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.
Extended Reality – Code and Materiality in Art and Culture
Interactive Exhibition in Cooperation of University of Applied Sciences Berlin (HTW) Media Theater and »Matters of Activity«
Flyer of Exhibition »Code & Materiality in Art and Culture«. Copyright: University of Applied Sciences Berlin
What does materiality mean for art and culture from today’s perspective? How can materiality be understood in our post-digital age, where digital technologies permeate creative work from start to finish, both in terms of tools and materials and conceptually?
The exhibition »Extended Reality – Code and Materiality in Art and Culture,« September 3rd to 30th, 2021, illuminates various aspects of (digital) materiality through selected works from design, art, literature, music, performance and science that have been created with Extended Reality technologies (Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality).
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Dis/Entangling Perspectives in Material Research
Online Lecture Series Starting on 25 October 2021, every Monday 4:15 pm–5:45 pm (CEST)
Poster »Dis/Entangling Perspectives in Material Research«. Copyright: Matters of Activity | Image: Michaela Büsse
Materials such as water, sand, coal or crude oil are essential resources for industrial production, technological and infrastructural development. Although they are omnipresent in everyday life, their genealogies, epistemologies and ontologies are rarely called into question. This lecture series, organized by Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis, focuses on the ecological, sociopolitical and symbolic interrelations that unfold around the industrial utilization and commodification of materials. A critical historical perspective shows, among other things, that materials are often the result of and object to precarious geopolitics and biopolitics as well as unsustainable modes of production and consumption. As such the lecture series connects to discourses on material/political and power/knowledge relations.
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Student Assistant in the Design Lab of the Cluster (m/f/d)
40h per Month, for 24 month – MoA_07_2021 – Application Deadline 6 October 2021 – Start of Employment: December 2021
Design Lab. Copyright: Matters of Activity
The Design Lab of the Cluster is currently looking for a student assistant. In the Design Lab, all Cluster members have the possibility to try their hand on the 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, and CAD workstations under the guidance of the (Workshop) Team. Here, the independent development and revision of models and prototypes from conception to execution are made tangible for the researchers. From a hammer to a programmable microchip with sensors, the Design Lab provides a fertile ground for trials and experiments while mediating between the various disciplines and projects.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 16.9.2021
Today is the day! We're opening the #exhibition #stretchingmaterialities at 6 pm at Tieranatomisches Theater at… twitter.com/...
Urban Vibrations: How Physical Waves Come to Matter in Contemporary Urbanism
First »Talking Matters« Lecture after the Summer Break with Anthropologist Ignacio Farías
Poster Online Lecture Series »Talking Matters«, Copyright: Cécile Bidan and Salif Sawadogo, adapted by NODE Berlin
Our two-week »Talking Matters« lecture series, launched in May, is moving on to the next round. On September 14th, we look forward to an inspiring lecture and discussion from and with anthropologist Ignacio Farías from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on »Urban Vibrations: How Physical Waves Come to Matter in Contemporary Urbanism.«
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Exhibition »Stretching Materialities«
Hidden Activities in Objects and Spaces at Tieranatomisches Theater
Save-the-date »Stretching Materialities«. Copyright: Offshore Design
Matter is dead? Objects are lifeless? Think again! In the exhibition »Stretching Materialities,« which was opened on September 16th 2021, the liveliness and activity of matter can be experienced in a completely new way. The Tieranatomisches Theater has become an interactive laboratory space that allows completely unexpected insights into thinking about matter – and makes it tangible how active the world around us really is. The exhibition curated by multidisciplinary researchers and designers of the project »Object Space Agency« under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle and Clemens Winkler can be visited until January 22nd, 2022, Mon-Fri, 2–6 pm.
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»stretching senses school«
VR Worlding for Planetary Emergency – Apply now!
Poster »stretching senses school«, Image: Jemma Woolstone’s Audio-Visual Full Dome Project »Of Fragile Tings«. Copyright: »Matters of Activity«
The ongoing climate disaster puts many worlds in imminent danger. But conveying the entanglements of the more-than-human relations is an arduous task. Playful approaches can directly affect our sensory faculties beyond the realm of power and knowledge. The »stretching senses school« is an education-as-research project at the Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin (TA T) attached to the »Stretching Materialities« exhibition, co-partnered with the Node Institute Berlin. Through this workshop-based contribution to the exhibition, we intend to foster collaboration between anthropology and immersive interaction design. We will engage with research creation in order to raise awareness of the public on the multiscale and embedded interconnections between humans and other earthly beings.
»stretching senses school« is issuing a call for application to the VR community until September 15th. The participation will be compensated.
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»Exzellent erklärt – Spitzenforschung für alle«
New Science Podcast of All Clusters of Excellence Now Online
Podcast »Exzellent erklärt«, Episode 1: Tactile Internet. Copyright: Exzellenz erklärt; Image: CeTI/TU Dresden
57 Clusters of Excellence – one podcast: »Exzellent erklärt« (»Excellent Explained«) regularly reports from one of the research networks that are funded as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. The journey goes right across the country and the topics are just as diverse as the locations: from African studies to the future of medicine. All Clusters of Excellence share a common motivation: they address important issues of our time, work on unusual questions and conduct research for the society of tomorrow.
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Material Negotiations: Practices of Biodesign
Virtual Symposium on 8 October
Poster Virtual Symposium »Material Negotiations«. Copyright: Julia Lohmann, adapted by NODE Berlin
In search of non-extractive production models, biological systems became a central interest for the design practice since 10 years. Designers embraced growing strategies rather than shaping technologies, transient organisms rather than stable materials, environment-sensitive assemblages rather than resistant and passivated objects. How this »biological turn« is questioning the methods, tools, attitude and political role of designers today?
To approach active, transient, evolving or animated materials demands care rather than control. Design practice, instead of forcing matter into shapes, has to unfold into sym-poiesis, making with. To do so, designers need to understand and apprehend the non human actors they team up with. Be it bacterias, mushrooms, biowaste, DNA or algae, meeting with these micro-organisms requires new mediation tools like microscopes, Petri dishes or biolabs. Trained to listen to their wills, habits and instabilities, the resulting shapes and functions are always an ongoing negotiation. A crucial aspect of biodesign also lies in size and repeatability of the processes. Their scales, both in terms of space and time, are quite unusual for the design field. Meeting the human or the architectural dimensions raises many challenges, not only in terms of infrastructures for production, but also in terms of standards. Wether living, semi-living or non-living, biomaterials have a great tendency to produce difference rather than exact copies of the same. Even if the recipe is identical at every iteration, the repetition of growing mechanisms produce ranges of different forms and functions. The designer’s role, in such case, cannot stay linked to precise drawings of a model to reproduce industrially - she/he has to produce recipes with open ended results. If we are all used to difference in fruits, vegetables or wood products, can we accept variability in packaging, electronics, clothing or architecture ?
The virtual symposium »Material Negotiations« gathers design practitioners to discuss and understand the scope, challenges and interest of such a shift. The symposium is hosted by Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis and Dr. Emile de Visscher as part of the »Material Form Function« group.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 6.9.2021
📝 Save the date for the first #TalkingMatters #Lecture after the Summer Break on September 14:
#Anthropologist Igna… twitter.com/...
Brain Networks and Language Function
Latest Research Results by MoA Members Published in the Renowned Journal »Cortex«
Lesion overlay map of brain tumor patients, Copyright: Lucius Fekonja
MoA researchers have succeeded in determining more precisely the relation between certain brain networks and the language function. The interdisciplinary team investigated language dysfunction on a voxel-level using the voxel-lesion-symptom-mapping method in glioma patients.
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Why We Need to Rethink Cutting in Neurosurgery
Article by Members of the MoA »Cutting« Project Published in Journal »Neurosurgery«
Fantastic Voyage 2021. Copyright: Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2021
In their article in the prominent neurosurgical journal, researchers from the MoA »Cutting« project describe how future tools will enable practitioners to treat brain diseases with unmatched accuracy by integrating analog and digital tools in new hybrid devices and workflows.
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Between Night and Day – Immersive Explorations Within a Slide Archive
Cluster Members' Contribution to Exhibition »Extended Reality«
Making process of installation »Between Night and Day« at exhibition »Extended Reality«. Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé and Mareike Stoll
The project proposes and explores a space in-between, using virtual reality (VR) technology and a digitized archive of images, it wants to invite reflection and research on various modes of knowing in connection to materiality and code, activity of images and the space needed for this. Can digital humanities open up to new comprehensive experiments around the presence and the absence, on the material picture-relations and the gaps of the in-between, moving toward regions of human knowledge which meaning cannot convey?
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MoA Director Claudia Mareis Guest Member in Jury for TaDA Artist in Residence Program
The Call for 2022 is now Open until 4 October 2021
Call for Applications for TaDA – Textile and Design Alliance Artist in Residence Programme 2022, Copyright: Ladina Bischoff
This year, MoA Director Claudia Mareis is a guest member of the jury for the Artist in Residence program of the Textile and Design Alliance TaDA. The innovative program is aimed at practitioners in the fields of visual art, design, architecture, literature, performing arts or on transdisciplinary projects with a strong interest in textile production and its context. It is run by the cantons of St.Gallen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Thurgau and offers a unique opportunity to work together with renowned textile companies in Eastern Switzerland. Applications are open until October 4th.
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Humboldt Lab Finally Open to the Public
Exhibition Opening »After Nature« on 20 July 2021
»Stone Web« (Design: Idalene Rapp and Natasha Unger) at the exhibition »After Nature« at Humboldt Labor. Copyright: Matters of Activity, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Research Wall »Scripts«. Copyright: schnellebuntebilder | Exhibition Architecture. Copyright: Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse
After a long wait and numerous postponements, the time has come: The Humboldt Forum, a place for culture and research, for exchange and debate, opens its doors to the public and with it the Humboldt Lab – the event and exhibition space of Berlin's Universities and Clusters of Excellence. From July 20th, visitors will be able to admire exciting exhibits and projects. The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« will also be represented with various contributions.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 6.9.2021
RT @drha_uk: #drha2021 Welcome by the chair of organisation Prof Sue Broadhurst #DigitalMatters Designing and Performing Agency for the Ant…
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
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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Towards a Material Basis for Symbols
Cluster Members and Researchers at University of Plymouth Use Novel Network Models for Understanding the Human Ability to Manipulate Symbols and Language
The paper »Biological Constraints on Neural Network Models of Cognitive Function« is one of the first key outputs from a recently initiated Advanced Grant funded by the European Research Council called »Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition«.
In this project and in the Cluster, Friedemann Pulvermüller and his team are now systematically approaching material-based answers to questions such as the following: How can humans learn a vocabulary of 10,000s of words whereas our closest relatives are normally stuck with 10s? How is it possible that little children quickly interlink signs with meanings, upon only one experience in the extreme, although our closest relatives have great difficulty building such links and neural networks require excessive time for learning them? By which mechanisms can we build abstract concepts and what contribution (if any) makes language to this process (… and many others)?
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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
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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Student Assistant in the Field of Publications (m/f/d) – Apply until September 16!
Cover of publication »Active Materials«, planned publication in November 2021, Copyright: De Gruyter STEM.
The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« is looking for a student assistant to support the Cluster's research on the features and challenges of interdisciplinary publications in digital and analog formats (text, data, audio-visual media, software, objects).
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Minimal Machines 1
Final Presentation of MoA Design Research Studio
Copyright: Elaine Bonavia & Elisa Martignoni, weißensee school of art and design berlin, 2021
»Minimal Machines« is an MoA Design Research Studio Project investigating the development of machines for non-augmented and augmented spinning on an architectural scale. The machines are to be used as devices in conjunction with a designed material. Given that one of the core paradigms of designing matter is the abolition of machines in favor of matter’s own inner activity, these machines are to be minimal. This can imply tools that are designed to perform the bare minimum required in the assembly of a designed material. Still, it can also mean that matter is designed to become operational—or machinic—itself. Come and see for yourself at the virtual final presentation on July 13th.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 6.9.2021
RT @drha_uk: Today is the day! DRHA Berlin 2021 has officially started. So, we would like to invite you to use our hashtag #drhaberlin2021…
Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn
Final Review on 13 July 2021
Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
The MoA Design Research Studio »Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn« explored the upscaling of fiber into yarns as structural elements for the architectural scale and context. It was carried out as a transdisciplinary exchange between architecture, textile technology, materials science and cultural studies aiming at new concepts for sustainable design technologies. Join its final review on July 13th, 2.00pm.
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Student Assistant in the Design Lab of the Cluster (m/f/d)
40h per Month, for 24 month – MoA_07_2021 – Application Deadline 6 October 2021 – Start of Employment: December 2021
Design Lab. Copyright: Matters of Activity
The Design Lab of the Cluster is currently looking for a student assistant. In the Design Lab, all Cluster members have the possibility to try their hand on the 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, and CAD workstations under the guidance of the (Workshop) Team. Here, the independent development and revision of models and prototypes from conception to execution are made tangible for the researchers. From a hammer to a programmable microchip with sensors, the Design Lab provides a fertile ground for trials and experiments while mediating between the various disciplines and projects.
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Ultratool – Why Calling it Phone?
Collaborative Studio Project with Students from the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, and weißensee school of art and design berlin
WEON prototype. Copyright: Netta Gigi, Harrison Tan, Fu Yitao, Jehyun Kim
The phone call has taken a back seat as an interaction and is replaced by the multitude of applications such as navigation, healthcare, Internet of Things or social media. Various filters and filtering technologies interact simultaneously to shape our access and exchange with our environment. The studio project »Ultratool« addresses this development and investigates conditioning cultural and social behaviors within the technology ecosystem we live in. The aim of the project is to develop new product ideas and concepts, based on various analyses and design methods on technical and cultural aspects. »Ultratool« is a collaborative studio project of MoA Design Research Studio with students from the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, and weißensee school of art and design berlin. The final presentation will be held on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021 at 10.00 am–12.30 pm (CET).
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Situated Digital Agencies
Seminar Series between MoA's Doctoral Program and the Department of Digital and Experimental Design at UdK Berlin
Situated Digital Agencies. Copyright: Maxie Schneider
During this summer semester, the teaching format »Situated Digital Agencies« bridges institutions just as much as cultures of knowledge, research and teaching. Along transdisciplinary and dialogic encounter it follows how digital technologies are and become situated between discourses of arts and design, humanities, and sciences – and suggests how precisely in these moments, they are altered, appropriated and possibly augmented towards epistemological and ontological surplus.
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Can Bacteria Spin a Yarn? We Need a New Culture of Materials
Cluster Members Opened Event Series »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch« at the Humboldt Forum
Can Bacteria Spin a Yarn? Kick-Off event »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch«, Humboldt Forum Berlin, 29 April 2021. Copyright: Humbolt Forum
On Thursday, April 29th, 7–9:30 pm, members of the Cluster gave insights into the research of »Matters of Activity« in an interactive live show, thus opening the event series »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch« at the Humboldt Forum.
Using concrete examples from the Cluster projects »Weaving« and »Filtering«, MoA members Bastian Beyer, Alwin Cubasch, Peter Fratzl, Regine Hengge, Claudia Mareis, Léa Perraudin, Christiane Sauer and Wolfgang Schäffner showed how the natural sciences, the humanities and the design disciplines work closely together to find innovative solutions to contemporary problems.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 2.9.2021
RT @LuciusFekonja: Our VLSM article analysing language dysfunction in glioma patients is out! Many thanks to co-authors & reviewers :)
Lesi…
The Event of a Fibre
Essay by Regine Hengge and Karin Krauthausen on the Occasion of the Exhibition »Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos« Published
Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Pliable Architecture (2021), Copyright: Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio.
Regine Hengge's and Karin Krauthausen's essay »The Event of Fibre« has been published in the volume accompanying the exhibition »Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos« which will be shown in Berlin's Gropius Bau from April 29th to September 15th, 2021.
Whether in DNA interactions, bacterial biofilms or city architectures, weaving can be a model for different and relational »ecologies of life«. Ranging across artistic practices, cell biology, and human forms, molecular biologist Hengge and cultural historian Krauthausen (both Project »Weaving«) examine what we can learn from nature's enmeshed processes.
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Imagining the Heavens
Stefan Zieme's Article about Adam Elsheimer Published in the Journal for the History of Knowledge
Adam Elsheimer, The Flight into Egypt, 1609, oil on copper, 31 × 41 cm. Copyright: Alte Pinakothek, München.
In his article »Imagining the Heavens: Adam Elsheimer’s Flight into Egypt and the Renaissance Night Sky«, the historian of science and knowledge Stefan Zieme (Project »Symbolic Material«) proposes a revisionist interpretation of Elsheimer’s most famous artwork based on an analysis of the technical and cultural practices of discerning and imagining the night sky around 1600.
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Master Open Design
Cohort 2021-2023 Virtual Semester Kick-Off
Copyright: Ilkin Taşdelen, Ana Vila, Master Open Design
In April 2021, the first virtual semester of the international interdisciplinary Master's Program »Open Design« kicked-off. In the opening week, 40 students from all over the world accompanied each other on virtual walks in their study locations, interchanging visual impressions and audio files discussing different topics, ranging from ecological and sustainable design, the philosophy of the Anthropocene to emergency design and DIY.
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»Materialwissenschaft – von der Biomimese zur Bioinspiration«
Guest Article from Peter Fratzl in the »Austria Presse Agentur – Science«
Peter Fratzl has published a guest article in »Austria Presse Agentur – Science« in the series »Lehrmeisterin Natur«. Under the title »Materialwissenschaft – von der Biomimese zur Bioinspiration«, he explores the question of what makes natural materials so interesting for materials scientists. On the one hand, there are the renewable raw materials such as wood or cotton, which are widely used as building materials or textiles. On the other hand, it is the fact that nature succeeds in producing materials with an incredible variety of properties and applications from comparatively few and not always very high-quality basic materials. The article is available in German.
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Passivity Matters! Transience and Conservation Practices. Examples from the 18th Century until Today: A Talk by Nina Samuel
Berlin Museum of Medical History at Charité in 360° – Knowledge Room of MoA’s Virtual Cluster Space. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Since conservators have perfected the practice of passivating materials and slowing down their material transformation process, they have acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the activity of materials and can be considered experts in active and passive matter. The talk investigates pathological specimens and wax moulages from the conservation laboratory of the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité. Asking which practices of activating and passivating are associated with these objects, the talk analyses their intrinsic activity. Linking the findings to aspects of the history of conservation, the talk argues that the dominant conservation paradigm still active today can be regarded as a legacy from the late 18th and the 19th centuries. The talk concludes with a reflection on the contemporary challenges of preserving and remembering, and with the question of how processes of material disintegration can be made productive in an ever-expanding museum culture and age of collecting. Find out more in Nina Samuel's knowledge room in MoA's Virtual Cluster Space.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 1.9.2021
@MCQST_cluster @TactileInternet @dfg_public @frankfitzek @tudresden_de @SpeidelStefanie @NCT_UCC_DD @ingTUDresden C… twitter.com/...
Joint Project of The Clusters of Excellence »Matters of Activity« and »Science of Intelligence«: Wenn Materie lebendig wird
New Funding for Experimental Laboratories of Science Communication from the Berlin University Alliance
Copyright: Felix Noak, ExC Science of Intelligence
One of the core objectives of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) lies in strengthening the multidirectional exchange of knowledge between universities and other important figures and stakeholders. The BUA defines knowledge exchange and therein science communication as a multidirectional process through which scientific ideas and research results are transferred to the public and external perspectives flow back into research. The experimental laboratory »Wenn Materie lebendig wird« is dedicated to socially highly relevant changes and, within them, to a knowledge production process that cannot take place in isolated research spaces, but should involve different social groups in a participatory process using innovative methods.
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Soft Fibrous Structures: Spatial Concepts for Cellulose Biofilms: A Talk by Bastian Beyer and Iva Rešetar
Bacterial Cellulose Environment in 360° – Knowledge room for the lecture »Soft Fibrous Structures: Spatial Concepts for Cellulose Biofilms«. Copyright: Matters of Activity
As a biological material, bacterial cellulose belongs to a new generation of renewable polymers that are fundamentally different from standardized, industrial materials. Its outstanding properties, such as high water absorption and filtering capacity, high crystallinity, and the ability to withstand high tensile forces, are dependent on cultivation methods, microbial activity and a constant exchange with the environment. In contrast to conventional chemical-intensive processes for extracting plant cellulose to manufacture derivatives and products, design with bacterial cellulose opens up the possibility of bringing design practices closer to the processes of organic growth. Find out more in the 360° bacterial cellulose environment in the Virtual Cluster Space.
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Natural Active Materials: A Talk by Peter Fratzl
MicroCT Laboratory at Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam in 360° – Knowledge Room of MoA’s Virtual Cluster Space. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Material Activity is discussed in the context of biological and bioinspired materials. A material property defines the relation between input (voltage) and output (current). The responsiveness of materials is defined as the change of material property through an external signal, which for the resistivity could simply be the temperature. Another example is shape-change due to humidity, which is typically found in wood. Adaptive materials respond in a feedback loop to the output serving as an (internal) signal to modify the material property if the input changes. This can lead to homeostasis or to instabilities, depending on the sign of the feedback. Adaptive growth and bone remodeling are discussed as examples of adaptivity. Finally, the emergence of complex shapes and structures from simple interactions is considered in the context of tissue growth under the influence of the environment. Find out more in Peter Fratzl's knowledge room at MoA's Virtual Cluster Space.
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Welcome to our Virtual Cluster Space
3D Anchor Room of Annual Conference. Design by Helen Galliker and Object Space Agency. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Click more to find the entrance to the Cluster's virtual environment with its 3D »Anchor Room« and the 360° knowledge rooms of our Annual Conference with all lectures, talks, digital laboratories and research objects.
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Symbolic Material
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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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 1.9.2021
"Exzellent erklärt – Spitzenforschung für alle" finally goes online today 🎉 The German #sciencepodcast on current s… twitter.com/...
Co-Director Peter Fratzl Receives Highest Award for an Engineer
Elected to United States National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected Max Planck Director and MoA Co-Director Peter Fratzl into its ranks. This honor is »among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer« the NAE writes in its press release. Out of a total of 23 new international members, Fratzl was the only researcher from Germany elected to the U.S. academy this year.
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Material Form Function
Copyright: Matters of Activity
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.
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SOLO – Smart Organic Light Objects
Digital Exhibition at »Greenhouse 2021«
Vivian Tamm, Smart Organic Light Objects (SOLO). Copyright: Vivian Tamm / weißensee school of art and design berlin
The studio project »SOLO - Smart Organic Light Objects« explores the potential of new technologies for interacting with light beyond existing archetypes and traditional interfaces. New qualities of light as well as novel dynamic, responsive interactions were created catering to human behavior differently. Through an iterative design process, students from both the BA and the MA track of the Product Design program at weißensee school of art and design berlin developed concepts and prototypes demonstrating these new interactions with light in private or public settings. The works were on digital display at the Stockholm Furniture Fair »Greenhouse« February 10th–11th.
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Magic Circle
Symposium for Interdisciplinary Exchange on 25 February 2021
Magic Circle Symposium weissensee school of art and design berlin, »Erosive Modeling«. Copyright: Kristin Dolz.
In the production of knowledge, design processes are fundamental, although the experimental settings in the sciences, in the arts, in design differ in assumptions, execution and conclusions. But the richness of the material, its property of being able to change itself, its active effect on the surrounding space as well as its reactive shaping to forces and energies allow other domains of knowledge immediate points of contact and give them stimuli for their own or joint knowledge production. The symposium »Magic Circle« was organized by the »Forschungskreis« of the weißensee school of art and design berlin (khb) in cooperation with »Matters of Activity«, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jörg Petruschat with contributions from various Cluster members.
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Designing Matter 1: From Filament To Fabric
Final Review at weißensee school of art and design berlin
Project: Lara Rocho, weißensee school of art and design berlin. Copyright: Dr. Mareike Stoll
The MoA Design Research Studio »Designing Matter 1« investigated designed filaments and fabrics as architectural material systems.
»Designing Matter« denotes the definition of the form and the materiality for the component elements of a material in order to achieve a specific functionality. This process allows to utilize and enhance the inherent properties of a given material and ultimately to generate novel ones. Codes – either analog or digital – are used to implement the design of the material by means of a systematization of this form-function interrelationship. In this context the MoA Design Research Studio made contributions with respect to the development of designed filaments and the close adherence of the architectural designed fabrics to the production sequences and patterns observed in silk-cocoons. Take a look at the projects!
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 31.8.2021
Don't miss your chance to register for #DRHA2021, happening September 5th–7th!
matters-of-a... twitter.com/...
New Funding Within Priority Program »Computational Connectomics« for Team of Charité Berlin and Members of »Cutting«
Creation of Personalized Models of the Brain of Tumor Patients
Connectome construction of a patient with a tumor in the speech-eloquent area of the brain.
The connection strengths of the white matter are shown as edges with a heat map (dark = weak connection, light = strong connection). The cortical areas of the brain and their size are illustrated as nodes in the form of spheres. Additionally, three orange TMS points are shown (TMS = Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). In this case, the patient’s speech network could be non-invasively disturbed in these areas and mapped accordingly.
The visualization of the white matter is based on tractography. The different directions of the white matter can be measured and displayed by means of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja & Image Guidance Lab, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The field of connectomics aims to comprehensively describe the physical and functional coupling among the neural elements of the brain. Creating personalized models of the brain of tumor patients helps to better understand the impact of a brain tumor on the cerebral network and plasticity and functional reserve capacity. Similarly, it helps to improve effects of neurosurgery on the connectome and identify key nodes and edges, i.e., potential high-risk areas for surgery, reveal the network basis of language function in relation to tumors, and predict the course of recovery.
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The Analog in The Digital Age
Our Virtual Space was launched 11 November and Remains Open
Key Visual MoA Annual Conference. Copyright: Matters of Activity
In extraordinary times we all try out new formats: We were happy and excited to welcome so many international guests to our first digital Annual Conference »The Analog in the Digital Age« – following the Cluster's central vision to rediscover the analog within activities of images, spaces and materials in the age of the digital. Our virtual doors are still open for you to discover our laboratories, workshop spaces and microscopic landscapes in a way that you can explore by yourself topics from Germany's cutting edge research.
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MoA Blog
Launch of a New Publishing Platform
Copyright: Matters of Activity
The MoA Blog is where the researchers of the Cluster write about their work. The Cluster contains more than 40 disciplines from Natural Sciences, Humanities and Design and aims to create a basis for a new culture of material. You will find articles, event announcements and insights from an international and interdisciplinary team and gain an insight into Germany's top-level research. Find out more about our topics.
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New Research Group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials«
Members Charlett Wenig and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten Were Awarded 2nd Place at Idea Competition of »Die Junge Akademie« for »The Bark Project«
»The Bark Project«, Charlett Wenig. Copyright: Patrick Walter, MPIKG
The MoA research group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials« is interested in interactions between biological material and its environment. The fact that plants are sessile make them particularly interesting regarding their adaptability and optimization strategies – there is no way for them to escape. Remodeling processes, such as those found in the animal kingdom, are absent and adaptation takes place by growth. The junior research group is jointly funded by »Matters of Activity« and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Surfaces (MPIKG).
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Exploring Filtering
A Short Project on the Filtering Process
Exploring Fitering. Copyright: Veronika Aumann, Thomas Ness
In the week-long short project »Exploring Filtering«, Cluster member and interaction designer Thomas Ness, and textile designer Veronika Aumann dealt with the topic of Filtering with an open-ended mindset. The goal of this creative exploration of filtering processes was to gauge and express them in a practical and tangible way, respectively.
The point of departure for this was not a particular substance to be filtered or a specific substrate to be attained. Rather, the interest lay much more on the actual processes of filtering in and of themselves and the filter as an object. In the »Design Lab«, different kinds and methods of filtering processes were tested hands-on with familiar prototyping materials and techniques and transformed into six narratively and visually impressive representations.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 31.8.2021
RT @LuciusFekonja: Out now🌞: Machine learning-based prediction of motor status in glioma patients using diffusion MRI metrics along the cor…
Matters of Writing
3rd Open Design – Academic Encounters Online
Matters of Writing. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Do you see yourself as an author? This question was asked by Laura (Violeta) Colombo, lecturer in the Master's Degree in Open Design at the Universidad de Buenos Aires during the third meeting of »Open Design - Academic Encounters Online«.
A short silence, heads shaking, followed by shy hand signals. Why do we find it difficult to consider and also identify ourselves as authors? What makes for good writing? Why do we write, what do we write and how do we write it? These were some of the key questions of this week's online encounter held by Maxime Le Calvé, Research Associate at Matters of Activity in collaboration with Laura (Violeta) Colombo, Research Assistant at CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina).
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Open Science Statement
Since 2007, International Open Access Week is celebrated at hundreds of events around the globe. This year publishers, librarians, researchers, and institutions have discussed and organized events around the theme: »Open for whom? Equity in Open Knowledge«. With its own Open Science Statement »Matters of Activity« supports its members in opening up their research
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Open Design
Academic Encounters Online
Open Design – Academic Encounters Online. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Announcing the deferral of »Open Design« to the summer term 2021 was a very difficult decision. We were all so much looking forward to start the program with a fantastically diverse group of 32 international students from all over the world. But only few days after the arrival of some of the students to Buenos Aires it became clear to us that we would not be able to start as expected. Borders were being closed, travel authorizations withdrawn, and flights cancelled. Both universities, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Universidad de Buenos Aires, operated in emergency presence mode and peoples’ everyday mobility everywhere became limited
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Cutting
Fiber tractography delineating the white matter of the brain. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
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.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 30.8.2021
RT @TactileInternet: Five days to go until "#exzellenterklaert – Spitzenforschung für alle" finally goes online. The German #sciencepodcast…
Object Space Agency
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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Where Analog Solutions are More Efficient than Digital Ones
Interview with Peter Fratzl in Austrian »DerStandard«
In »DerStandard« MoA's Co-Director Peter Fratzl is talking about the efficiency of analog solutions compared to digital ones. In his interview, the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Deputy Director of »Matters of Activity« also discusses information processing in nature and recycling problems. The article is available in German.
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Nature as Source of Inspiration
The Innovation Potential of Bio-inspired Materials
Stone Web – Spatial module system made from basalt fibre at the weissensee academy of art berlin (Idalene Rapp, Natascha-Katharina Unger, Christiane Sauer). Copyright: weissensee academy of art berlin, I. Rapp, N. Unger
Nature is a source of inspiration for the production of new materials. A project by acatech in cooperation with the Cluster Co-Director Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Fratzl, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), highlights the innovation potential of bio inspired materials – from chemistry and energy to medicine and robotics, art and design.
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Weaving
Cellulose in E. coli biofilm. Copyright: Diego Serra & Regine Hengge, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
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.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 30.8.2021
RT @ResearchGermany: Take your chance and apply for this coordination job at the 'Experimental Laboratory for Science Communication' by 8 S…
Filtering
Filters. Copyright: NODE Berlin Oslo
The project »Filtering« investigates filters using historical, experimental and computational approaches. What information, for example, can be enhanced by new filter techniques?
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