The MoA Design Research Studio on »Growth« is a continuation of the »Scaling Nature« series introduced in Summer 2019. In this context, the core idea of the studio is to investigate matter as an active agent in the design process. This means that it has its own innate capacity of formation and performance, that is being designed from the bottom up. Scaling nature can be understood as the process of extracting principles from naturally occurring systems and taking them as inspiration for specific applications – during this process scaling operations necessarily are one key aspect of this translation. The results of the MoA Design Research Studio on »Growth« will be on internal display at the weißensee school of art and design berlin from September 22nd to October 14th, 2020. more

Weaving, braiding and plaiting can be counted as one of the oldest cultural techniques belonging to human culture, much older than agriculture or writing. While an obvious connection between weaving and mathematics – or more precisely, computer sciences – arose during the 19th century, with the Jacquard loom and Charles Babbage’s reference to it, a comprehensive mathematical theory of braids did not appear before 1926. But does this mean that weaving techniques and practices were not considered mathematically before the 19th century, or were not considered as being able to prompt and deliver, explicitly or implicitly, any mathematical knowledge? more

Together with their colleagues, Cluster members Johann Pratschke, Igor Sauer and Marie Weinhart published the paper »The human liver matrisome. Proteomic analysis of native and fibrotic human liver extracellular matrices for organ engineering approaches« in the international and highly ranked journal »Biomaterials«. more

In Design, Cultural and Natural Sciences, an anti-Cartesian turn has manifested itself in recent years, which denies the separation into active ›res cogitans‹ and passive ›res extensa‹ and understands the material world as (co)acting. The conference from October 7th–9th will deals with the aesthetic and political consequences of this turn, in design practices and thought processes. The conference will be held in German, including many Cluster members. more

Please save the date of November 11th, 2020 for an exciting day with lots of surprises, an experimental virtual format and digital participation around the topic »The Analog in the Digital Age«. Stay tuned for more information! more

All Cluster researchers and members will meet three days for workshops and interdisciplinary exchange and deepen relevant Cluster topics. more