Berlin Science Week 2022

From November 1st-10th, Berlin once again hosted the Berlin Science Week, a 10-day international festival that brought together the world's most innovative scientific organizations in Berlin and online to celebrate science and facilitate an open and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and knowledge. The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« provided insights into its research at three locations: At the Tieranatomisches Theater on the North Campus of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, you were warmly invited to take part in one of the »Dissect« events, a round table live performance on contemporary art and design. Moreover, we celebrated the opening of the exhibition opening of the »Design Lab#13: Material Legacies« exhibition at the Kunstgewerbemuseum. Last but not least we were looking forward to meeting you in the CollActive Materials' speculative design workshop about our material futures at the Berlin Science Week Festival Campus at Naturkundemuseum Berlin.

At the two »Dissect« events, that took place at Tieranatomisches Theater (TA T) in Berlin on November 2nd and 4th, 2022, guests experienced a multidisciplinary debate with works of contemporary art and design, staged in a public interactive setting. While the first event featured the work of contemporary artist Marco Donnarumma in connection to the research led by the MoA research group Cutting, the second event was organized in cooperation with the artist Tomàs Saraceno around the research led by the Material Form Function group and their exhibition Design Lab #13: Material Legacies at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (KGM) in Berlin.
On November 3rd, we invited you to join the opening of the exhibition Design Lab #13: Material Legacies at Kunstgewerbemuseum. This exhibition features the work of designers and researchers from »Matters of Activity« who look for innovative yet sustainable methods for working with materials, and situates contemporary works inspired by museum artifacts to facilitate reflection on how interdisciplinary practices can draw inspiration from the natural world, how we can build on historical practices, and how these inquiries help us situate our ever-changing relationship with the environment.

With thousands of participants, Berlin Science Week is one of the largest science events and takes place annually from 1–10 November. Throughout ten festival days and beyond, debates and knowledge exchange are being fostered in an open and interdisciplinary spirit. This year’s topics ranged from diversity in science, the ethics of AI, the future of mobility to circular economies, or to the question of whether we are prepared for the next pandemic – or not?

For more information about the festival and the complete program see here.

Overview of all contributions by »Matters of Activity« with links to the program and registration:

2 November 2022
Dissect
Tieranatomisches Theater

3 November 2022
Exhibition Opening »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies«
Kunstgewerbemuseum

4 November 2022
Dissect
Tieranatomisches Theater

5 November 2022
What is the Future Made Of? A speculative workshop about bio-inspired design
Berlin Science Week Campus at Naturkundemuseum