Cluster member Clemens Winkler will be a guest at Morphing Matter Lab on Friday, April 2nd, 9:30–10.30 pm (3:30–4:30 pm EST). His studio talk deals with the questions: How can we give people agency in a vague, cloudy present by reflecting on a Heterotopia through speculating materials? And how can a material-oriented approach in design emphasize the organic interplay between activation/synthesis/assembly and inhibition/degradation/disruption? Also, this talk reflects on the potential of matter as a mediator between various disciplines, spaces and timescales. more

The lecture series takes part every second Tuesday 4:15–5:45 pm and will be addressed to a pluridisciplinary audience, including sciences, design and cultural studies. All required basics from biophysics and biochemistry to mechanics will be provided. The lecture series introduces relevant structural features from molecular to macroscopic scales using examples for materials based on proteins or on polysaccharides, in particular cellulose and chitin.   more

On April 15th at 3 pm, Predoctoral Researcher Yoonha Kim (Object Space Agency) talks with fashion designer Zil Vostalova about the possibilities of virtual clothing as part of the »Field/Works« conversation series. more

On Monday, April 19th, at 7 pm., the anthology »Bilder als Denkformen« will be presented, which opens up recent positions on image science that are dedicated to the interplay of understanding and visualization. In the subsequent panel discussion, Horst Bredekamp and David Poeppel will take up central problems of the publication and trace the provocation of thinking »image forms«. more

Together with their colleagues, Cluster members Jürgen P. Rabe and Mohammad Fardin Gholami published the paper »Graphene‐Assisted Synthesis of 2D Polyglycerols as Innovative Platforms for Multivalent Virus Interactions« in the international journal »Advanced Functional Materials«. 2D nanomaterials have garnered widespread attention in biomedicine and bioengineering due to their unique physicochemical properties. However, poor functionality, low solubility, intrinsic toxicity, and nonspecific interactions at biointerfaces have hampered their application in vivo. more

On Thursday, April 29th, 7–9:30 pm, members of the Cluster will give insights into the research of »Matters of Activity« in an interactive Live Show, thus opening the Event Series »MitWissenschaft« 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 will show how the natural sciences, the humanities and the design disciplines work closely together to find innovative solutions to contemporary problems. more

Design is deeply engaged with materials. Yet the attempt to make sense of the properties, composition and behavior of matter, artifacts and built infrastructures is accompanied by a pressing question: »Who is in fact designing?«. The 17th Annual Conference 2021 of the DGTF (German Society for Design Theory and Research), that takes place from May 6th to 8th in cooperation with »Matters of Activity« and the weißensee school of art and design berlin intends to make this and other questions graspable and to discuss the contribution of design through four interlaced strands: Sympoiesis of Making, Performative Surfaces, Living Matter, Designing Resilience. The conference will be held in English via Zoom. more

The 25th Digital Research in Humanities and Arts conference invites contributions and interventions that focus on transfers and interactions between digital and natural environments. »Digital Matters« takes on the challenge of exploring new material and multi-species agencies, forms of embodiment, and interactions between the Performing Arts, the Humanities and the Natural Sciences that engage the sense of relationality and expanded scale the Anthropocene affords. The conference is organized by Cluster member Christian Stein in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence »Temporal Communities« and takes place September 5th – 7th, 2021. The Call for Proposals ends May 15th. more