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.
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29.9.2023
Welt als Entwurf. Gestaltung im Kontext sozialer, politischer und ökologischer Probleme
Claudia Mareis spricht auf Auricher Wissenschaftstagen
Die Auricher Wissenschaftstage richten sich an Schülerinnen und Schüler. Ob Vorträge von Nobelpreisträger:innen oder hautnahe Einblicke in renommierte Forschungszentren – seit 1992 bietet das Veranstaltungs- und Stipendienprogramm spannende Weiterbildungsmöglichkeiten. Cluster Co-Direktorin Claudia Mareis ist Teil des Programms mit dem Titel »Welt als Entwurf. Gestaltung im Kontext sozialer, politischer und ökologischer Probleme«.
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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
8.11.2023–9.11.2023
Open Space – Active Matter on Stage
MoA is Opening its Doors – Save the Date!
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.
»Matters of Activity« is opening its doors during Berlin Science Week 2023 to show you active matter on stage during exciting hands-on workshops and tours through our new »Activarium«, MoA's very own showroom!
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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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17.11.2023–18.11.2023
CRITICAL TIMES. Multiple Matter
Application for Workshop until 6 October 2023
Post-Doc’s, PhD’s and advanced MA students from the humanities, social science as well as arts and design are invited to engage in a discussion about critical times and materialities, postcolonial and posthuman critique, non-European perspectives, and notions of ›deep time‹ of materialities. Envisioned are formats that are unconventional, playful and non-hierarchical and hopefully undermine classic forms of representation and knowledge consumption. Invited contributors are welcome to facilitate experimental situations in order to take time and practice together. The workshop »CRITICAL TIMES. Part I: Multiple Matter« takes place on November 17th and 18th 2023 at »Matters of Activity«.
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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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Exhibition »Airbound«. Copyright: CollActive Materials; Graphic Design: NODE Berlin Oslo
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?
The exhibition »Airbound« provides space for discussing geopolitical urgencies of the present through climate fictions and speculative everyday scenarios. They confront us with a new awareness of ecosystem fragility in terms of air critical futures. At stake is the contested knowledge of the climate, the destructive use of resources, and the injustices that are inherently linked to it.
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Workshop with EER in Copenhagen, 2023. Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé
27.9.2023–29.9.2023
Epistemic Dizziness
Spinning-On STS Workshop on 27–29 September 2023
In an era fraught with dizzying socio-political events and burgeoning ecological catastrophes, this workshop for a special issue will delve into the concept of epistemic dizziness as a disordered state of whirling vertigo, applying it to the contemporary state of STS. As we navigate the tumultuous landscape of an open-ended pandemic, war, and socio-ecological devastation (Stengers 2021), the research practices of STS itself risk inducing ›epistemic dizziness‹. This workshop, inspired by Donna Haraway (2016), draws on ›serious fun‹ as a means of staving off paralysis and fainting, urging that knowledge production can serve as both a coping mechanism and a source of resilience. Repurposing the concept of ›ilinx‹, as delineated by Roger Caillois (1961), the series of lecture performances will critically examine playful dizzying practices in Western, indigenous, and other worlds as a pathway towards comprehending our vertiginously speedy world.
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Toxic Legacies. Copyright: Leila Wallisser
5.9.2023
Toxic Legacies
Leila Wallisser Awarded With German Design Graduates' 1st Prize
Leila Wallisser has been awarded the First Prize of the German Design Graduate (GDG) Committee 2023 in the category »Sustainability and Circularity« for her Master’s Thesis »Toxic Legacies« conducted at weißensee school of art and design berlin, supervised by »Matters of Activity« members Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karola Dierichs and Prof. Dr. Lucy Norris. »Toxic Legacies« is an innovative design project that delves into the world of recycling, shedding light on how the concept of recycling can tend to justify the production of waste in a consumer-based system.
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Case studies generated with software MidJourney
28.9.2023
Artificial Intelligence for Bio & Growing Design Applications
MidJourney Workshop on 28 September 2023
MidJourney is a so-called ›Image generating‹ AI software that, through descriptive texts called prompts is able to generate images (few samples in the attached image). This tool is very powerful and has incredible potential to deliver creative outputs aiding designers in developing concepts, products, and scenarios ranging from feasible to speculative (more information in the attached Word document). The workshop trainer Nicholas Rapagnani @s.nich.ers, a designer focusing on footwear, biomaterials (mycelium), and AI currently a research fellow at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
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Landscape at Maralinga site (South Australia). Copyright: Wayne England, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
30.8.2023
Damaged Landscapes and Complex Embodiment
Robert Stock will Give a Lecture on 30 August at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society
On August 30th, 2023, Cluster Professor Robert Stock will give a talk about Australia's nuclear contamination from a critical disability studies' perspective. In his contribution at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographic Society, Robert will focus on Yami Lester, a blind aboriginal activist engaged in social change and political intervention in the settler society of Australia. The RGS-IBG Annual International Conference is taking place in London at the Society and Imperial College London, and online from Wednesday 30 August to Friday 1 September 2023, prior registration is needed.
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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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Copyright: »Spontaneous Generations«, https://www.spontaneousgenerations.com/
1.9.2023
On the Agency and Activities of Materials in the 21st Century
Karin Krauthausen and Michael Friedman Published Article in Special Issue of »Spontaneous Generations«
»Spontaneous Generations«, the Journal of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto launched a special issue on ›agency‹. The volume »From Bacteria to Gaia: Levels of Biological Agency« includes an article of the Cluster members Karin Krauthausen and Michael Friedman on the agency and activities of materials in the 21st century.
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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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Workshop »Aerial Witness/ing«. Copyright: The Future of Life School, Clemens Winkler
25.7.2023–29.7.2023
Aerial Witness/ing
Speculative Workshop on July 25th-29th During »The Future of Life Summer School«
Air does not obey nor care about human-made territorial borders, yet it affects and activates various material thresholds! Cluster Members Léa Perraudin, Emilia Tikka, Martin Müller and Clemens Winkler come together at the interstices of critical humanities scholarship, speculative design and new material practices July 25th–29th during »The Future of Life Summer School«, an exploratory summer program organized by the Bio Design Lab, an incubator for collaboration within Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.
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Conference Poster »Landwirtschaft und Literatur«, July 2023, photo »Weizenernte bei Eldagsen« by Michael Gäbler, 2013, and Anonymus: »Lesende Frau«, around 1950, from Cornelia Brink: Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie, Nr. 98, 2005, p. 7; adapted by Node. Copyright: Matters of Activity
13.7.2023–15.7.2023
Landwirtschaft und Literatur
Internationale Tagung organisiert von MoA-Mitgliedern Stephan Kammer und Karin Krauthausen
Über ihr initiales Wirken für menschliche, tierische und pflanzliche Lebensformen hinaus bildet die Landwirtschaft nicht nur ein kontinuierliches Element in der Entwicklung vielfältigster Kulturtechniken, sondern beschäftigt als Topos über Jahrtausende hinweg die kollektive Imagination. Genres wie Georgik und Bukolik, aber auch unterschiedlichste Erzählmodelle zeugen bis heute von den Wechselverhältnissen zwischen Agrikultur und Textkultur. Die Tagung, organisiert von den Clustermitgliedern Stephan Kammer und Karin Krauthausen, geht dem Themenkomplex »Landwirtschaft und Literatur« aus literaturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive nach, aber bezieht dabei wesentlich auch medientheoretische und kulturhistorische Fragen und Wissensbestände ein. Adressiert wird das Feld in seiner ganzen historischen Breite: von Georgik und Bukolik und deren neuzeitlichen Nachwirkungen über erzählerische Kultivierungsunternehmungen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts bis zum Erzählen der Gegenwart.
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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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Visual Open House weißensee school of art and design berlin 2023. Copyright: Stavros Gialamidis
22.7.2023–23.7.2023
Open House at Weißensee School of Art and Design 2023
Student Projects On View in Collaboration with »Matters of Activity«
On July 22nd and 23rd, 2023, 12.00–8.00 pm, weißensee school of art and design berlin will again open its studios for the traditional Open House. Like last year, there will be the opportunity to learn more about the students’ projects and works developed during the previous year, some of them in cooperation with or in classes led by researchers of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.
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Syntopia. Copyright: Jihae Lee, weißensee school of art and design berlin
18.7.2023
Syntopia - Harvesting the Forest
Final Review of MoA Design Research Studio
We hereby cordially invite you to the final review of the MoA Design Research Studio »Syntopia—Harvesting the Forest«, which will take place on Tuesday, July 18th, in Room 2.03 at weißensee school of art and design berlin. The studio led by Cluster Professor Karola Dierichs, 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.
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Bark by Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten and Willow Plektonik by »Structural Textile Project« of Natalija Miodragović, Nelli Singer and Daniel Suárez. Copyright: Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten
13.7.2023
An Exploration of Bark, Willow and Wool
Conversation on Local Biomaterials as Design Innovators between Natalija Miodragović, Dr. Michaela Eder and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten
Moderated by Dr. Manuel Rivera (RIFS) the Cluster Members Natalija Miodragović, Dr. Michaela Eder and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten discuss bark, willow and wool in the panel »Conversation on Local Biomaterials as Design Innovators« during the exhibition »Examples to Follow!« on July 13th, 7.30 pm.
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Myko.Plektonik - An Exploration of Fungal Growth on Structural Textiles. Copyright: Natalija Miodragović & Dimitra Almpani-Lekka, »Plektonik« group, Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«. Assisted by MA Student Andrija Mihailovic. Supported by the Department of Applied and Molecular Microbiology at TU Berlin
10.7.2023
Myko.Plektonik - An Exploration of Fungal Growth on Structural Textiles
Natalija Miodragović and Dimitra Almpani-Lekka Hold Lecture at My-Co Place
The project »Myko.Plektonik« investigates architectural design as a co-operation between plants and filamentous fungi, driven by mycelial growth and textile techniques. In »Myko.Plektonik«, fungal mycelium is grown within knitted willow structures, intertwining the biological and the built environment. It is a project that defines new ways of collaboration between design and science as well as between different local species. During the lecture on July 10th, 7.00 pm, at My-Co Place we will have the opportunity to see, touch and smell some of the prototypes and discuss a future of architecture in the cities where we can grow buildings and live in a flexible symbiosis with nature.
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Nervous Listening Hands-On Workshop. Copyright: Matters of Activity
26.6.2023
Nervous Listening: Neuroceptive Ethnographies of Atmospheres
Workshop and Lecture with Marina Peterson
On Monday, June 26th, anthropologists of art and science Marina Peterson (University of Texas in Austin) & Maxime Le Calvé (MoA) invited to »Nervous Listening«, an experimental ethnography workshop, realized together with cloud designer Clemens Winkler (MoA). Entering the Central Laboratory that day, participants were greeted with balloons to inflate with their breath and a 285-hertz »Theta« sound bath, which they were invited to explore haptically through the red latex bubbles. Blown into tension, they made us subtly reactive to air vibration. Thus attuned, we started listening nervously to the atmosphere around and to each other’s vocal utterances.
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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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Poster Lecture Series, May–June 2023. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
17.5.2023–28.6.2023
See - Ander(e)s Sehen
Cluster Professors Present their Research at Public Lecture Series at weißensee school of art and design berlin
On Wednesday, May 17th, at 5 pm, the public lecture series »see - ander(e)s sehen« started at weißensee school of art and design berlin, with four MoA members taking part in this semester's program. The first lecture was given by Karola Dierichs, Cluster professor for »Material and Code«, sharing her insights about »Designing Matter-Teaching Research and Research through Teaching.« Patricia Ribault, Thomas Ness, and Lucy Norris will give further lectures in the following weeks.
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Visual Lectures Series »Navigation«, 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
17.4.2023–16.7.2023
Interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung »Navigation«
Regula Burri und Maxime Le Calvé organisieren Vortragsreihe an der HafenCity Universität Hamburg
Mit der Verbreitung von Smartphone-Apps, Drohnen, GPS-Daten und Navigationsgeräten für Automobile wird Navigation in unserem Alltag immer wichtiger. Auch in der wissenschaftlichen Forschung nimmt die Bedeutung von Navigation als einer Technik und Praxis des Durchquerens digitaler und analoger Räume zu. Beim Navigieren geht es darum, aufgrund einer Vielfalt von heterogenen Daten einen situativ optimalen Weg zu finden, wobei Visualisierungen und Kartierungen eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Die von den Clustermitgliedern Maxime Le Calvé und Regula Burri organisierte interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung setzt sich mit Navigation als kultureller und wissenschaftlicher Praxis aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven auseinander. Am 5. Juni hilft uns Maxime Le Calvé bei der Navigation durchs Gehirn – nicht verpassen!
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Talking Wool. Image: Mina Mahouti. Copyright: Hanna Wiesener
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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Exhibition »Materiales en Expansión«, Buenos Aires, March 2023. Structural Textile Project: Miodragović, Suarez, Singer, Object Space Agency; Complex Web Structures by Daniela Castillo. Copyright: Christian Stein
15.3.2023–9.5.2023
Stretching Materialities | Materiales en Expansión
Exhibition Opened at Universidad de Buenos Aires | Exposición Inaugurada en la Universidad de Buenos Aires
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 could be visited every Wednesday until May 9th (extended), 2023 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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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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Teaser Coding IxD (7), Let’s Get: Physical, 2023.
16.2.2023–23.2.2023
Coding IxD (7) – Let's Get:PHYSICAL
From the Practice of Interdisciplinary Education: Making Data Tangible
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
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
Cover of »Architectures of Weaving«: »Stone Web«. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin / Natascha Unger, Idalene Rapp
4.1.2023
Architectures of Weaving
Multidisciplinary Anthology Bridging Architecture and Textile Out Now
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.
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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 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«.
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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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Design Workshop. Copyright: 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 Out Now
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 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.
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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« 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.
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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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