Zeichnen als kollaborative Wissenspraxis
Publikation von Judith M. Dobler erschienen
15.5.2025–18.5.2025
Common Sense
Matters of Activity is Part of This Year's Berlin Design Week

Anthropoligist Maxime Le Calvé at Mall Anders. Photo: SCIoI/Seesaw

1.4.2025–30.4.2025
Augural Anthropology: Staging Retrieval-Augmented Generative Conversations Beyond AI's Illusion of Scientific Understanding
Cluster Member Maxime Le Calvé Invited to UC Davis for AI Anthropology Talk and Workshops
7.4.2025
Exzellentes Pub Quiz
Berliner Exzellenzcluster veranstalten eigene Pub Quiz-Reihe

Raue Reihe / Raw Studies, the first three editions, 2024-5. Copyright: Matters of Activity

18.3.2025
Raue Reihe / Raw Studies Available in Open Access
New Edition »Gestaltungsmetrik« by Horst Bredekamp and Carlos-Andres Palma
2.4.2025–11.4.2025
Zwischen Schrift und Graphismus
Stephan Kammer und Karin Krauthausen auf Forschungsreise in Japan

DESIGN EARTH (Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy), The Planet After Geoengineering, 18/25, 2021

13.6.2025
Planetary Experiments: Environments by Design
Annual Conference of DGTF, Organized by Michaela Büsse Among Others

Project »Myko.Plektonik«, Natalija Miodragović & Dimitra Almpani-Lekka. Photo: Michelle Mantel. Copyright: Matters of Activtiy

18.3.2025
Active Matter and Environmental Relations
Charlett Wenig and Natalija Miodragović, Together with Alice Jarry, are Panelists at »In.Site2 and Sustainability Across Disciplines«

MAKING Material Move with Heidi Jalkh. Copyright: Matters of Activity (with a special thanks to Max Planck Gesellschaft for the ice plant footage)

13.2.2025
MAKING Material Move
The New Episode with Heidi Jalkh Explores Auxetic Materials

Image: STS Hub 2025

11.3.2025–14.3.2025
Diffracting the Critical
STS Hub in Berlin with Contributions by Many Cluster Members

Brain Roads, Symposium 2025.

4.3.2025–6.3.2025
Brain Roads. Visions and Representations of Neuroplasticity
Field Workshop and Symposium Organised by Olaf Avenati & Patricia Ribault

Still of »MAKING a robot feel« with Anna Schäffner and her project »Soft Collision«. Copyright: Matters of Activity

23.1.2025
MAKING A Robot Feel
New MoA Mini Documentary Series Starts with Anna Schäffner

Newly Appointed Scientific Advisory Board, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, February 2025. Copyright: Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

24.2.2025
Claudia Mareis Member of the New Scientific Advisory Board of the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau
19.2.2025
Materials of the Future
Public Event with Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis, and Architects Anupama Kundoo and Regula Lüscher

Cover Landwirtschaft und Literatur, 2025. Copyright: diaphanes Verlag

14.2.2025
Agropoetik
Neuer Sammelband von Stephan Kammer und Karin Krauthausen untersucht das Verhältnis von Agrikultur und Textkultur
13.2.2025
Rethinking Raw Materials: Design, Brains and the Future
Cluster Member Emma Sicher Gives Talk at Futurium

Teaser »MAKING« with Anna Schäffner and her project »Soft Collision«. Production: Richard Ley & Maxim Landau. Copyright: Matters of Activity

19.1.2025
MAKING_
New Documentary Series Takes Viewers Behind the Scenes of Matters of Activity

Still »¡Aquí Estoy!« with Heidi Jalkh (left) and Pía Castro (right). Copyright: DW

7.2.2025
The Future of Construction Lies in Nature
Heidi Jalkh Interviewed for DW Format »¡Aquí Estoy!«

Akhil Amer, Claudia Plascencia: Experiments within Coding IxD studio project »Paper:Drive«, 2024. Copyright: Matters of Activity

12.2.2025–15.2.2025
PAPER:DRIVE – Coding IXD Studio Project for Coeducation in Computer Science and Design
Project Exhibition 12–15 February 2025 at Modulor Aufbauhaus

Topo Lock, Boyoung Chung, weissensee school of art and design

11.2.2025–19.2.2025
Scaling Nature (4) – Tiles and Tissues
Final Review and Presentation of MoA Design Research Studio

Hyomandibula - Tesserae shapes and their growth. Image: Mason Dean

4.12.2024
Growth of a Tesselation
Team Led by MoA Researchers Mason Dean and Peter Fratzl Present New Findings
13.12.2024
Operate with Fungi
New Publication Edited by MoA Members Vera Meyer and Wolfgang Schäffner

Book Cover Toward a New Culture of the Material, September 2024. Copyright: De Gruyter.

23.9.2024
Toward a New Culture of the Material
Latest Cluster Anthology Out Now
10.2.2025–12.2.2025
Design as a Third Culture of Knowledge
Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis Holds Lecture Series in Vilnius
1.1.2025
Sandra Jasper Appointed Chair of Cultural Geography and Society-Environment Research
Cluster Member Takes Up Professorship at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
14.1.2025–18.3.2025
No Data Without Excellence
A Coffee Lecture Series

Vanessa at work on the operating table, with her instruments plunged into her brain, seated at the binocular microscope. The giant screen shows what she is seeing, allowing the head surgeon to supervise her. Copyright: Drawing by Maxime Le Calvé, digital, 2019

15.1.2025
Cutting in the Brain for Fun
A Newly Published Peer-Review Research Article in Graphic Anthropology on an Experimental Neurosurgical Simulation by Maxime Le Calvé
13.12.2024–31.1.2025
Mahamadi Ilboudo Knight of the Order of Merit of Arts, Letters, and Communication
MoA Associated Member Receives High Honor from the Government of Burkina Faso

Beetle-infested Spruce. Copyright: Pelin Asa, MPICI

15.12.2024
Architectures of Syntopia: An Interdisciplinary Speculative Model for Constructions with Insect-infested Wood
Publication Authored by Pelin Asa, Karin Krauthausen, Robert Stock and Karola Dierichs Out Now
4.12.2024
Horst Bredekamp Received the Knight’s Cross
Cluster Co-Director Awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

Seaweed resonance, presentation by Julia Lohmann (Aalto, Helsinki). Photo: Clemens Winkler

14.11.2024–15.11.2024
Sensing Common Grounds. Towards Collaborative Speculation
Symposium by CollActive Materials

Paper Fieldwork, Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé

28.11.2024
»Sketching Brains« at Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin
Exhibition of Drawings by Maxime Le Calvé in Steglitz

Exhibition of research objects during the MoA PhD presentations 2024. Posterlayout Ada Favaron. Copyright: Matters of Activity

27.9.2024
testing un/common grounds
Presentations Doctoral Program 2024

»Dissect« Event at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 04.11.2022. Foto: Samuel Bianchini. Copyright: Matters of Activity

23.9.2024
Dissect
Films of Performances Online Now!

Adaptive Digital Twin. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja

17.9.2024
The Digital Twin in Neuroscience
Interdisciplinary Cluster Research Published in Frontiers Neuroscience

Still »Change by Design«. Copyright: ARTE.tv

24.8.2024
Change by Design
Claudia Mareis Contributes as an Expert to an ARTE Documentary on Sustainable Design

Charlett Wenig und Johanna Hehemyer-Cürten mit der Barksphere am Strausberger Platz, Kampagne »Das offene Wissenslabor«, 2024. Copyright: Berlin University Alliance

9.9.2024–31.10.2024
Welche Materialien und Ressourcen wollen wir in Zukunft verwenden?
Charlett Wenig und Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten über das Bark Project

Folgenbild Syntopische Architekturen, 2024. Käferbefallenes Fichtenholz, Foto: Pelin Asa, MPIKG, adaptiert von MoA.

1.9.2024–30.11.2024
Syntopische Architekturen
Neue Podcast-Folge der Serie »Exzellent Erklärt« mit Karola Dierichs und Robert Stock
Open Science

From Left to Right:
Footprint in Cacao. Copyright: Matters of Activity
PhD project of Iva Rešetar. Copyright: Jens Ziehe
Weaving process of stripes of wild silk and indigo dyed cotton. Copyright: Laurence Douny
Extra-Cellular Matrix Liver at Experimental Surgery Lab. Copyright: Igor Sauer
Drawing showing the relation of the cerebral arteries. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja
Project »Performing Clouds«. Copyright: Clemens Winkler

Syntopia – Harvesting the Forest; MoA Design Research Studio. Prototype by Gaia Reiner. Copyright: Gaia Reiner

1.8.2024–31.8.2024
Syntopia
Harvesting the Forest

Fermentation preparation with Tanyaporn Tantasathien. Thailand 2024. Copyright: Emma Sicher

2.7.2024
Generating Biomaterials By Acetic Fermentation
Emma Sicher Exchanged Knowledge with Researchers and Practitioners in Thailand
26.6.2024
Wege zur Professur
Vera Meyer zu Gast in neuester Folge des BUA-Podcast »Spot ON«

Skylab Food Tray, December 30, 1971. Copyright: NASA S72-15409

26.6.2024
Floating Food / Creating Knowledge
Alwin J. Cubasch's Article About NASA Food Testing Online Now

Gestalten mit Cellulose, Wasser und Luft. Copyright: Eva Bullermann

9.5.2024
Magic Machines aus Bio-Plastik
Open Lab Abend der Reihe »Materialzukünfte besuchen« im Futurium

Copyright: Sistemas Materiales

11.4.2024
Trazos
Pioneering Publication on Biomaterials Launched in Buenos Aires

Mykoplektonik by Natalija Miodragović and Dimitra Almpani-Lekka. Copyright: Matters of Activity

13.6.2024
Growing Architecture - Co-Designing with Fungi
Last Open Lab Evening of the Series »Visiting Material Futures« at the Futurium

Thermography shows the effect of shading and the influence of solar radiation on surface temperatures. Copyright: Maxie Schneider

14.3.2024
Materialzukünfte besuchen: Smartes Material für überhitzte Städte
Workshop Series at Futurium

Intro, Excursion Filtering Oranienburg, 2023. Foto: Sybille Neumeyer.

23.2.2024
Tracing Tainted Environments: Legacies of Oranienburg
Online Documentation of Interdisciplinary Cluster Workshop Available Now

Cover Material Trajectories, 2023. Coypright Meson Press

23.2.2024
Future Ecologies | Material Trajectories. Designing With Care?
Book Launch on 23 February at Pro qm Bookstore

MoA Design Research Studio »DeLIGHTful«, 2023/2024. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin

14.2.2024
deLIGHTful Interactions | eLab Studio Project
Final Presentations of MoA Design Studio at Weißensee School of Art and Design

Cover of »Architectures of Weaving«: »Stone Web«. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin / Natascha Unger, Idalene Rapp

6.12.2023
Multidisciplinary Anthology Architectures of Weaving
Now Open Access

Plektonik Structural Textiles column – continuous wooden ›Active Yarns‹ 40 mm diameter loops. Copyright: Daniel Suárez & Natalija Miodragović

17.11.2023–31.1.2024
Design for Rethinking Resources
Cluster Members Beyer, Miodragović, Mossé and Suárez Publish in Proceedings of the UIA World Congress of Architects Copenhagen 2023

Syntopia 1:Soma I Body. Roland Halbe

13.11.2023
Cultures of Creation. »The Intelligence of Art« in Computational Design
Cluster Professor Karola Dierichs Holds Lecture at IntCDC on November 13

Workshop participants discussing T.J. Demos  recent book »Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today« with the author. »Critical Times« at »Matters of Activity«, 17 & 18 November 2023

17.11.2023–18.11.2023
Critical Times. Part I: Multiple Matter
Workshop with Contributions by T. J. Demos, Sandra Jasper, Kiran Pereira & David Weber-Krebs

Brainroads. Copyright: Lene Zech

2.11.2023
Brain Roads
Exploring Neuroplasticity through Art and Science

Design, Gestaltung, Formatività. Philosophies of Making. Copyright: Birkhäuser, 2022

15.9.2023
Design, Gestaltung, Formatività. Philosophies of Making
A Central Cluster Publication Edited by Patricia Ribault Released – Now Available Open Access

Unsteady Matter – Investigating Water-Based Design Pathways and 3D Printing Techniques for Hydrogel Composites. Copyright: Tairan (Aurora) Li, Daniel Suárez, Dr. Bastian Beyer

26.5.2023–31.7.2023
Unsteady Matter
Investigating Water-Based Design Pathways and 3D Printing Techniques for Hydrogel Composites

Bacterial cellulose curtain. Experiments: Bastian Beyer and Iva Rešetar (design), Skander Hathroubi (microbiology). Photo: Bastian Beyer, adapted by Ada Favaron. Project coordination: Elisabeth Obermeier & Franziska Wegener

1.1.2019–31.12.2022
Cluster Report Now Available
Research Phase 2019–2022

Poster Workshop »Intercultural Views on Matter«, June 2023, Image: DALL•E, Sabine Marienberg. Copyright: Matters of Activity

28.6.2023–30.6.2023
Intercultural Views on Matter
Gemeinsamer Workshop des Exzellenzclusters mit der Akademie für Europäische Kulturen der Tongji Universität Shanghai

Incandescent mantle for Continental lamps -- artificial silk. BBWA U3/31 Auergesellschaft/MSA Germany, No. F/14.

Filtering Oranienburg
Research Project Explores the History of the Town as a Radioactive Industrial Landscape

Panel »Interdeterminacy and Liveliness« at MoA Annual Conference »Tipping Points« 2021. Copyright: Matters of Activity

17.10.2022–16.11.2022
»Tipping Points« Now Part of MoA Virtual Cluster Space
View Conference Contributions of MoA Annual Conference 2021 in 360° Knowledge Rooms Now!
1.9.2022
What is our Future Made Of? Active Materials and Bio-Inspired Design
Episode 18 of the DFG Podcast Series »Exzellent Erklärt« Gives Insights Into Matters of Activity

Multiscale architectures. Left: the wooden tower of Lake Mjøsa, Norway Reproduced with permission from [1]. Copyright: Voll Arkitekter AS & Ricardo Foto. Right: the internal structure of wood based on parallel tube-like wood cells with diameters in the range of tens of microns (shown for several wood species from top to bottom). The white arrow points to a sketch where nanometer-thick cellulose fibrils are indicated by black lines [2] John Wiley & Sons. Copyright: 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH

8.7.2022
Bioinspired Architectural and Architected Materials
Special Issue Edited by Cluster Members K. Razghandi, C. Sauer and P. Fratzl

Collection Overview - Tessellation Archive. Copyright: Felix Rasehorn

13.6.2022–31.12.2022
Launch of the Tessellation Archive
An Online Collection of Tiled Tissues and Architectures from Across the Natural World

CollActive Materials Workshop. Copyright: CollActive Materials

What are Futures Made of?
The Experimental Laboratory »CollActive Materials«

Still from Interview with Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi showing the making of parts of the »Active Curtain Project« shown at the exhibition »After Nature« at Humboldt Lab. Copyright: Anne von Petersdorff (info@annevonpetersdorff.com) for Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

8.7.2021
Bacteria as Architects
Interview with Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi

All 7 Berlin Clusters of Excellence are represented with a film at the foyer at Humboldt Lab. Copyright: Matters of Activity, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

6.5.2021
Matters of Activity Film at Humboldt Lab
Cluster Video Online Now

Symbolic Material. Image: Myfanwy Evans

Symbolic Material

Copyright: Matters of Activity

Material Form Function

Fiber tractography delineating the white matter of the brain. Image: Lucius Fekonja

Cutting

Flour Cloud. Copyright: Clemens Winkler

Object Space Agency

Cellulose in E. coli biofilm. Image: Diego Serra & Regine Hengge

Weaving

Filters. Copyright: NODE Berlin Oslo

Filtering