The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« aims to create a basis for a new culture of materials. The central vision of the Cluster is to rediscover the analog in the activity of images, spaces and materials in the age of the digital. Biology and technology, mind and material, nature and culture intertwine in a new way.
Open Space Event, 9 November 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
MoA's Showroom and Workspace | Currently on Winter Break
With the »Activarium«, we want to actively engage with potential partners from the industry, start-ups, NGOs, politics and society as a whole to initiate an exploratory exchange on active materials, bio- & culture-inspired innovation as well as sustainability approaches. We want visitors to experience our prototypes to make MoA’s intentions and research tangible and accessible. The »Activarium« serves as a work-in-progress showcase of different research strands and processes. Our visitors can dive into the research as it's happening before its published results.
Walk in and experience the »Activarium« Thursdays, 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm! If you are a group of more than 5 people or if the opening hours do not fit your schedule, please contact us via moa.activarium [at] hu-berlin.de!
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Visual Open Space. Copyright: Berlin University Alliance
19.2.2025
Materials of the Future
Public Event with Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis, and Architects Anupama Kundoo and Regula Lüscher
How can innovative materials revolutionize our built environment? The fourth edition of the »OPEN SPACE« salon series invites you to explore this question. Novel materials are more than just technical innovations - they are the key to future-proof architecture, sustainable urban development, and climate- and resource-friendly construction. We kindly invite you to learn more about and discuss these issues at the 4th »OPEN SPACE« organized by Berlin University Alliance. We are very much looking forward to the input from Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis (Co-Director of the Berlin Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«), Prof. Dr. Anupama Kundoo (Anupama Kundoo architects, TU Berlin), and Regula Lüscher (architect, urban planner, and Former Senate Building Director and State Secretary for Urban Development in Berlin). Please register now, as spots are limited.
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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
Just a single drop of water and the ice plants’ leaves spring to life! No muscles, no motors. What's the secret? It’s all in the plant’s structure. Researchers like Heidi Jalkh are diving deep into how plants move to design smarter materials for the future. From everyday stuff like EVA foam, she creates bioinspired, so-called auxetic materials that can even lift rocks. »My aim was to make it be alive«, Heidi says. Unlocking nature’s magic recipe book to motion could change the way we build, create, and design.
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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
Ever wondered what it takes to build a reef — underwater? Rasa Weber does just that, diving into the depths with hammers and screwdrivers to create Syntopolis, a city-like structure designed for anyone who wants to call it home. In the latest episode of Making, join Rasa as she explores the fascinating world of artificial reefs, their environmental impact, and the challenges of constructing them. From sustainable design to marine conservation, this project could be one step in shaping the future of our oceans for the better. Watch the full episode now to see how innovation meets nature!
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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
Imagine hugging a robot as soft and comforting as a teddy bear. This could be the future, moving away from the cold, steel monsters we’ve seen in sci-fi films. Anna Schäffner, designer and PhD candidate at Matters of Activity, is bringing this vision to life with her innovative project »Soft Collision«. Anna covered a steel robot in silicone membranes that inflate when you touch them. »It’s giving skin to the robot«, Anna says. But how does it work? How might it let us interact with robots in a more intuitive and secure way? And what’s a caterpillar got to do with it?
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13.2.2025
Rethinking Raw Materials: Design, Brains and the Future
Cluster Member Emma Sicher Gives Talk at Futurium
Moderator Pireeni Sundaralingam, a cognitive scientist, and her guests, Emma Sicher, MoA Pre-Doctoral Researcher and Anna Yona, founder and managing director of »Wildling« will discuss the future of sustainable design and the unconventional use of raw materials at Berlin’s ›House of Futures‹. Emma is a designer investigating materials and foods at the intersection of microbiology and anthropology to envision relational futures. What would happen if we used different materials for our clothes and our shoes? How could our food systems or our buildings use completely different raw materials? A ticket is required, but the admission is free of charge.
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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
How can we make a robot feel? What does it take to build an artificial reef? And how do we design structures that move effortlessly like plants? Find out in the Cluster's new mini-documentary series, MAKING_. Here, our researchers share insights into their groundbreaking work in simple terms. We’re kicking off with Anna Schäffner's Soft Collision. On Thursday, January 23rd, the first episode will be released on the Cluster’s website and social media, followed by Rasa Weber's hidden coral cities on January 30th and Heidi Jalkh's auxetic materials on February 6th.
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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!«
Industrial designer and MoA Associated Member Heidi Jalkh has lived in Buenos Aires for 20 years, but has been traveling to Berlin for extended periods for the past 5 years. She combines experimental design, research and teaching around sustainable and nature-inspired materials. Her work explores how fungi, marine debris and other natural elements can transform the relationship between design and ecosystems. Her work has now been featured in Spanish in the Deutsche Welle format »¡Aquí Estoy!«, moderated by Pía Castro.
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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
In this year's Coding IxD research-oriented studio project, students from Computer Science at the Freie Universität Berlin and product design at weißensee school of art and design berlin will explore paper as a medium to store and interact with digital data. We will investigate how to design physical machines and digital processes to output, transfer, interact with, store, and read information within a novel explicit use case. The seminar is supervised by Cluster members Prof. Thomas Ness, Peter Sörries and Hanna Wiesener. The project exhibition will take place from February 12th– 15th, starting with the opening at 6.00pm, at Modulor.
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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
Tiles and tissues are elements of tessellated systems found in nature, serving as strategies to enable movement, protection, growth, or adaptation in living beings. This concept appears across all scales and various species of plants, animals, and even in geological formations. Tessellations and tiles also shape our built environment. Such principles allow for specific assembly and repair while providing stability or flexibility according to need. From exploring natural and geometrical strategies, the students developed concepts of material systems for a spatial context, that will be presented and on display starting February 11th.
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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
The skeletons of sharks and rays, consisting of cartilage and armored with a covering of mineralized tiles (tesserae), pose a mathematical challenge: How can continuous coverage be maintained as the skeleton grows? New insights into the geometric rules governing the development of stingray skeletal patterns by a research team including MoA members Peter Fratzl, Mason Dean, Binru Yang, and Jana Cicierska-Holmes, can be read in an article published in last December's issue of »Advanced Science«. The study used microCT and custom visual data analyses of growing skate skeletons to systematically examine the tessellation patterns and morphology of the many thousands of interacting tesserae that cover the hyomandibula, a skeletal element critical for feeding.
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13.12.2024
Operate with Fungi
New Publication Edited by MoA Members Vera Meyer and Wolfgang Schäffner
»Operate with Fungi« is the final book in a trilogy dedicated to the world of fungi and their possibilities. In all three projects, various scientific, artistic and civil society actors from the Berlin area worked together in different constellations to learn from the life of Funga, to be inspired by the possibilities of fungal biotechnology and, building on this, to jointly develop new fungal-based biomaterials that can form the basis of a circular and bio-based economy and architecture. While the first two books focused more on the why and how of transdisciplinary collaboration, this book, edited by MoA members Vera Meyer and Wolfgang Schäffner, reports on how working with fungi can bridge divides and build strong connections. Between highly specialized scientific and artistic disciplines, and between closed university laboratories and open social spaces. See you at the book presentation on January 22nd at the Mitkunstzentrale!
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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
What happens when we begin treating multi-stable, ambivalent, and adaptive behaviors of active matter as a formative principle? The contributions of this volume edited by Frank Bauer, Yoonha Kim, Sabine Marienberg, and Wolfgang Schäffner, investigate the potential of the processual and untamable — ranging from microbial co-designing, morphogenetic experimentation and atmospheric creation to plasticity and liveliness in architecture, history of art and scientific concepts. Walking the line between analog and digital forms, the 19 Cluster perspectives not only cross disciplinary and methodological boundaries but also aim at installing a new material paradigm between the epistemic cultures of sciences, humanities, and design.
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10.2.2025–12.2.2025
Design as a Third Culture of Knowledge
Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis Holds Lecture Series in Vilnius
Cluster Co-Director Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis, an expert in Design and Professor of Design and History of Knowledge at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is holding a lecture series at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The aim of the lectures is to critically explore the historical, cultural, and material aspects of Design as a third culture of knowledge and creativity, addressing contemporary challenges and future opportunities through interdisciplinary and innovative approaches.
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13.2.2025
Unfolding Material Dramaturgy
Mara Trübenbach Gives Talk in Prague
Mara Trübenbach will give a talk at the symposium »Between Presence and Meaning« in Prague. In her talk »Unfolding Material Dramaturgy: Sensory Approaches in the Education of Architecture and Contemporary Performance«, Trübenbach connects the disciplines of architecture and performing arts by investigating how sensory knowledge can be employed in education to explore materials as performative entities – and thus dramaturgies. Building upon a performance lecture, Trübenbach moves beyond words and includes gestures, relational situations, and physical expressions. The talk is part of the panel »Dramaturgy in Scenography«. The symposium sheds light on contemporary performance as a space between presence and meaning, where dramaturgies emerge as intensities, energies, processes, and gestures rather than traditional narratives.
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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
Since January 1st, 2025, Sandra Jasper has been appointed Chair in Cultural Geography and Society-Environment Research at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Moreover, Sandra has been awarded a major research grant from UKRI’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG) for her collaborative project titled »Networked through Sound: Listening to 20th Century Wildlife Sound Archives«. We congratulate Sandra on her appointment and wish her new research project every success!
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14.1.2025–18.3.2025
No Data Without Excellence
A Coffee Lecture Series
Join us for the Coffee Lecture Series, where we explore the essentials of research data management and its role in driving excellence in science. Under the theme »No Data Without... Excellence«, this series delves into key topics like research integrity, FAIR principles, persistent identifiers, electronic lab notebooks, and more. This series is proudly organized by MATH+, NeuroCure, Matters of Activity, and UniSysCat, bringing together expertise from leading Clusters of Excellence in Berlin. Starting mid-January 2025, join us every Tuesday at 2:00 PM (GMT) for a 10-minute presentation followed by questions and discussions, all held online via Zoom.
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24.1.2025
On Care, Repair and Breakdown in Contemporary Arts
Cluster Member Rahel Kesselring Gives a Talk at the 3rd International Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference
Rahel Kesselring will give a talk at the 3rd International Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference in Utrecht. In her talk entitled »›If we do not seek to fix what has been broken, then what?‹: On Procedures of Care, Repair, and Breakdown in Contemporary Arts«, Rahel will give insights into her recent field research. The talk is part of the panel »Care Beyond Repair«. The conference brings together care ethicists and scholars, artists, designers, and makers, artistic researchers, performers and philosophers, educators, policymakers, and others to explore a fundamental question: What does it mean to care?
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The Symbiosis Keeper, Carolina Valivieso & Ana Belén Palacios. Illustration: Nashely Lascano
30.1.2025
The Mestiza Ways: Ontologically Oriented Speculative Design of Mestizo Women
Master Student Ana Belén Palacios Earns 2nd Place in this Year’s THESys Award for her Thesis
We're happy to congratulate former Master Open Design student Ana Belén Palacios on winning 2nd place of this year’s THESys Award for her Thesis »The Mestiza Ways: Ontologically Oriented Speculative Design of Mestizo Women«. Belén continues her work in her PhD project »WomenAmasamientoNature: A Historicization of Ecuadorian Women’s Socionatural Ontological Design Practices« as part of the MAKE/SENSE program at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW in partnership with the University of the Arts Linz supervised by Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis.
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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
How to prepare those aspiring to make a profession of cutting into a living human brain? In this article, Maxime Le Calvé recounts, drawing on ›live‹ graphic field notes, the development of a neurosurgical simulation. This narrative is contextualized and theorized through a literature review on the anthropology of doing, the formation of habit, and the technologization of skill transmission in surgery. The peer-reviewed research article in graphic anthropology on an experimental neurosurgical simulation is published in French in »Revue d’anthropologie des connaissances (RAC)«.
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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
On December 13th, 2024, Mahamadi Ilboudo, MoA Associated Member to Weaving, was made a Knight of the Order of Merit of Arts, Letters, and Communication, with an Arts clasp. The ceremony took place in the courtyard of the National Museum of Burkina Faso and was attended by a host of guests including members of the government, leading figures from the cultural sector, and the recipients’ friends and family. Ilboudo's contribution to the development of culture and the quality of his curatorial projects were recognized. Congratulations on this honorable award!
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GHOST MINES. Copyright: Johanna Mehl
17.12.2024–31.1.2025
GHOST MINES — Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures
Call for Participants
»GHOST MINES — Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures« invites participants to explore the haunting legacy of abandoned mines and extractive landscapes, questioning how these sites can inform our understanding of resource-driven histories and speculative futures. The research studio delves into the concept of »ghost mines« — both as literal sites of abandonment and metaphorical markers of environmental trauma and contested futures. To participate in the research studio, please send your CV, portfolio and a short motivation letter elaborating on your background, research interests and connection to the theme of »GHOST MINES — Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures« to Michaela Büsse, organizer of the research studio.
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6.1.2025–31.12.2025
Mareike Stoll Solkatten Scholar 2025
Research at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books in Stockholm
We are delighted to announce that Mareike Stoll is this year's Solkatten Fellow. During her visits to the Swedish Institute for Children's Books in Stockholm, she will examine the Institute's collections of photographic picture books published in Sweden between 1940 and 1980, with a particular focus on Karin Fryxell and Anna Riwkin-Brick. Mareike was a Research Associate in the projects »Weaving«, »Material Form Function« and »Object Space Agency« for several years until the end of 2024, including as a co-editor of the book »Architectures of Weaving. From Fibers and Yarns to Scaffolds and Skins«. We congratulate Mareike on her fellowship and wish her every success in her next career step.
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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
The new article »Architectures of Syntopia: An Interdisciplinary Speculative Model for Constructions with Insect-infested Wood« is out now, authored by Pelin Asa, Karin Krauthausen, Robert Stock and Karola Dierichs. The research was conducted at Matters of Activity. Image Space Material, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin. Thanks to the editors Cordula Kropp and Simon Aicher and the great team at TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice.
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4.12.2024
Horst Bredekamp Received the Knight’s Cross
Cluster Co-Director Awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
On December 4th, 2024, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Horst Bredekamp received the Knight’s Cross, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) from the Italian Ambassador Varricchio, awarded by President Sergio Mattarella. We warmly congratulate our Cluster's Senior Co-Director, Professor Bredekamp, on this special honor.
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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
The symposium »Sensing Common Grounds. Towards Collaborative Speculation«, organized by Léa Perraudin and Martin Müller, asked about the ›how‹, foregrounding the methodologies of such speculations and projections: How to relate speculative design proposals to critical diagnoses of the present and attempts at historical speculation? How specifically can collaborative speculation in inter- and transdisciplinary contexts enable us to sense ›what is in the air‹? What narratives, prototypes, materials, and media hold knowledge (and non-knowledge) of these scenarios?
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14.11.2024
Sensing Common Grounds. Towards Collaborative Speculation
Roundtable Questions Future Role of Embodied Knowledges, Situated Inquiry and Extra-Academic Encounters
The roundtable addresses current challenges at the intersection of critical humanities scholarship and design research by discussing nuanced means of knowing and making. It attends to collaborative speculation in inter- and transdisciplinary contexts to sense and unearth common grounds through the reality of the ecological predicament. Together with our guests, we ask about the narratives, prototypes, norms, materials and media that hold knowledge (and non-knowledge) of such speculations and public imaginaries: How to unlearn and unmake dominant modes of worldmaking by cutting across disciplines, foregrounding embodied knowledges, situated inquiry and extra-academic encounters?
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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
We kindly invite you to the Vernissage of »Sketching Brains« at Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin. »Sketching Brains« is a collaborative exhibition-as-research project that nurtures new conversations around the neurosurgical practice. Based on a series of fieldwork within the Neurosurgical Department at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin by graphic ethnographer Maxime Le Calvé and the research of neurosurgeon and cultural scientist Anna L. Roethe, this initiative takes the form of graphic-based stories, presented and continued both onsite and online. The texts are comment-enabled to make the community react and question the descriptions. The »participant exhibition« becomes a vibrant collaborative forum to understand more profoundly the implications of neurosurgery in people’s lives, on both sides of the scalpel.
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»Kiki Prototype«. Design: Rasa Weber, rasaweber.com. PhD Project: «SymbiOcean». Location: STARESO - Calvi (FR). Diver: Noémie Chabrier. Installation team, assistance and monitoring: Arnaud Boulenger, Sandra Bracun, Noemi Chabrier, Mélodie Chapat, Sylvain Coudray, Stéphane Jamme, Leonie John, Teal Jordan, Michael Karle, Mathieu Kelhetter (design intern), Michaela Roger, Bram van der Schoot, Kelly Stiver, Anja Wegner, Lena Wesenberg, Aubin Woehrel. Date: June 2023. SNF research project: «Interfacing the Ocean». Hosting University: Zurich University of the Arts & University of Art and Design Linz. Photo: Stéphane Jamme @stepp_aquanaute.
5.11.2024
The Whispering World: Words by a Silent Sea
Exhibition by Rasa Weber Opens at Berlin Science Week
We're delighted that MoA associated member Rasa Weber will be part of the Blue Talk: »Science and Design for Marine Ecosystem Restoration« at this year's Berlin Science Week. The event is part of the preparation for the Third United Nations Ocean Conference jointly organized by France and Costa Rica (June 2025 - Nice, France) and takes place at the French Embassy in Berlin. The panel discussion will be followed by the official opening of the exhibition »The Whispering World: Words by a Silent Sea«, showcasing Rasa's work in developing a prototype of an artificial reef that provides a substrate and structure for pioneer organisms to form a habitat.
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Cover »Nach der Natur – Laborbuch zur Ausstellung im Humboldt Labor«. Copyright: Diaphanes
22.10.2024
Nach der Natur
Laborbuch zur Ausstellung im Humboldt Labor veröffentlicht
Was bedeutet Wissensvermittlung heute? Wie lassen sich neuartige Formen des Austauschs zwischen den Disziplinen, aber auch zwischen Universität und Gesellschaft durch die Einbeziehung kuratorischer Praktiken etablieren?
2021 wurde das Humboldt Labor eröffnet – und der Name ist Programm: Hier werden nicht allein Ergebnisse abgeschlossener Forschungen präsentiert, sondern der Ort stellt selbst ein experimentierendes Labor der Humboldt-Universität dar. Zur Ausstellung »Nach der Natur«, die auch Werke von Matters of Activity zeigt, wurde nun ein Laborbuch veröffentlicht, welches im Diaphanes Verlag erschien. more
2021 wurde das Humboldt Labor eröffnet – und der Name ist Programm: Hier werden nicht allein Ergebnisse abgeschlossener Forschungen präsentiert, sondern der Ort stellt selbst ein experimentierendes Labor der Humboldt-Universität dar. Zur Ausstellung »Nach der Natur«, die auch Werke von Matters of Activity zeigt, wurde nun ein Laborbuch veröffentlicht, welches im Diaphanes Verlag erschien. more
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
Under the title »testing un/common grounds«, the Matters of Activity doctoral cohort impressively presented the progress of their diverse research projects during the Cluster retreat. The event included the three moderated panel discussions as well as an exhibition of selected research objects that were at the core of the format. With their various disciplinary backgrounds ranging from art, architecture, engineering and design to the humanities and natural sciences, the group explored this interdisciplinary ›un/common ground‹ and aimed to develop forms of common knowledge that respect locally-based actors and embrace collaborations with diverse agencies and species.
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»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!
The two »Dissect« events held as part of Berlin Science Week 2022 on November 2nd and 4th were a great success and unique experience. In the sold-out Tieranatomisches Theater (TA T) at Humboldt-Universität Berlin, researchers from different disciplines discussed contemporary artworks, including Marco Donnarumma's »Amygdala« and Tomas Saraceno's »Spiders«. Konstantin Mitrokhov’s three films allow you to re-experience these fascinating events.
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Adaptive Digital Twin. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja
17.9.2024
The Digital Twin in Neuroscience
Interdisciplinary Cluster Research Published in Frontiers Neuroscience
How can digital twins illustrate the complex relationships between the plastic dynamics and function of brain networks? Based on the clinical scenario of brain tumor patients, the authors, including Cluster members Lucius Fekonja, Rosario Tomasello, Samo Tomšič, and Thomas Picht, provide answers to this question. Discussing methods of technical modeling with philosophical concepts, the article, published in Frontiers Neuroscience in September 2024, presents a theoretical framework that bridges philosophical theorizing, neuroscience, and clinical practice.
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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
For all our German and French-speaking friends we have a special treat: ARTE TV visited us and made our Co-Director Claudia Mareis and »Matters of Activity« part of a documentation about sustainable fashion and of course design. English subtitles as well as other languages are also available, so don’t miss it!
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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
Fasern, Samenkapseln, Pflanzenstängel oder Seidengespinste – in der Natur gibt es jede Menge unterschiedlicher Materialien, die außergewöhnlichen mechanische Eigenschaften haben und sich an wechselnde Umweltbedingungen anpassen können. Wie funktionieren diese biogenen Materialien und könnten sie möglicherweise Inspirations- und Rohstoffquelle für Architektur, Design oder Produktentwicklung sein? In einem Interview, das Teil der neuen Kampagne der Berlin University Alliana »Das offene Wissenslabor« ist, geben Cluster-Mitglieder Charlett Wenig und Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten Einblicke in die Arbeit der Forschungsgruppe »Adaptive Fibrous Materials« und insbesondere über ihre Forschung zu Baumrinde.
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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
In Folge 48 der Podcastserie »Exzellent Erklärt« erwartet die Zuhörer:innen ein inspirierender Austausch zu der Frage, wie die Materialien, die in der direkten Umgebung und ihren Kreisläufen vorkommen, das Bauen der Zukunft mitgestalten können. Journalistin Larissa Vassilian hat mit Cluster-Mitgliedern Karola Dierichs und Robert Stock über ihr Projekt »Syntopic Architectures« gesprochen, das darauf abzielt, natürliche Strukturen in die Architektur zu integrieren, die in Verbindung zu dem Ort stehen, an dem gebaut wird. Ein Beispiel dafür ist das Arbeiten mit Käferholz, also mit Holz, das vom Borkenkäfer befallen wurde.
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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
In accordance with the mission statement of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the recommendations of the German Research Foundation, the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« understands openness as an integral part of the research process and is convinced of the principle that there should be free and equal access for all people to the results of scientific work. Digitization offers science new opportunities in dealing with knowledge and information. In this context, the term Open Science bundles strategies and procedures that aim to make all components of the scientific process openly accessible and reusable.
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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
The MoA Design Research Studio »Syntopia — Harvesting the Forest« investigated how materials collected in the forest can be formed into architectural structures. Such materials can for example be branches, leaves, moss, bark, grass or even earth. It was structured in three successive phases. Phase 1 engaged in the speculative design of »Stories of Syntopia«. Phase 2 introduced harvesting, analyzing, making and recording in »Designing Syntopia«. In phase 3, we shared our vision and our designs with a wider public by »Showing Syntopia«.
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Tracing paraffin accumulations. Fieldwork on the coastline of the Curonian Spit in the Neringa Nature Reserve, Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar. 2024. Copyright: Iva Rešetar
1.7.2024
Latent Accumulations. Coastal Phase Change, Paraffin Pollution and Maintenance
Fieldwork of Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar on the Coastline of the Curonian Spit in the Neringa Nature Reserve
In their ongoing fieldwork in Nida, Lithuania, Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin are concerned with the scales and phases of paraffin (re-)distribution in this seemingly pristine natural environment. Latent Accumulations focuses on the ecopolitics of paraffin pollution, engaging the material as unsettled in its movement and energy exchange. They argue that it is precisely the process of phase transition that gives rise to this uncertain ontological status – between solid and liquid, slow and sudden, and between events of pollution, their materialization and maintenance.
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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
Between May and June, doctoral researcher Emma Sicher spent three weeks in Thailand as part of her PhD in Design Studies. Invited by Professor Aracha Krasae-in, she presented the work of the Cluster and her current research at the Faculty of Architecture of Kasetsart University in Bangkok. There, she also exchanged ideas with Professor Prakit Sukyai, an expert in Biotechnology and Biopolymers. Additionally, she presented at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts of Thammasat University, invited by Professor Wuthigrai Siriphon.
The heart of the experience consisted of visits to two sites associated with acetic fermentation techniques that can generate biomaterials. These techniques range from ancient practices to more recent methods, employed in various ways from fertilizers to health-promoting substances. The visits took place in small artisanal production realities in Nakhon Ratchasima province, including Stefano and Somporn Abbruzzese, and Micro Friends, an initiative run by Tanyaporn Tantasathien and Waratchanat Thongthiangtham at the Baan Ama farm stay. more
The heart of the experience consisted of visits to two sites associated with acetic fermentation techniques that can generate biomaterials. These techniques range from ancient practices to more recent methods, employed in various ways from fertilizers to health-promoting substances. The visits took place in small artisanal production realities in Nakhon Ratchasima province, including Stefano and Somporn Abbruzzese, and Micro Friends, an initiative run by Tanyaporn Tantasathien and Waratchanat Thongthiangtham at the Baan Ama farm stay. more
26.6.2024
Wege zur Professur
Vera Meyer zu Gast in neuester Folge des BUA-Podcast »Spot ON«
Im neuen Podcast »Spot ON - Wege zur Professur«, sprechen Mitglieder der Postdoc-Academy der Berlin University Alliance mit Professor*innen aus den vier Berliner Universitäten über ihren Weg zur Professur. Hier geht es nicht um Karriere-Blaupausen, sondern wir wollen wissen: Was waren die entscheidenden Abzweigungen auf dem Karriereweg? Was war im Rückblick besonders wichtig? Was hätten sie gern früher gewusst und was würden sie Postdocs heute empfehlen, die eine akademische Karriere anstreben? Wer oder was hat sie besonders beeinflusst? Und ist es jetzt so, wie sie es sich vorgestellt hatten? In der neuesten Folge gibt Clustermitglied Vera Meyer, Professorin für Mikrobiologie an der TU Berlin, Antworten auf diese Fragen und Einblicke in ihre Forschung.
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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
To survive in space, people also have to eat in space. In preparation for the first American space station Skylab, NASA food experts tested food systems on parabolic flights. Cluster member Alwin Cubasch has delved into the NASA archive material from the early 1970's and applied concepts from the history of science to the fields of historical food science and the history of nutritional science. His findings can now be read in an article on the »History of Knowledge« blog of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC.
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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
In diesem Workshop ging 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?
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Copyright: Sistemas Materiales
11.4.2024
Trazos
Pioneering Publication on Biomaterials Launched in Buenos Aires
»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.
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Marco Tamborini: Biorobotik zur Einführung
17.5.2024–31.5.2024
Biorobotik zur Einführung
Neue Publikation von Clustermitglied Marco Tamborini
Was ist Biorobotik? Unter welchen philosophischen, historischen und ethischen Voraussetzungen können bioinspirierte Roboter gebaut werden? Wie haben sich das Bild des Menschen und das Verhältnis von Natur und Technik durch die Herstellung von biohybriden Robotern verändert?
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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
In the last workshop of the series at Futurium, we dive into the interconnected world of fungi and their mycelium. Together with architects Dimitra Almpani-Lekka and Natalija Miodragović, we explore the properties and behaviors of mycelium in nature and architecture, to speculate about future relations and applications: Could the buildings of tomorrow be grown in collaboration with plants and fungi? Can fungi help us build life-supporting networks in the cities to maintain natural resources and the local biodiversity? How can co-designing and co-habiting with a living organism transform our experience of future architecture and our relationships with other species? The workshop is already fully booked.
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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
Gestaltet das Futurium Lab selbst mit! In der öffentlichen Workshopreihe »OPEN LAB ABEND: Materialzukünfte besuchen« spekulierten Teilnehmende darüber, aus welchen Materialien die Welt von morgen gemacht sein könnte. Die Workshopreihe umfasste 4 Termine und fand von März bis Juni im Futurium statt. Forschende von »Matters of Activity« (MoA) gaben Einblick in ihre Arbeit. Davon ausgehend entwickelten Teinehmende Zukunftsszenarien und gestalteten Prototypen, die im Anschluss zusammen mit Objekten aus der MoA-Forschung im Lab ausgestellt wurden. Begleitet wurden Teilnehmende dabei vom spekulationserfahrenen Team von »CollActive Materials«.
It’s getting hot in here... In diesem ersten Workshop ging es darum, wie wir mit smarten Materialien die Städte der Zukunft gestalten können. Im Sommer machen steigende Temperaturen, Metall und Beton das Leben in der Innenstadt für alle Bewohnenden immer mehr zur Herausforderung. Welche Materialien schaffen Abhilfe in überhitzten Städten?
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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
In March 2023, an interdisciplinary team from design, computer science, art, and cultural studies examined various concepts of dealing with radioactive waste and the historical environmental impact of the industrial site of Oranienburg. While exploring the history of radioactive legacies in Oranienburg, we were confronted with different types of information: traces of the former industrial sites and bombings, symbols, maps, or signs of cleaning and securing as well as memorials as part of today's culture of remembrance. Oranienburg, with its multi-layered historical legacies, but also the land activations that have taken place, thus offered a concrete environment for the workshop questions as a field of research and experimentation. The group now published detailed documentation of the workshop.
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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
»Material Trajectories: Designing With Care?« turns towards material-driven design processes with the aim of relocating technoscientific trajectories. Concerned with new forms of caretaking, it combines positions from the extended fields of design research and humanities scholarship including practice-based approaches. The contributions are an outcome of the 2021 Annual Conference of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF), organized in cooperation with »Matters of Activity«. The volume is edited by MoA members Léa Perraudin, Clemens Winkler and Claudia Mareis, and Matthias Held, Prorector for Research at Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd, and published as part of the Future Ecologies Series in 2023 by Meson Press. The digital edition can be downloaded free of charge on the publisher’s website
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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
On February 14th, 2024 the MoA Design Research studio project »deLIGHTful interactions« held its final presentation at Flughalle 4th floor, weißensee school of art and design berlin. Using the example of light, project contributors led by MoA member Carola Zwick explored how civilizational practices and rituals evolve when technological conditions change. Light offers itself as an exciting and, above all, highly accessible topic to illuminate this field of tension in an exemplary way. For »deLIGHTful interactions«, students worked with light as an active material, demonstration the wide range of technological possibilities at our disposal to develop meaningful and enjoyable interactions.
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Microverse I-6, 2023. Copyright: Kathrin Linkersdorff
26.10.2023–21.1.2024
Microverse
Photographs Created by Kathrin Linkersdorff in Collaboration with Regine Hengge Exhibited at Deichtorhallen
Circularity and sustainability of material flows is a hallmark of intact ecosystems. This principle has now been stunningly visualized in ultrahigh resolution, large format photographs – the MICROVERSE series – created by Kathrin Linkersdorff in collaboration with Cluster member Regine Hengge, Professor for Microbiology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The exhibition at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg will be on view from October 27th, 2023 to January 21st, 2024.
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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
The volume »Architectures of Weaving«, a rich anthology edited by MoA members Christiane Sauer, Mareike Stoll, Ebba Fransén Waldhör, and Maxie Schneider, published by Jovis Verlag, Berlin in November 2022, is available open access now at De Gruyter. Taking as its point of departure a symposium of the same title held in July 2021, the lavishly illustrated volume brings together contributions from numerous researchers from various disciplines of the Cluster of Excellence and experts from other institutions.
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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
The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of our understanding of planetary resources and circularity, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. Bastian Beyer et. al. contributed with the article »Towards a Bacterially-Induced Textile Architecture« and Daniel Suárez and Natalija Miodragović an article on »Plektonik— Active Yarns for Adaptive Loop-Based Material Systems«.
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Open Space Event, 9 November 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
8.11.2023–9.11.2023
Open Space – Active Matter on Stage
MoA Opened its Doors
We are surrounded by matter that is vibrant and active. Yet we often treat matter as if it were passive. Instead of using active material properties and structures, industrial and digital manufacturing, as well as conventional approaches to engineering, design, and architecture, still heavily rely on the passivation of materials, and external energy is added. On November 8th and 9th, Matters of Activity opened its doors to the general public for the first time as part of Berlin Science Week. More than 140 guests on both days were given an insight into the Cluster of Excellence's research.
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Gosia Lehmann, Breathless Choir. Copyright: CollActive Materials, Foto: Michelle Mantel
20.10.2023–9.11.2023
Bound through Air
A Report on the Exhibition »AIRBOUND. Sensing Collective Futures«
Ubiquitous and yet invisible: Air accompanies us daily and is an essential foundation of life. More than that, air will play a fundamental role in determining what futures become possible for us as humans. The exhibition »AIRBOUND. Sensing Collective Futures« (Oct 20th-Nov 9th, 2023) by CollActive Materials offered new perspectives on air as a material, a connecting social element, and a decisive space for negotiating futures.
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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
Karola Dierichs lecture at the Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC) is a first attempt at arguing for an »intelligence of art« in computational design. It will do so by introducing the notion of design as the creation of novelty and will ask the question how this novelty is produced: is it a result of computational data processing or are there other forces at play?
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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
Time has become an increasingly critical factor and concept in the wake of Anthropocene debates. With the workshop »Critical Times. Part I: Multiple Matter«, which took place at »Matters of Activity« on November 17 and 18, the organizers asked, what times and temporalities shape the pressing crises of the present but also what temporalities allow for a critical response to a homogenizing crisis of such a present. The focus of the workshop resided in the conjunctions between speculative practices and narratives, other-than-scientific modes of sense-making as well as enchanting, violent, or haunting counter-/temporalities unfolding through eco-artistic practices. Around twenty-five multidisciplinary workshop participants engaged in discussions together with our invited guests — T.J. Demos, Sandra Jasper, Kiran Pereira and David Weber-Krebs.
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Samples of Flax Fiber Bundles as a precursor for Architectural Yarns, adapted by Node Berlin/Oslo. Copyright: Maxie Schneider, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, weißensee school of art and design, Matters of Activity
8.11.2023
Threads: Localities & Temporalities of a Fiber Bio-Economy
Activating Circular Networks Goes Berlin Science Week 2023
How can we deal with the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy in which natural fiber could play a major role? The second event in the »Activating Circular Network« series unfolded on November 8th, 2023 as a pivotal part of MoA Berlin Science Week. The aim of the organizers Lucy Norris, Khashayar Razghandi, and Hanna Wiesener was to bring together diverse actors — researchers, designers, entrepreneurs, activists and artists — to explore the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy of natural fibres.
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Brainroads. Copyright: Lene Zech
2.11.2023
Brain Roads
Exploring Neuroplasticity through Art and Science
Like the sculptor with marble, neurosurgeons dialogue with the brain they operate on. Mapping and representing these ›brain roads‹ can be achieved through various imaging methods, which help neurosurgeons extend their knowledge of the cerebral anatomy. The French Professor in neuro-oncology Hugues Duffau is famous for operating on low-grade gliomas by performing awake surgery with very little technology. His methodology includes a complex mix of techniques, disciplines and experiments based on the concept of neuroplasticity and a limited use of medical imaging in the operating room. The workshop, organized by Patricia Ribault, will explore these »Brain Roads« during Berlin Science Week on November 2nd from 10.00 am– 5.00 pm.
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Exhibition Opening »Airbound«, 19 October 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
19.10.2023–9.11.2023
Airbound. Sensing Collective Futures
Speculative Exhibition by the »CollActive Materials« Experimental Laboratory
Invisible, and yet everywhere. Air is always already on its way to becoming something else. From molecule to atmosphere: the global climate crisis and thus the possible futures of our coexistence will be decided by means of air. How could a new sensorium emerge for the coming? What will connect us in the future? »Airbound« runs until November 9th and provides space for discussing geopolitical urgencies of the present through climate fictions and speculative everyday scenarios.
As part of Berlin Science Week »CollActive Materials« also organizes the workshop »Introducing: The Breathless Choir« November 4th at Naturkundemuseum.
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»Textile Gestures - Mapping Tactile Practices with Architectural Yarns«, Hand-on Workshop at Bauhaus Study Rooms. Copyright: Thomas Meyer
15.6.2023–16.6.2023
Textile Gestures - Mapping Tactile Practices with Architectural Yarns
Hand-on Workshop at Bauhaus Study Rooms
The Architectural Yarns research group at »Matters of Activity« has been hosting a hands-on workshop on tactile knowledge in performative research at the Bauhaus Study Rooms 2023.
During the one-day workshop, a group of 45 international students from Bauhaus Foundation Dessau, Coop Design Research of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences explored, verbalized and mapped tactile practices and textile gestures with large-scale yarns made of natural fibers. By investigating reconfigurable textile techniques with yarn samples, insights into collective design and construction processes of fiber-based materials such as ›Architectural Yarns‹ were gained.
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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
After the release of the anthology edited by Patricia Ribault, including contributions by Cluster members Samuel Bianchini, Cecile Bidan, Horst Bredekamp, Mason Dean, Emile De Visscher, Peter Fratzl, Lorenzo Guiducci, Leonie Häsler, Claudia Mareis, Martin Müller, Jörg Petruschat, Emanuele Quinz, Khashayar Razghandi, Patricia Ribault, Wolfgang Schäffer and Charlett Wenig, we're happy to announce that the publication is now available open access.
Through the concepts of »Design, Gestaltung and Formatività«, this book sheds new light on the processes of formation and transformation of the material world we live in. In the first part— »Giving Form« —philosophers, historians, psychologists and cultural studies scholars question our modes of giving form, while in the second— »Form Given« — artists, designers, engineers and scientists unfold their creative processes. These »philosophies of making« invite us to reflect on what we do, what we can do, and how to do it, but they also spur us into action.
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Syntopia 1—Soma I Body. Copyright: Karola Dierichs, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, weissensee academy of art and design and Matters of Activity
5.9.2023
Minimal Machines
Paper Published on Augmented Reality (AR) Framework
Elaine Bonavia, Jessica Farmer, Alexandre Mballa-Ekobena, Nikolai Rosenthal, Laurence Douny and Karola Dierichs have published a paper on an augmented reality (AR) framework that uses hand-based motion tracking and data capture. The main contribution lies in the use of haptic data flows rather than visual ones. The AR framework was tested in a one-to-one scale architectural application emulating the spinning behavior of silkworms.
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We're Hiring!
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
Do you want to join our team? We’re currently searching for three student assistants in different fields and positions. Check out matters-of-activity.de/jobs for more information and apply now!
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
Architectural design conventionally operates within or creates seemingly static and permanent conditions. The two-week project developed by Tairan Li (MoA Young International Fellow 2022) and Daniel Suárez, led by Bastian Beyer, in the context of the project »Weaving« aimed to interrogate these conditions through a series of experiments with hydrogels. This group of materials mainly consists of water held together by three-dimensional polymer chains. Compared to inert materials, hydrogels are in constant dynamic exchange with their surrounding environment. Their water content can vary according to external conditions. They shrink substantially when dried and expand in humid environments and, therefore can be understood as latent buffer materials with ever-changing properties. Furthermore, this volume change can induce strong forces which lead to curling or buckling of the material during the drying process.
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Brochures, doctoral presentations 2023. Layout: Ada Favaron. Project coordination: Franziska Wegener
27.6.2023
MATTERSCAPES. A Studio Visit
Doctoral Presentations on 27 June 2023
Under the title »matterscapes« the 2nd cohort of the MoA doctoral program gave insights into their dissertation projects. By researching modes of activating and passivating matter in named contexts, this year’s progress presentation demonstrated and discussed the current research progress in one of the cohort’s ›natural habitats‹ — the studio on the 4th floor. All Cluster Members were invited to listen, share ideas, identify common grounds, offer suggestions, and exchange with one another.
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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
We are pleased to announce that the report of the Cluster’s first research phase (2019–2022) is now available in print and pdf. It documents research questions, methods and outcomes from our research projects and serves as an outreach publication, providing an illustrated overview of the many Cluster activities over the past four years and highlighting events and formats across projects. Many thanks to all who contributed!
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Layout: Pilar Cebey. Photo: Javier Deyheralde
18.7.2023
Symbolic Dimensions of Platonic Polyhedra
Hands-on Workshop on 18 July 2023
Platonic solids are regular polyhedra, whose faces are congruent regular polygons and vertices connecting the same number of faces. In the 3D Euclidian space, there exist only five such solids: tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron. Plato theorized that all mater was composed of small polyhedra and related them to Earth’s elements. In this hands-on workshop, the participants are going to immerse themselves in the mindful activity of working with their hands, explore body-to-body transitions when modelling with clay and water, comprehend topological ideas and its dematerialization when modelling real materials, and collectively reflect about the experience of modelling Platonic solids.
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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
Am Mittwoch, den 28. Juni, und Donnerstag, den 29. Juni, begrüßte »Matters of Activity« Wissenschaftler*innen der Akademie für Europäische Kulturen der Tongji-Universität Shanghai, um den bereits seit 2016 bestehenden Austausch über gemeinsame Forschungsthemen fortzusetzen. In Ergänzung der philosophischen und kunsthistorischen Ausrichtung um naturwissenschaftliche und designtheoretische Perspektiven war neben übergreifenden Diskussionen zur Materialität ein thematischer Schwerpunkt die Beschäftigung mit Wasser als Active Matter, die auch Gegenstand der aktuellen Clusterforschung ist. Die Veranstaltung fand auf Deutsch und auf Englisch statt und stand einer Anzahl von zehn Interessierten offen. Die Planung und Durchführung der Veranstaltung lagen bei Cluster-Direktor Wolfgang Schäffner und Sabine Marienberg, Projektleiterin »von Symbolic Material«.
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Fungi as Building Material. Copyright: Vera Meyer, MY-CO PLACE
12.5.2023–31.7.2023
MY-CO PLACE – Architecture of Sustainable Growth
Cluster Members Natalija Miodragović and Dimitra Almpani-Lekka Give Talk on Textile Architecture Associated with Mushrooms
MY-CO PLACE is now open! The TU Berlin transdisciplinary urban laboratory is a learning station, exhibition space and discussion platform that places mushrooms and mushroom materials at the center of the debate about a future way of building and living. In this place, people from science, art and urban society come together and discuss their ideas for a jointly built and sustainable future. In MY-CO PLACE, visitors can come into direct contact with the microscopically small but macroscopically tangible world of fungi. MY-CO PLACE is a transdisciplinary real laboratory by biotechnologist and molecular biologist Prof. Vera Meyer (TU Berlin) and Prof. Sven Pfeiffer (University of Bochum). Vera Meyer opened an accompanying lecture series about fungi as the future building material on May 15th. Natalija Miodragović and Dimitra Almpani-Lekka will give a talk on textile architecture associated with mushrooms on July 10th.
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Visual Bauhaus Study Rooms, International Network Meeting, 15+16 June 2023. Copyright: Bauhaus Dessau
15.6.2023–16.6.2023
Design Acts: Gestures of Performative Research
MoA Members Contribute to International Network Meeting with Bauhaus Dessau
Performative dimensions of design, sensory cognition, and body knowledge were essential modules of Bauhaus theory. In the context of this year’s thematic preoccupation of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation with the human body, the Bauhaus Study Rooms 2023 on June 15th and 16th focus on the topic of performativity as an integral component of design processes and design activities. Design is viewed as a reciprocal process and a corporeal activity. In different formats and learning environments, the event explores the extent to which performative methods contribute to new design approaches. The two-day mini-festival is conducted by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in cooperation with the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences and the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
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Copyright: Mina Mahouti
1.6.2023
Talking Wool – Wool in Exchange
Activating Circular Networks Event Series Will Kick Off on 1 June at Uferhallen Wedding
On June 1st, 2023, from 3 to 7 pm, at the Uferhallen in Wedding, the ›Activating Circular Networks‹ event series will kick off with »Talking Wool«: an event that brings designers, academics, politicians, and farmers together to discuss the issues surrounding European and local German wool, the problem of wool waste in particular, and fiber security. The workshop takes place within the ongoing group exhibition »Zur Nachahmung empfohlen - Erkundungen in Ästhetik und Nachhaltigkeit«. Our host for the event is professor and artist Folke Köbberling, an expert in exploring these challenges and potentials of coarse wool for years.
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Driving the Human Book Launch at Matters of Activity, 10 May 2023. Copyright: Camille Blake / Driving the Human
10.5.2023
Driving the Human: Seven Prototypes for Eco-social Renewal
Book Launch with Hand-On-Workshops, Guided Tours, a Talk, and Debates at Matters of Activity
On May 10th, the three-year initiative »Driving the Human: Seven Prototypes for Eco-social Renewal« celebrated the Berlin launch of the final publication with »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 3.30 pm, the Cluster opened the doors to its premises in Sophienstraße 22a and invited interested guests to workshops and guided tours, a talk, and lively debates reflecting on the three-year process of »Driving the Human«. Partners, experts, and project authors were on hand to discuss with guests the relationship between research, design and art. On this occasion, many cluster members also provided insights into their research work at »Matters of Activity«.
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Futures of Air. Copyright: CollActive Materials
6.5.2023–20.5.2023
Futures of Air
Speculative Workshop Series in May
Ungraspable! Air is invisible, yet it is eyerywhere. Always already on its way to becoming something else. From molecule to atmosphere: the global climate crisis and thus the possible futures of our coexistence will be decided by means of air. Does the air belong to all of us? What stories lie in the air? What will connect us in the future? Our workshop series invites you to speculate about »Futures of Air« – together with researchers from »Matters of Activity« and »Science of Intelligence«. In three different co-design workshops, we explore and negotiate the critical role of air as a collective, active, and intelligent material. An exhibition will present the workshop conversations and outcomes in the fall of 2023 at Aufbau Haus (CLB Berlin).
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Poster Lecture Series »Designing in Times of the Anthropocene«, 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
19.4.2023–12.7.2023
Designing in Times of the Anthropocene
New Online Lecture Series Organized by MoA Co-Director Claudia Mareis Starts on 19 April
The online lecture series, a joint event between the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« and the Department of Cultural History and Theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, will kick-off on April 19th, 2023. Together with international design scholars and practitioners, it aims to navigate the tensions between technotopianism, critique, and transition in the context of designing in the so-called Anthropocene. We will not only look at the potential, problems, and limitations of calls for ever more design and construction, but also look at alternative ways and narratives of world-making, transformation, and futurity.
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Exhibition Opening DAOULA | sheen, 17.11.2022, Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin. Copyright: Matters of Activity
18.11.2022–30.6.2023
DAOULA | sheen
West African Wild Silk on its Way
The exhibition »DAOULA | sheen«, which can be seen at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin until June 30th, 2023, at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin, focuses on the natural formation and the cultural history of wild silk obtained from caterpillars in West Africa, and on the many and complex ways in which this unique material is viewed by microbiologists, materials scientists, and architects in Germany. Curated by MoA members Laurence Douny, Karin Krauthausen, and Felix Sattler, and co-created by a large and diverse multidisciplinary team, this unusual project sets out to stimulate dialogue between West African craft, European science, and design.
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Incandescent mantle for Continental lamps -- artificial silk. BBWA U3/31 Auergesellschaft/MSA Germany, No. F/14.
Research Project Explores the History of the Town as a Radioactive Industrial Landscape
The project explores the history of the town of Oranienburg as a radioactive industrial landscape. At the turn of the 20th century, large chemical factories that supplied Berlin‘s gas light industry began to cluster in and around Oranienburg. Tons of monazite sands were accumulated and refined to extract radioactive thorium and the rare earth cerium, among other elements. The residual radioactivity in Oranienburg can be traced back to these industrial activities, and to the destruction of several production sites during a bombing raid in March 1945, near the end of World War II. »Filtering Oranienburg« addresses, first, in environmental historical terms, the power structures that shaped industrial materials' extraction, refining, and disposal. On the other hand, Oranienburg serves the project as an experimental site for exploring and developing approaches to collective futures in damaged landscapes, through which the understanding of filtering as a fundamental cultural technique is tested and further developed.
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Panel Discussion Materials Matter, May 4th, 2022, Humboldt Lab. Copyright: Matters of Activity
13.1.2023
Materials Matter – Perspectives on Active Materials
Audio Broadcast of the Panel Discussion at the Humboldt Lab Online Now
We are very pleased to present the audio broadcast of the public panel discussion that took place on May 4th, 2022, at the Humboldt Lab. In the interdisciplinary discussion entitled »Perspectives on Active Materials«, central theses of the Central Cluster Anthology »Active Materials« were presented. The cross-disciplinary conversation with Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Michaela Eder, Peter Fratzl, and Richard Weinkamer aimed to address one of the burning questions of our epoch: the possibility of engineering smart, active, or bio-inspired materials and the meaning these enhanced materials might have for solving the contemporary and future challenges of these tumultuous times. The event was moderated by MoA members Michael Friedman and Karin Krauthausen, who were also co-authors of the anthology. Be sure to listen in!
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Annual Conference »Deep Material Futures« at silent green, November 2022. Copyright: Michelle Mantel
16.11.2022–17.11.2022
Deep Material Futures
Exploring the Different Temporalities of Active Matter at MoA's Annual Conference, 16 November 2022
With »Deep Material Futures«, we discussed and rethought the potentialities, strategies, expectances, predictions and imaginaries of desirable futures in terms of interspecies and transgenerational justice. The temporalities of active matter we speak of are always about incommensurable spaces of memory and oblivion, of extinction and survival. What new and other ways of politics, design, and »healing« through materialized action might there then be at all levels of space, time, and scale? The event brought together international keynote speakers such as Sandra Jasper, Nigel Clark, James Weaver, Cymene Howe, Jeff Diamanti, Admir Masic and Vera Meyer with positions from the Cluster to discuss the different temporalities of active matter in four panels – Wastelands, Earthly Matter, Matter Across Scales, and Future Materials. The presentations and discussions from the Annual Conference can be viewed at any time by clicking more.
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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!
The 2021 MoA Annual Conference »Tipping Points« was all about matter in motion. We discussed transition and contingency, processes of acquiring and losing form, and the creative potential of the unfinished and indeterminate. All conference contributions our now shown as part of MoA's Virtual Cluster Space, where you can view a variety of 360° knowledge rooms and all contributions of the four panels »Plasticity & (In–)Stability«, »Interdeterminacy and Liveliness«, »Fragile Entanglements« and last but not least »Contingent Matters«.
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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
How do we deal with materiality in the age of digitalization? Can other understandings of materiality lead to other modes of production or other ways of living? Episode 18 of the DFG podcast series »Exzellent erklärt« (English: Excellent Explained), available from 1 September 2022, focuses on the interdisciplinary research at »Matters of Acticity«. Journalist Larissa Vassilian speaks with Cluster Co-Director Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis, designer and cultural historian, and Research Associate Dr. Khashayar Razghandi, a materials scientist and design teacher about topics like sustainability and bio-inspired design and what active materials have to do with it.
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Joining Perspectives on Haptics - Design Workshop Filtering 2022. Foto: Felix Rasehorn
14.3.2022–16.3.2022
Joining Perspectives on Haptics
Online Documentation of Interdisciplinary Cluster Workshop
Why is the topic of haptics important to us humans and what does this mean for the multitude of scientific disciplines represented in the Cluster? In three dense days of workshop, the participants explored the topic of haptics together through the lens of design practice, history of knowledge, cultural studies, philosophy and computer science. Through experiencing demos, creating rapid prototypes, and reflection experiments, a practice-based mode of exploration was collectively developed. Through this rather broad approach, the participants sought to unfold the layers that make up haptic experiences in order to develop a shared understanding and vocabulary of the term. This is the beginning of a critical exchange on haptics with the goal of establishing a dynamic platform for MoA researchers around the haptic sense(s).
In the online documentation the group shares their abstracts, the workshop findings and questions, and invites to future collaborative formats and projects.
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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
Architecture stands as a paradigm for the development of structural entities, which define functionality from the nanoscale to entire buildings. However, the distinction between structure and material becomes totally blurred in biological systems where it is impossible to distinguish between material and device or organ. A tree stem, as a prototypical example, is both material and plant organ with specific biological functions. Partially inspired by this, there are recent parallel movements—in materials development as well as in architectural design—towards the merging of materiality, structure and function into one integral construction system.
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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
Tessellations are structural motifs made up of repeating tiles, found in many forms and serving a variety of functions in nature. Perhaps partly inspired by natural examples, tessellations have also been a part of human history in art, design and culture, commonly in the form of mosaics, and more recently in the realm of bio-inspired design and engineering. This collection showcases the diversity of this motif, exploring commonalities in structure and function across environments and taxa, to inspire biological and biomaterials research, but also bioinspired design and architecture. Follow the link to explore the classification scheme and compare the similarities and differences between the tessellations.
https://tessellated-materials.mpikg.mpg.de
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CollActive Materials Workshop. Copyright: CollActive Materials
The Experimental Laboratory »CollActive Materials«
In the experimental laboratory »CollActive Materials«, society and science are speculating together about the materials of tomorrow: What might they look like or feel like? Could they be more active or more intelligent than the materials of today? By trying things out together, the speculators develop new future scenarios, stories and objects and invite discussion of various conceivable futures.
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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
The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« investigates materials that are built by bacteria. Architects and biologists work together to explore new, sustainable materials. Some of these bacterial structures were on display at the Humboldt Lab. In the interview with Cluster Members Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi, parts of the development of the »Active Curtains Project« are presented in more detail.
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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
The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« was represented with some exciting objects in the exhibition »Nach der Natur« at the Humboldt Laboratory of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. You can watch an introduction to the Cluster right here. Follow the link to the video in German with either English subtitles or in easy German language.
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Symbolic Material. Copyright: Myfanwy Evans, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo
The change of view from allegedly passive material to »active matter« that engenders symbolic processes according to its inherent structure provokes a shift in the traditional boundaries between nature and culture. Thus, other traditional opposites (body-mind, active-passive, material-symbolic) can also be rethought as changeable polarities. The project »Symbolic Material« investigates the material foundations of symbolic processes in interaction with the symbolic dimension of materials from the viewpoint of Philosophy, History of Mathematics, Physics, and Neuroscience.
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Copyright: Matters of Activity
From a historical perspective, modern culture and technology have been extensively built on passivated materials, like concrete, steel, plywood or glass, resulting in anthropogenic ecological crises. The core objective of »Material Form Function« is to overcome this logic, which considers matter as an exploitable, passive and ahistorical substance.
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Fiber tractography delineating the white matter of the brain. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
A material guides a cutting tool along its inner boundaries and structure. Take a stonemason splitting a rock: the rock’s internal tensions do most of the work once the cut has been started. Similarly, surgeons and paleontologists, using data from scans and models, make their path within brains or fossils following the lines set by the active material. We understand cutting as healing and shaping rather than the extractive or destructive separation and reunification. Such an approach to material-guided cutting requires concepts and tools that connect the skilled operator with the activity of the material as a partner in the process.
In the axis »From Brain Matter to Function«, we investigate innovative ways of navigating brain surgery, in particular by using biologically inspired neural network models. In the axis »Hybrid Interactions«, we contribute to the future of robotic-assisted surgery automation, digital fossil preparation, and experimental surgical tools based on microscopy techniques. Together, we explore different dimensions of the ›cut‹ in the digital age, integrating predictive models, tools and visualizations in surgery, paleontology and beyond.
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Flour Cloud. Copyright: Clemens Winkler, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo
In »Object Space Agency«, the researchers of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« are gathered to examine the relationships of active materials in the sphere of objects, persons and architectural structures. Material objects appear to be temporally and spatially at once stable and changeable. Check out the brand new project website.
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Cellulose in E. coli biofilm. Copyright: Diego Serra & Regine Hengge, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
Can bacteria weave? Can architecture become soft? Can humans learn from caterpillars how to develop a more sustainable construction? And how do material processes build communities? In our research, we challenge the common understanding of weaving, as we focus on bacterial cellulose, West-African wild silk cocoons and the use of yarn in architecture. We address relationships of two- or three-dimensional longitudinal elements interconnected by entanglement, interlacing, braiding or classical weaving. Such fiber-based matter can be the product of natural or cultural processes and occur ubiquitously from the nano-scale in biological systems to the macro-scale in architectural contexts. By doing experiments on biological fiber-based matrices and tissues, by upscaling microscopic structures into architectural prototypes and by historical and theoretical investigations, we are redefining woven structures as a material practice running through nature and culture.
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