Exhibition »Stretching Materialities«

Matter is dead? Objects are lifeless? Think again! In the exhibition »Stretching Materialities,« which was opened on September 16th, the liveliness and activity of matter can be experienced in a completely new way. The Tieranatomisches Theater becomes an interactive playground: a real cloud levitates in the middle of the room, reacting to body heat and movement and hovering around visitors like a strange creature. Stones reveal their weathering as a dynamic process of change. Large willow structures carefully co-crafted by humans and computers entwine into inhabitable space. Traditional Korean Hanbok Clothing, filled with moving elements, vibrates on the visitor's skin depending on their movement. Walking through the room with virtual reality glasses, visitors can enter the glass elevator in the center. With one touch of a button, the journey goes straight into the material, or more precisely into the CT scan of a stone. Or high into the clouds to interact with air molecules. The exhibition is accompanied by the regular sound performances of the »Well-Tempered Hygrometer«.

It is an exhibition like you have never experienced before. With knowledge from the research of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, an interactive laboratory space has been created that allows completely unexpected insights into thinking about matter – and makes it tangible how active the world around us really is.

The exhibition is curated by multidisciplinary scientists and designers of the project Object Space Agency of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle and Clemens Winkler.

The exhibition is open from September 17, 2021, to January 22, 2022, Mon–Fri from 2–6 pm.

Past events:

Opening
16 September 2021, 6 pm

The exhibition opened on Thursday, September 16th, 2021 at 6 pm with a reception by the Object Space Agency curator team in front of the Tieranatomisches Theater. Afterward, the exhibition could be explored in different time slots until 8:30 pm.

The evening was accompanied by the sound performance Wohltemperiertes Hygrometer by the artists Oliver Schmid and Anna Kubelík.

Welcome addresses by:

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schäffner (Director of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«)
Prof. Dr. Sharon Macdonald (Director of the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik)
Felix Sattler (Curator of the Tieranatomisches Theater)
Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle and Clemens Winkler (Project Leaders Object Space Agency, together with Project team and guests)