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.

MY-CO PLACE – Architecture of Sustainable Growth

Cluster Member Vera Meyer Opens Transdisciplinary Urban Laboratory as Learning Station, Exhibition Space and Discussion Platform at TU Berlin

Fungi as Building Material. Copyright: Vera Meyer, MY-CO PLACE

News MY-CO PLACE is now open! The transdisciplinary urban laboratory of the TU Berlin 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 Prof. Vera Meyer (TU Berlin) and Prof. Sven Pfeiffer (University of Bochum). Biotechnologist and molecular biologist Vera Meyer will also open a lecture series on May 15th about fungi as the building material of the future there. more

Examples to Follow!

Cluster Members Contribute to Exhibition in Uferhallen Wedding

Keyvisual Exhibition »Zur Nachahmung empfohlen«, Berlin, Uferhallen Wedding May to June 2023. Copyright: Jennifer Allora und Guillermo Calzadilla, from »Under Discussion«, 2004/2005, courtesy the artists, adapted by anschlaege.de

News | Exhibition In its 13th year, the international traveling exhibition »Examples to follow!« returns to its first stop for the 20th edition - enriched by the expertise of international artists and scientists. After stops on four continents, the exhibition finale will take place at Uferhallen Wedding from May 12th to July 16th: a core theme is the conventional construction industry's catastrophic share in the climate disaster. The exhibition will also feature works and talks by MoA researchers Dimitra Almpani-Lekka, Julia Blumenthal, Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten, Vera Meyer, Natalija Miodragović, and Charlett Wenig. In addition, we are pleased to be part of the exhibition's dialogue program with the workshop »Talking Wool - Wool in Exchange« organized by Lucy Norris, Khashayar Razghandi, and Hanna Wegener on June 1st. more

Talking Wool – Wool in Exchange

Activating Circular Networks Event Series Will Kick Off on 1 June at Uferhallen Wedding

Talking Wool. Image: Mina Mahouti. Copyright: Hanna Wiesener

Event | Activating Circular Networks 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. more

Dis_abled Nature

Talk by Siegfried Saerberg and Robert Stock at the Humboldt Lab

As part of the performance »Tender Absence«, Siegfried Saerberg sits on a bench amidst deforested trees. Copyright: Disabled Landscapes

Event | Talk | Filtering Nature and disability are closely linked. The terms reflect the damage, but also the diversity of our world. The crisis of nature cultures – their dis_ability – is the consequence of globalized economies and climate injustices. Attempts at healing and restoration are linked to them, as are protests and artistic interventions aimed at other futures. But how sustainable are approaches to the climate crisis that rely on visual anthropocentrism and the idea of nature domination? Doesn’t smelling, touching, and hearing have to be brought to the fore in order to make room for a diverse perceptual knowledge that is close to living beings? With their talk on June 17th at 7 pm, Siegfried Saerberg, Professor for Disability Studies and Participation Research, and Cluster Professor Robert Stock are part of the Long Night of the Sciences at the Humboldt Lab on the topic »Climate_in_justice«. 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« am 24. Mai 2023

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

See - Anders(e)s Sehen

Cluster Professors Present their Research at Public Lecture Series at weißensee school of art and design berlin

Poster Lecture Series, May–June 2023. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin

Event | Lecture Series On Wednesday, May 17th, at 5 pm, the public lecture series »see - anders(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.« In the following weeks, Patricia Ribault, Thomas Ness, and Lucy Norris will give further lectures. more

The Power of Water

New Dates for Workshops on Water as a Unique Element in Conservation in June

The power of water. Copyright: Johanna Hoffmann and Lisa Herold

Event | Object Space Agency | Stretching Materialities Water is a unique element also in conservation. It is a universal element that occurs on earth in all states of aggregation at the same time. Its properties, which may seem unremarkable at first sight, allow this element to be used and modified in a number of ways. In addition to established measures, new scientific discoveries are constantly finding their way into conservation. The two workshops »The Power of Water« on June 14th and 15th will offer some insights into the application of water in conservation treatments – with practical examples and experiments, you are welcome to explore conservation methods and techniques. more

Digitization of Indigenous Knowledge for Extended Reality and Culture

Report on Summer School 2023 at Borneo Cultures Museum, Kuching

Borneo Summer School 2023, Photo: Gary Loh Chee Wyai. Copyright: Jürgen Sieck/HTW Berlin

News | Summer School | Filtering From March 1st to 15th, 2023, MoA members Alwin Cubasch and Jürgen Sieck, together with Eileen Klingner, Verena Metze-Mangold, Elisabeth Thielen, Sophie Schauer, as well as several students, traveled to the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo for the Filtering project to conduct the DAAD-funded Summer School »Digitization of Indigenous Knowledge for Extended Reality and Culture« on site. In addition, six Malaysian scholars and 20 students participated who not only have insight into the indigenous culture and way of life of Borneo but are also members of different indigenous groups. The Summer School took place at the Borneo Cultures Museum in the provincial capital of Kuching, the second-largest museum in Southeast Asia. more

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

Driving the Human Book Launch at Matters of Activity, 10 May 2023. Copyright: Camille Blake / Driving the Human

Event 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«. more

Futures of Air

Speculative Workshop Series in May

Futures of Air. Copyright: CollActive Materials

Event | Science Communication | CollActive Materials | Air 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). more

Material Knowledge

MoA Members Contribute to New Event Series Organized by HZK/CARMAH

Poster Talk Series, HZK and CARMAH, 2023. Copyright: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

News On Wednesday, April 26th, the seminar series with the theme of WARP (Werkstatt für kulturelle Ausdrucksweisen und Recherche in der Praxis) will kick off with a tour through the exhibition »DAOULA | sheen« by one of the Co-curators and MoA Member Laurence Douny. MoA Pre-Doctoral Researcher Yoonha Kim will hold a talk on »Wearing Sallim« on May 3rd, and MoA Associated Member Lucy Norris about »Regenerative Fibre Cultures: Fashioning New threads of Connection« on June 14th. The talks and workshops will explore diverse forms of material knowledge in research, material culture, curation, technology, and art and are organized by Magdalena Buchczyk from the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH). They take place Wednesdays 4–5.30 pm (CEST) either at Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik or digitally on Zoom. more

Designing in Times of the Anthropocene

New Online Lecture Series Organized by MoA Co-Director Claudia Mareis Starts on 19 April

Poster Lecture Series »Designing in Times of the Anthropocene«, 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity

Event | Lecture Series | Material Form Function 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. more

Encounters & Fabulations at the Edges of the Human

Writing Workshop on 11 May with Anthropologist Stuart McLean

Visual Writing Workshop, Stuart McLean, May 2023. Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé, Matters of Activity

Event | stretching senses school What new possibilities for thinking and living might result from extending the notion of creativity beyond the human realm? The worlds that humans often pride themselves on creating are not and have never been exclusively human but are dependent upon and inflected by a multitude of other-than-human powers and presences, including animals, plants, geological formations, weather systems, and a range of humanly manufactured artifacts fashioned from a variety of materials. On May 11th, from 11 am–3 pm, Stuart McLean, professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, is invited by Cluster member Maxime Le Calvé as part of the stretching senses school (Cutting/OSA) to give a writing workshop on multimodal anthropological fabulations – you're kindly invited to join! more

Interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung »Navigation«

Regula Burri und Maxime Le Calvé organisieren Vortragsreihe an der HafenCity Universität Hamburg

Visual Lectures Series »Navigation«, 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity

Event | Lecture Series | Cutting 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. Start ist am Montag, den 17. April 2023, um 18:15 Uhr. more

More-than-Ethnographic Probes: On Scales, Design Anthropology and Sensory Practices Beyond-the-Human

Maxime Le Calvé Invited to Teach alongside Alice Jarry at Concordia University, Montreal

Maxime Le Calvé, Fieldwork Charité, 2022. Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé, Matters of Activity.

News | Cutting Cluster Member Maxime Le Calvé will travel to Montreal for a short research and teaching stay at the Milieux Biolab and the Milieux Speculative Life Cluster at Concordia University. He is invited by Prof. Alice Jarry, an assistant professor of Design and Computation Arts (Concordia University, Montréal) who holds the Concordia University Research Chair in Critical Practices in Materials and Materiality.
Together, they will conduct the workshop »More-Than-Ethnographic Probes«. This workshop is a fieldwork and a platform for the development of collaborative sketching, writing, and documentation methods. The workshop will be followed by a roundtable panel at the »Uncommon Senses« Conference at Concordia on May 4th. The panel will be chaired by anthropologist Stefan Helmreich (MIT). Moreover, Maxime will present a paper on the »Sensory Ethnography« panel at the »Uncommon Senses« conference, with the title: »Sketching a Sense of Presence: Graphic Ethnography as Speculative Sensorial Attunement to Neurosurgical Practice«. more

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

Petrification

Emile De Visscher Publishes in Recently Launched Image-Based Journal .able

Petrification, publication at .able Journal, 2023. Copyright: Emile De Visscher, Ophélie Maurus

News | Publication | Material Form Function On March 23rd, 2023, Emile de Visscher's contribution about petrification was published with the launch of .able, an innovative image-based journal at the intersection of art, design, and sciences responding to the complexities of today’s society. To explore the new format of scientific publishing offered by the .able Journal, Emile de Visscher invited Ophélie Maurus, independent art director and photographer for the Petrification research project. The main focus was to take advantage of the different layers of content in the platform to present the different dimensions of the project: speculative, symbolic, technical, etc. One of the most intriguing and difficult steps concerned the referencing systems as every scientific article is structured and built upon one. But how to create references with images rather than words? more

A New Vision of Research-Creation

.able Journal Out Now – Join the Launch Week!

.able Journal, Going with the Flow, 2023, Image: Gisèle Trudel. Copyright: .able

News | Publication On March 23rd, 2023, .able Journal, an innovative image-based multiplatform journal for publishing research at the intersection of art, design, and sciences was launched. .able reinvents the publication form by making research accessible through images. Free of charge and distributed on numerous platforms, media, and devices, Created at the initiative of La Chaire Arts & Sciences of the École Polytechnique, the École des Arts Décoratifs – PSL, and the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso, the journal is published by Actar Publishers and supported by some thirty international academic partners. »Matters of Activity« is proud to tell you that the Cluster is connected to this great project by several members: Editor-in-chief of .able is Samuel Bianchini, Associated Member to MoA, part of the board are MoA Co-Director Claudia Mareis and Cluster Professor Patricia Ribault. Among the first researchers to use the new publication format to present their research is MoA member Emile de Visscher. more

Filters in Biology and Biomimetics (FiBB 2023)

A Conference Organized by Venkata A Surapaneni (City University of Hong Kong), Mason Dean and John Nyakatura

FiBB 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity

Event | Filtering Biological filters, which separate particles from fluids, are hugely important to animal and ocean health, involved in capturing food for myriad species, filtering sediment and cleaning water, and even concentrating microplastics. Filter architectures, by definition, must interact with and exert control over their physical environment: filters can be as simple as sieves or have complex designs; be made of soft cartilage or stiff keratin materials; can filter particles either actively or passively; and are present in organisms at a wide range of scales —from millimeter-sized plankton to enormous basking sharks. The »Filters in Biology and Biomimetics (FiBB 2023)« conference, on May 15th and 16th, aims to synthesize different aspects of biological filtration, look for unifying themes across the Tree of Life, and integrate disparate research groups pushing this research forward. The meeting will unite diverse early-career and experienced researchers working on fundamental aspects of particle filtration in manifold natural systems, as well as designers, engineers and industrial specialists experienced in particle filters and biomimetic applications. By bringing together multidisciplinary experts, we will build new connections, benefitting biologists interested in structure-function and ecology, and experimental and industrial experts interested in the design and scaling of bioinspired and/or industrial filters. more

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

Anna Schäffner. Photo: Michelle Mantel

News | Achievement | 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

Clemens Winkler Has Been Appointed Visiting Professor »Digital Media« at Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch

In an Interview, He Presents Possible Synergetic Interfaces Between the Cluster and the Theater School

News | Achievement | Object Space Agency Research Associate Clemens Winkler has been appointed visiting professor »digital media« at Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch. In an interview, the design researcher introduces himself and presents possible synergetic interfaces between the Cluster and the theater academy. In the course »Spiel und Objekt«, he creates playful stage spaces with students to negotiate human perspectives on current socio-technological ecologies and post-fossil futures. more

Radical Open-Access Graphic Fieldnotes for Media-Savvy Epistemic partners

Maxime Le Calvé Presented Paper at the Film Festival of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Sketch by Maxime Le Calvé, 2022, Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé, Matters for Activity

Event | Cutting Posting graphic fieldnotes can be brewed into a method to broker some attention from busy professionals. But what are the benefits of the practice? And for a potential publisher? What are the drawbacks and inconveniences? What’s the best practice in this domain? A paper, presented by Maxime Le Calvé at the Film Festival of the Royal Anthropological Institute (London, UK), on March 7th, 2023, focuses on the collaborative ethnographic process conducted within a neurosurgery department as a »radical open-access« pre-publication. more

Stretching Materialities | Materiales en Expansión

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 The Round Table »On Fibers and Mixtures« was 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 represented each of the exhibiting projects and the involved researchers and artists in a moderated dialogue with guests from different disciplines. The format brought 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 discussed their work with Emanuele Coccia, Peter Fratzl, and Beatriz Morales, moderated by architect and Cluster Member Iva Rešetar. more

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

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

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

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

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