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30.11.2023–31.8.2024
Felix Rasehorn Awarded for the Project »GOLD Bio-Textiles for Sustainability«
Ecodesign Award 2023
We warmly congratulate Cluster Member Felix Rasehorn: His design and research lab WINT won the eco-design award 2023 in the category concept for the collaborative research project »GOLD Bio-textiles for sustainability«. As part of a research initiative, the GOLD project investigated goldbeater’s skin, a type of tissue found in cow gut. This elastic membrane was characterized biochemically to develop a recyclable, bio-based and vegan high-performance textile.
10.1.2024–29.4.2024
Call for Proposals for BUA Next Grand Challenge
Researchers from the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) can now apply for start-up funding as part of the Next Grand Challenge initiative »Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation«.
The Berlin University Alliance is providing a total of €1.4 million for transdisciplinary research projects (Exploration Pilots) on the topic of »Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation«. Researchers can apply for two-year funding for Exploration Pilots until 29 April 2024, 10 a.m. Earliest start of funding: July 01, 2024
Latest end of funding: October 31, 2026
Duration: 24 months
Total available funding volume: max. 200,000 € in 2024 and max. 600,000 € in 2025 and 2026 (funds available until October 31st, 2026) Learn more on the call for proposals
The Berlin University Alliance is providing a total of €1.4 million for transdisciplinary research projects (Exploration Pilots) on the topic of »Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation«. Researchers can apply for two-year funding for Exploration Pilots until 29 April 2024, 10 a.m. Earliest start of funding: July 01, 2024
Latest end of funding: October 31, 2026
Duration: 24 months
Total available funding volume: max. 200,000 € in 2024 and max. 600,000 € in 2025 and 2026 (funds available until October 31st, 2026) Learn more on the call for proposals
16.2.2024–14.10.2024
Closer to Nature
Experimental Building by SciArt Collective MY-CO-X on Show at Berlinische Galerie
Architecture and nature inevitably compete for space. That poses a dilemma when resources are finite and the demand for space keeps growing. Besides, we know that the construction sector generates huge waste and emissions. All this has raised issues about the role of architecture: Does it need a shift in perspective? Could we build with nature instead of against it? The exhibition »Closer to Nature« at the Berlinische Galerie showcases three Berlin-based projects, that utilize the potential of mushrooms, living trees, and clay. This gives them an ecological quality, but also a completely new character: the buildings breathe, grow, and thus become alive themselves. One of the showcased projects is the experimental building MY-CO SPACE, which was developed, designed, and built by the interdisciplinary Berlin SciArt collective MY-CO-X, an initiative of the Department of Applied and Molecular Microbiology at TU Berlin under the direction of MoA member Vera Meyer with contributions by Dimitra Almpani-Lekka.
5.3.2024–6.3.2024
On Human-Microbe Relations
Open Lecture and Workshop with Maya Hey
Don't miss our events with Maya Hey, an expert on human–microbe relations in food settings with degrees in dietetics, food studies, and communications. In the open lecture on March 5th and the workshop on March 6th, she will focus on fermentation as a hands-on practice for knowing microbes and working with them. The workshop is already fully booked - there is a waiting list!
11.3.2024–27.3.2024
Syntopia 0 — Anthropos I Human
Karola Dierichs' Project Contributes to Exhibition and Symposium »Being Plastic/Becoming Plastic« at the University of Virginia
In March 2024, Karola Dierichs exhibits the project »Syntopia 0—Anthropos I Human« as part of the exhibition and symposium »Being Plastic/ Becoming Plastic« at the University of Virginia, US, under the direction of Ehsan Baharlou. Initially conducted under the title »ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018«, the project explores the construction of spatial enclosures made from designed granular materials. Yet one might now call this project »Syntopia 0—Anthropos I Human« in the present discourse on human-made plastic residue. This considers the research not only as an example of materials design and construction robotics but also as a monument of anthropogenic mass superseding living biomass around 2020, given it was made of injection-molding plastic waste from the local Stuttgart car industry.
14.3.2024
Materialzukünfte besuchen: Smartes Material für überhitzte Städte
Workshop Series at Futurium
Gestaltet das Futurium Lab selbst mit! In der öffentlichen Workshopreihe »OPEN LAB ABEND: Materialzukünfte besuchen« spekuliert ihr darüber, aus welchen Materialien die Welt von morgen gemacht sein könnte. Die Workshopreihe umfasst 4 Termine und findet von März bis Juni im Futurium statt. Forschende von »Matters of Activity« (MoA) geben euch einen Einblick in ihre Arbeit. Davon ausgehend entwickelt ihr Zukunftsszenarien und gestaltet Prototypen, die im Anschluss zusammen mit Objekten aus der MoA-Forschung im Lab ausgestellt werden. Begleitet werdet ihr dabei vom spekulationserfahrenen Team von »CollActive Materials« - ab 14, keine Vorkenntnisse oder besondere Skills nötig!
It’s getting hot in here... In diesem ersten Workshop geht es darum, wie wir mit smarten Materialien die Städte der Zukunft gestalten können. Im Sommer machen steigende Temperaturen, Metall und Beton das Leben in der Innenstadt für alle Bewohnenden immer mehr zur Herausforderung. Welche Materialien schaffen Abhilfe in überhitzten Städten?
22.3.2024
Multispecies Design
Save the Date for Symposium and Project Launch at Kunstgewerbemuseum
On Friday, March 22nd, 2024, the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) will launch the new discursive platform »More than Human. Design after the Anthropocene« with the symposium »Multispecies Design«. The project aims to explore the complex more-than-human concept from the perspective of the creative disciplines, particularly design, through pop-up exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and discussion panels. »More than Human« is curated by Claudia Banz, curator at the Kunstgewerbemuseum and member of »Matter of Activities« and realized together with international contributors from transdisciplinary contexts, among them several MoA researchers.
22.3.2024
›Scars Remind Us that our Past Is Real‹: A Queer Ecologies’ Attempt on Repair
Rahel Kesselring Gives Talk at University of Pittsburgh
Cluster member Rahel Kesselring will give a presentation at the conference »Ruin and Reparation: (Dis)Repair in Art and Architectural History« on March 22nd organized at the University of Pittsburgh. The online talk »›Scars remind us that our past is real‹: A queer ecologies' attempt on repair« approaches the notion as omnipresent in contemporary discourses of art and architecture, referring to very different epistemologies and conceptual nuances.
11.4.2024–13.4.2024
Critical Times. Part II: Ecologies of Relation
Call for Participation until 29 February
The workshop »Critical Times. Part II: Ecologies of Relation« unfolds a critical conversation, contesting linear conceptions of time, reductionist notions of materiality, and teleological solutionism, by focusing on ecologies and relations. Either term, ecology and relation, has received much attention over the last decade, especially in the arts, design, and humanities. Researchers from the humanities, social science, as well as arts and design, are invited to engage in a discussion about critical times and materialities, postcolonial and posthuman critique, non-European perspectives, and notions of »deep time« of materialities. To attend, please send your short CV and a brief expression of interest by February 29th, 2024.