testing un/common grounds
Presentations Doctoral Program 2024
Under the title »un/common grounds«, the Matters of Activity doctoral cohort impressively presented the progress of their diverse research projects during the Cluster retreat. The event included the three moderated panel discussions »Fluid Interfaces. Designing with Heat, Air and Water«, »Designing Human-Plant Interactions« and »Commoning Artistic Practices« as well as an exhibition of selected research objects that were at the core of the format.
With their various disciplinary backgrounds ranging from art, architecture, engineering and design to the humanities and natural sciences, the group explored this interdisciplinary ›un/common ground‹ and aimed to develop forms of common knowledge that respect locally-based actors and embrace collaborations with diverse agencies and species. The presentations spanned the techno-cultural dimension of collaboration between human and amaterial actors, such as human-robot interaction (Anna Schäffner), the interactions of textile and computational tools (Maxie Schneider), material agents in the museum space (Claudia Kudinova, Kaja Ninnis), ecological actors such as water in architectural systems (Dimitra Almpani-Lekka) as well as tree bark and beetle-infested wood as a design material (Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten & Pelin Asa), and collaboration with multispecies communities such as fermentation with microorganisms (Emma Sicher), reef-building marine species (Rasa Weber) and forest ecosystems (Rahel Kesselring).
In the introduction to the accompanying brochure, Rahel Kesselring and Rasa Weber describe their shared experience and approach as a doctoral cohort as follows: »Our current times of ecological and geopolitical upheavals clearly demonstrate the urgency to broaden the scope of research practices beyond academia and develop new forms of common knowledge production. By confronting the ›commons‹ and the ›un-common‹ our research practices point to the challenges of working at the intersection of different academic disciplines and integrating forms of non-disciplinary knowledge. The lived reality of these forms of collaboration across species and disciplinary barriers leads to a much more messy, feral and undisciplined form of research. At the same time, by using the term ground, we are affirming our respective situated research perspectives and emphasizing the imagination, creation and sustenance of common grounds, of multi-perspective places and communities (...)«.
The presentations gave Cluster members the opportunity for more exchange with the Doctoral Researchers, participating in sharing ideas, identifying un/common grounds and also offering suggestions. We would like to thank everyone involved for their efforts around this all-around successful event.
The brochure can be downloaded here. If you are interested in a printed copy please contact franziska.wegener [at] hu-berlin.de.
More information on the Doctoral Program and the individual projects here.
Landgut Stober