Matters of Activity

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.

DAOULA | sheen

West African Wild Silk on its Way

Exhibition Opening DAOULA | sheen, 17.11.2022, Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin. Copyright: Matters of Activity

Event | Exhibition | Weaving 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. more

Student Assistant in the Project »Weaving« (m/f/d) for the Field of Humanities

40h per Month, Limited to 2 years – MoA_03_2023 – Application Deadline 31 March 2023 – Start of Employment: 15 May 2023

Opening of the exhibition »DAOULA | sheen« at TA T, Berlin, 17 November 2022. Copyright: Matters of Activity

Jobs The project »Weaving« is currently looking for a student assistant from the fields of Philosophy, Library, Cultural, Media or Literary Studies, Ethnology or similar. Apply now! more

Cluster Member Anna Schäffner Selected for VOJEXT S+T+ARTS Residency on Robotics

Anna Schäffner. Photo: Michelle Mantel

News | Award | Filtering We congratulate Pre-Doctoral Candidate Anna Schäffner on her successful application to one of the three VOJEXT S+T+ARTS residencies. The selected artists were announced during the S+T+ARTS presentations at European Robotic Forum 2023 in Odense (Denmark). Each artist will receive 30.000 Euros of funding, mentoring and access to robotics labs from March until December 2023. The goals of the VOJEXT S+T+ARTS residencies are twofold: to push for art-driven innovation and societal understanding of human-robot interactions, and to integrate them in industrial manufacturing robotics that work on construction, arts and crafts. Anna Schäffner is taking part in the Social Robots residency, supported by industrial partner and tech-provider IIT (Fondazion Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia). Her project »Soft Collision« focuses on the design of a new robotic membrane that will demonstrate a form of interaction between human and robot through body language. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 13.3.2023

RT @MoritzQueisner: We are hiring: Postdoc position (100% E13) in #digitalhealth. We are an interdisciplinary team working on digital conce…

Design Impact Conference

Joining Forces for Digital and Material Innovations

Design Impact Conference 2023, Image: Superwood by Sofia Soudi, Jana Grewe. Copyright: DesignFarmBerlin

Event | Conference Next Tuesday, March 28th, 2023, from 3:30-8:00 pm, DesignFarm Berlin invites you to the Design Impact Conference at Stadtwerkstatt near Alexanderplatz. Current startups will present their latest digital, material-based, and textile innovations and discuss their results with various practitioners and stakeholders. The conference is supported by scholars of weißensee school of art and design berlin and the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The conference is part of the talk series about new qualities of entrepreneurship and circular economy within the cluster. more

Stretching Materialities | Materiales en Expansión

Exhibition Opened at Universidad de Buenos Aires | Exposición Inaugurada en la Universidad de Buenos Aires

Exhibition »Stretching Materialities« at Universidad de Buenos Aires, March 2023. Copyright: Christian Stein

Event | Object Space Agency | Stretching Materialities | Open Design Together with the Museo de Artes Plásticas Eduardo Sivorí we invite you to the opening of »Materials in Expansión«, on Wednesday, March 15th at 6:00 pm, where a conversation between Daniela Castillo Cortez and Christian Stein will take place, entitled »El Entramado - Nuevas Formas de Exposición Entre Tecnología, Ciencia y Arte (The Interweaving - New Forms of Exhibition Between Technology, Science and Art)«. It is an interactive experience of Virtual Reality and textile art by Daniela Castillo, participant of the 27th Textile Art Salon, currently exhibited at the museum. This performative installation can be visited every Wednesday until April 15th, 2023 in Bunoes Aires, Argentina. more

Scientific Researcher (d/f/m) Interdisciplinary Post-Doc Position in Digital Health/ Surgery (DM.43.23b) at Charité

100% TVöD, Level E13, Temporary (Third-Party Funding) Until 31.12.2025, Starting Immediately

Broaden Perspectives. Copyright: Michael Pogorzhelskiy

Jobs The position is assigned to the junior professorship »Interdisciplinary Technology Transfer and Digitalization in Surgery« (Prof. Dr. Moritz Queisner) and is part of Experimental Surgery at the Department of Surgery, CCM|CVK (Prof. Dr. Igor Sauer) as well as linked to the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«. You will work withing a newly founded, interdisciplinary team working on new concepts for Surgery 4.0, for example, with regard to the topics of AI, robotics or extended reality and establishing the research area »Digital Surgery« at Charité. more

Tracing Tainted Environments: Legacies of Oranienburg

Workshop about Information Physicalization of Nuclear Cultural Heritage

Visual »Tracing Tainted Environments«, 2023. Copyright: Thomas Ness

Event | Workshop | Filtering The three-day-workshop »Tracing tainted environments: Legacies of Oranienburg« from March 14th-16th, 2023, explores different approaches to the historical legacies of the industrial site of Oranienburg in the north of Berlin. In different settings we are questioning adequate tools by joining various disciplinary perspectives on dealing with data and environmental pollution: human-computer interaction, design, history, and cultural and political studies. The industrial site of Oranienburg with its multi-layered historical legacies will be taken as a field of research and experimentation, thus providing a concrete setting for the workshop questions. In experimental series, talks and excursions, the three-day workshop explores the different dimensions of information in the context of non-tangible traces and summarizes them in design concepts. more

Unpacking 4 – Was wird entsammelt?

Nina Samuel und Felix Sattler sind Teil der Bauhaus Archiv Veranstaltungsreihe »Unpacking Jak R. Maier. Geerbt und ausgepackt – vom Wert der Dinge«

Unpacking Jak R. Maier. Copyright: Bauhaus Archiv

Event | Object Space Agency Alles beginnt mit einem unerwarteten Anruf und einem Testament: Das Bauhaus-Archiv erbt den Nachlass des Künstlers Jak R. Maier. Doch wer war Jak R. Maier? Wieso kommt sein Nachlass zu uns? Was bedeutet es, über die Objekte eines anderen Menschen zu verfügen und zu entscheiden? Die Ausstellung »Unpacking Jak R. Maier« setzt sich erstmalig mit dem künstlerischen und privaten Archiv des Berliner Künstlers und unseren Umgang damit auseinander. Die »unpackings« bringen an sechs Themen-Abenden Dynamik in die Ausstellung. In Gesprächen mit Gäst:innen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis und Live-Aktionen erkundet das Museumsteam gemeinsam mit dem Publikum den Nachlass des Künstlers. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 13.3.2023

We're happy to have you @MoritzQueisner 🥳 twitter.com/...

Wastework

Charlett Wenig Speaks at Interdisciplinary Conference

»The Bark Project«, Charlett Wenig. Copyright: Patrick Walter, MPIKG

Event | Weaving | Material Form Function Wastework is an international, interdisciplinary 3-day conference on the materiality, spatiality, and processing of waste in the early modern workshop. It proposes to examine acts of disposal, displacement, removal, and abeyance – in short, the getting rid of unwanted things – and the consequences these carry for the study of early modern material culture. Cluster researcher Charlett Wenig is on the panel »Paradoxes of Matter«, on March 17th at 2:00 pm. more

»Museale Reste«

New Anthology Edited by Nina Samuel and Felix Sattler Focuses Museum Remnants

Cover Museale Reste, ed. by Nina Samuel and Felix Sattler, De Gruyter 2023. Copyright: De Gruyter

News | Publication | Object Space Agency In December 2022, volume 18 of Bildwelten des Wissens, edited by MoA members Nina Samuel and Felix Sattler, was published with the title »Museale Reste« (Museum Remnants). Remnants are a challenge for the museum as an institution. They are ambiguous figures, and their attributions open up and thus contribute to transcending the taxonomic, disciplinary, architectural, and institutional boundaries of museums. They can be found everywhere—in exhibition spaces as well as storage depots, and in laboratories just as in the administration. In each of these contexts, there are respectively different forms of professional self-conception, knowledge, and practical handling that determine the status of remnants. more

Stretching...Curation and ...Theory

New OSA Event Series Kicks Off on 6 and 7 March 2023

Poster OSA Talks. Links: Ester Fleckner: Woodbeds, brimming (more), 2020, Holzschnitt, Bleistift auf Papier, 143,0 x 109,0 cm, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Copyright: Courtesy of the Artist und Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin; Foto: Nick Ash | Rechts: bbildung 12a: »L’auteur«, Abb. II, Frontispiz. Gaston Bachelard und Albert Flocon, Châteaux en Espagne, Paris: Cercle Grolier, Lesamis du livre moderne 1957, hier Exemplar No. 72 (gedruckt für M. Henri Jaudon, auf Rives; gesamte Auflage 200), (S. 8, 19,5 x 14). Copyright: Marlene Militz

Event | Talk | Object Space Agency On March 6th, 2023, OSA Talks, a new series of events, organized by members of the project »Object Space Agency« kicks off with a talk by Jenny Graser, Curator for Contemporary Arts at Berlin's Kupferstichkabinett, on Curating. Following on from the exhibition project »Stretching Materialities«, the series of events aims to bring together experts from the fields of collection and exhibition practice, design practice, the sciences and theory to discuss the «stretching« of materials and their agency in relation to objects and spaces. more

Filtering Oranienburg

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

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

Filtering 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. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 7.3.2023

RT @InsightAnth: 26 April 2.00 pm DAOULA I sheen exhibition tour with one of the co-curators, Laurence Douny @exc_moa. In-person only 4.00…

Rethinking a Waste Product of the Timber Processing Industry

Adhesive-free Bark Panels

Schematic representation of the pressing process, right: ready pressed bark panels. Copyright: cc-by 4.0 PLOS ONE

News | Material Form Function Charlett Wenig and her interdisciplinary team of researchers from »Matters of Activity« and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPICI) has investigated how the natural properties of native tree bark can be used to create a standardized product for long-term use without the addition of adhesives. In doing so, they have created bark panels by peeling and drying via hot pressing, which could be used in interior design or furniture and packaging, for example, through industrial production. more

Weaving with the Data Glove - From the Cocoon into the Computer and Back Again

Live-Demonstration and Press Tour in the Exhibition »DAOULA | sheen«

LEFT: DAOULA | sheen. West African Wild Silk on Its Way. Exhibition View in the Tieranatomisches Theater, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2022. Copyright: Karola Dierichs | MoA; RIGHT: MoA Research Prototype 1 | Minimal Machines. Construction Process. Copyright: Sebastián Plaza Kutzbach | khb

Event | Teaching | Exhibition | Weaving We hereby cordially invite you to a press event in the exhibition »DAOULA | sheen – West African Wild Silk on its Way«. The press event will take place on February 16th, 3.00 pm at the Tieranatomisches Theater and will be accompanied by a live demonstration of the project »MoA Research Prototype 1 | Minimal Machines« with a subsequent discussion of the work. The demonstration involves live work on an architectural structure inspired by the geometric principles of silk cocoons. The researchers are present and give an insight into the materials used as well as the analogue and digital tools. more

Design Lab #13: Material Legacies

Exhibition at Kunstgewerbemuseum

Poster Material Legacies. Image: Dietrich Polenz and the Experimental Surgery Lab, 2020

Event | Exhibition | Material Form Function The exhibition »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« at Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin explored contingencies and ruptures between traditional crafts and the most recent developments at the crossroads of material research, design, engineering, and architecture. It brought together artifacts from the museum’s collection with work-in-progress installations by designers and researchers from the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« in order to initiate a dialogue about the historical, contemporary, and future conditions under which materiality unfolds.
By engaging with a series of different materials and techniques the exhibition encompassed both the problematization of unsustainable pasts and presents as well as the imagination of speculative material futures. Taking materiality as a starting point, each of the exhibits investigated its sociocultural, economic, and political context in order to disentangle the multiple interrelations that arise from and with materials. more

Materials Matter – Perspectives on Active Materials

Audio Broadcast of the Panel Discussion at the Humboldt Lab Online Now

Panel Discussion Materials Matter, May 4th, 2022, Humboldt Lab. Copyright: Matters of Activity

News | Science Communication 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! more

Coding IxD (7) – Let's Get:PHYSICAL

From the Practice of Interdisciplinary Education: Making Data Tangible

Teaser Coding IxD (7), Let’s Get: Physical, 2023.

Event | Teaching In the winter semester 2022/23, »Coding IxD« entered its seventh round. This time, students were researching and discussing the possibilities of data physicalization to take informed action based on personal data. The results of their explorations can be experienced during an exhibition at the CityLAB Berlin from February, 16th–23rd, 2023.
The interdisciplinary course for students from the Department of Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Product Design at weißensee school of art and design berlin is based on a long-standing cooperation between MoA members from these institutions: Claudia Müller-Birn (Freie Universität Berlin) from the Human-Centered Computing Research Group and Carola Zwick, Judith Glaser and Thomas Ness from the Embodied Interaction Group at kunsthochschule weißensee. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 27.2.2023

RT @tomasel9: Can Brain-constrained #neuralnetworks exhibit “Fast Mapping”, defined as a fundamental mechanism for rapidly acquiring a larg…

Architectures of Weaving

Multidisciplinary Anthology Bridging Architecture and Textile Out Now

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

News | Publication | Weaving In November 2022, the volume »Architectures of Weaving«, a rich anthology edited by MoA members Christiane Sauer, Mareike Stoll, Ebba Fransén Waldhör, and Maxie Schneider, was published by Jovis Verlag, Berlin. 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. more

Scaling Matters: From the Lab to the Field

Doctoral Presentations at the MoA Retreat 2022

Poster PhD presentations 2022. Layout: Ada Favaron

Event | PhD Program The 2022 presentation of the Doctoral Program »Matters of Activity« at the MoA Retreat in September at Landgut Stober was both a review and an outlook of the doctoral research conducted at the Cluster between 2020 and 2022. Under the title »Scaling Matters: From the Lab to the Field, «Pre-Doctoral Researchers at varying stages of their research — from the very beginning to the final phase of their theses — presented their heterogeneous work whilst continuing to negotiate common themes, methods, questions and tools. The format combined talks and an exhibition and invited MoA Members to engage individually with the presentation and a selection of their research objects. Thanks to everyone involved for making possible this all-around successful event. Enjoy some visual impressions of the exhibition, as well as the talks and have a look at the booklet. more

Design, Gestaltung, Formatività. Philosophies of Making

A Central Cluster Publication Edited by Patricia Ribault Released

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

News | Publication We are excited to announce the release of the new 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. Congratulations! Through the concepts of »Design, Gestaltung and Formatività«, this book sheds a 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. more

Deep Material Futures

Exploring the Different Temporalities of Active Matter at MoA's Annual Conference, 16 November 2022

Annual Conference »Deep Material Futures« at silent green, November 2022. Copyright: Michelle Mantel

Event | Annual Conference 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. more

Round Table »On Fibers and Mixtures«

At Kunstgewerbemuseum on 23 February

Round Table »On Fibres amd Mixtures«. Foto: Michelle Mantel. Design: studioeins, adapted by »Matters of Activity«

Event | Designlab #13: Material Legacies We cordially invite you to our last Round Table »On Fibers and Mixtures« which is part of the format series accompanying the exhibition »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« at Kunstgewerbemuseum and at the same time its closing event. The Round Tables represent each of the exhibiting projects and the involved researchers and artists in a moderated dialogue with guests from different disciplines. The format brings a variety of perspectives to the exhibited works, its material legacies, and entangled discourses and invites the public to engage. On February 23rd, Professor for material design and Cluster Member Christiane Sauer will discuss the work with Emanuele Coccia, Peter Fratzl, and Beatriz Morales, moderated by architect and Cluster Member Iva Rešetar. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 9.2.2023

RT @MpiciPotsdam: We would like to draw your attention to an exciting exhibition called "DAOULA | sheen – West African Wild Silk on its Way…

Sketching Brains

An Ethnographic Participant Exhibition at the Neurosurgery Department of Charité in Berlin

Sketching brains. Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé

News | Cutting »Sketching Brains« is a collaborative exhibition-as-research project which intends to trigger new conversations around the act of sketching in and about neurosurgical practice. Based on a series of fieldwork within the Neurosurgical Department at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin by graphic ethnographer Maxime Le Calvé and on the research of neurosurgeon and cultural scientist Anna L. Roethe, this initiative takes the form of conversations based on graphic-based stories, presented and continued both onsite and online. In German and English, the texts are comment-enabled to bring the community to react and question the description. The ›participant exhibition‹ becomes a vibrant collaborative forum, choreographed by the ethnographer, to understand more profoundly the implications of neurosurgery in people’s lives, on both sides of the scalpel. more

»Tipping Points« Now Part of MoA Virtual Cluster Space

View Conference Contributions of MoA Annual Conference 2021 in 360° Knowledge Rooms Now!

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

News | Virtual Cluster Space | Tipping Points The 2021 MoA Annual Conference »Tipping Points« was all about matter in motion. We will discuss 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«. more

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

News | Science Communication 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. more

Engage with Fungi

New Open Access Publication by Vera Meyer and Colleagues

Cover »Engange with Fungi«, Berlin Universities Publishing (BerlinUP)

News | Publication The recently founded Open Access publishing house Berlin Universities Publishing (BerlinUP) has published its first book: »Engage with Fungi«. How do we want to live in the future? How do we take responsibility for the future of the Earth, for our environment, for our society? Fusing the creativity engines of science, art, and society enables us to develop visions for a sustainable future and viable paths towards it. The publication exemplifies such a transdisciplinary endeavor and focuses on collaborative research on and learning from fungi. more

Joining Perspectives on Haptics

Online Documentation of Interdisciplinary Cluster Workshop

Design Workshop. Copyright: Felix Rasehorn

Event | MoA Design Research Studio 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. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 7.2.2023

RT @scioi_cluster: This Thursday (9 Feb, 4pm) don't miss @scioi_cluster PI Lecture with Oliver Brock: “About the Interplay of Embodiment an…

Bioinspired Architectural and Architected Materials

Special Issue Edited by Cluster Members K. Razghandi, C. Sauer and P. Fratzl Out Now

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

News | Publication 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. more

Launch of the Tessellation Archive

An Online Collection of Tiled Tissues and Architectures from Across the Natural World

Collection Overview - Tessellation Archive. Copyright: Felix Rasehorn

News | Tessellated Material Systems | Publication 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 more

What are Futures Made of?

The Experimental Laboratory »CollActive Materials«

CollActive Materials Workshop. Copyright: CollActive Materials

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. more

Bacteria as Architects

Interview with Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi

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

News | Humboldt Lab 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 are 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. more

Matters of Activity Film at Humboldt Lab

Cluster Video Online Now

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

News | Humboldt Lab The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« is represented with some exciting objects in the exhibition »Nach der Natur« at the Humboldt Laboratory of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. You can also 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. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 7.2.2023

We're hiring 🥳 #MoA|s Team for #ScienceCommunication is currently looking for a person to assist in… twitter.com/...

Symbolic Material

Symbolic Material. Copyright: Myfanwy Evans, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo

Projects 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. more

Material Form Function

Copyright: Matters of Activity

Projects From a historical-genealogical perspective, modern culture and technology have been extensively built on passivated materials, like concrete, steel, plywood and glass. The modern techniques of material passivation account for the exhausting consumption of resources and energy – heavily contributing to the anthropogenic ecological crises of today. Against this paradigm, the interdisciplinary exploration of the inherent self-activity of (bio-)materials can be understood as a critical intervention towards novel modes of technicity and making: for the imagination of more sustainable futures and for a new culture of material. more

Cutting

Fiber tractography delineating the white matter of the brain. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.

Projects Cutting is one of the oldest cultural practices. It is a fundamental way for human beings to enter into correspondence with materials. With these specific gestures and tools, people alter and reshape material boundaries and intertwine different entities. Those activities span across wide forms of tacit knowledge, from ancient craftsmanship to current high-tech procedures. In the domain of art, the cutting of text, music or film material produces new compositions that can provoke new insights. Similarly, in the domain of medicine, surgeons cut the body to understand and to heal it. Embedded in the way we think, write and speak, the act of cutting is ubiquitous: it means distinguishing and choosing between ›good‹ and ›bad‹ in a multitude of symbolic ways. more

Object Space Agency

Flour Cloud. Copyright: Clemens Winkler, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo

Projects 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. more

Weaving

Cellulose in E. coli biofilm. Copyright: Diego Serra & Regine Hengge, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.

Projects The project combines expertise from the fields of Anthropology, Cultural History and Theory, Literary Studies, Biology, Design/ Architecture, Material Sciences and Mathematics. The researchers investigate resources, practices and forms of weaving, focusing on the activity that is structurally anchored in the materials and as a process. more

ExC Matters of Activity

@exc_moa, 2.2.2023

RT @PhenoRob: Curious what the future of agriculture will look like? We at the Cluster of Excellence @PhenoRob already have a pretty clear…

Filtering

Filters. Copyright: NODE Berlin Oslo

Projects The project »Filtering« investigates filters using historical, experimental and computational approaches. What information, for example, can be enhanced by new filter techniques? more