Toward a New Culture of the Material

What happens when we begin treating multi-stable, ambivalent, and adaptive behaviors of active matter as a formative principle? The contributions of this interdisciplinary volume investigate the potential of the processual and untamable – ranging from microbial co-designing, morphogenetic experimentation, and atmospheric creation to plasticity and liveliness in architecture, history of art, and scientific concepts. Walking the line between analog and digital forms, 19 perspectives from a variety of fields not only cross-disciplinary and methodological boundaries but also aim at installing a new material paradigm between the epistemic cultures of sciences, humanities, and design.

Combining seminal essays from a wide array of Cluster members and based on MoA Annual Conference proceedings, the anthology – edited by Frank Bauer, Yoonha Kim, Sabine Marienberg, and Wolfgang Schäffner – introduces interdisciplinary views on active structures, adaptive materials, and sustainability while providing insight into MoA’s investigations of a new culture of the material, past and ongoing. We are delighted that this long-awaited interdisciplinary volume is now available as an open-access e-book and in print through De Gruyter.

With contributions by Cluster Members Frank Bauer, Bastian Beyer, Horst Bredekamp, Emile De Visscher, Myfanwy Evans, Mohammad Fardin Gholami, Lorenzo Guiducci, Regine Hengge, Heidi Jalkh, Yoonha Kim, Maxime Le Calvé, Claudia Mareis, Sabine Marienberg, Natalija Miodragović, Thomas Ness, Léa Perraudin, Jürgen P. Rabe, Felix Rasehorn, Khashayar Razghandi, Iva Rešetar, Nina Samuel, Nelli Singer, Mareike Stoll, Kolja Thurner, Daniel Suárez, Hanna Wiesener, Clemens Winkler, and Wolfgang Schäffner.

Link to the Open Access Publication on the DeGruyter website: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110714883/html