Plektonik Structural Textiles column – continuous wooden ›Active Yarns‹ 40 mm diameter loops. Copyright: Daniel Suárez & Natalija Miodragović
Cluster Members Beyer, Miodragović, Mossé and Suárez Publish in Proceedings of the UIA World Congress of Architects Copenhagen 2023
The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of our understanding of planetary resources and circularity, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. Bastian Beyer et. al. contributed with the article »Towards a Bacterially-Induced Textile Architecture« and Daniel Suárez and Natalija Miodragović an article on »Plektonik— Active Yarns for Adaptive Loop-Based Material Systems«.
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Microverse I-6, 2023. Copyright: Kathrin Linkersdorff
Photographs Created by Kathrin Linkersdorff in Collaboration with Regine Hengge Exhibited at Deichtorhallen
Circularity and sustainability of material flows is a hallmark of intact ecosystems. This principle has now been stunningly visualized in ultrahigh resolution, large format photographs – the MICROVERSE series – created by Kathrin Linkersdorff in collaboration with Cluster member Regine Hengge, Professor for Microbiology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The exhibition at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg will be on view from October 27th, 2023 to January 21st, 2024.
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Copyright: »Spontaneous Generations«, https://www.spontaneousgenerations.com/
Karin Krauthausen and Michael Friedman Published Article in Special Issue of »Spontaneous Generations«
»Spontaneous Generations«, the Journal of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto launched a special issue on ›agency‹. The volume »From Bacteria to Gaia: Levels of Biological Agency« includes an article of the Cluster members Karin Krauthausen and Michael Friedman on the agency and activities of materials in the 21st century.
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Leben im Schleim. Copyright: FASZ
Read about MoA in the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung, the Purpose Magazine, The Praxis Journal and Tagesspiegel
We are very happy that »Matters of Activity« has been highlighted by many different (international) news outlets lately. Next to beautiful biofilm pictures and information from Regine Hengge, Cluster Members Wolfgang Schäffner and Maxime Le Calvé have been interviewed by Purpose Magazine and The Praxis Journal from Argentina. Wolfgang Schäffner has also been interviewed in connection to the BUA initiative »BUA Calling« by Tagesspiegel Berlin. With our involvement in the Berlin Science Week news about MoA will also travel fast in the upcoming weeks.
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MoA Project »Bacterial Cellulose: Co-Weaving Biofilms« at the Milano Triennale 2022. Copyright: Triennale Milano – photo by DSL Studio
An Installation for the Triennale XXIII: »Unknown Unknows, An Introduction to Mysteries«
Cellulose of different forms and origins is woven together in this structure: pieces of wood, paper threads and biofilms grown by bacteria. A collaborative textile is created – human, plant and microbial. Three MoA research projects, Weaving, Material Form Function and Object Space Agency and with that many MoA Members worked together on the project »Bacterial Cellulose: Co-Weaving Biofilms« shown at the Triennale di Milano XXIII »Unknown Unknows, An Introduction to Mysteries«, in the thematic exhibition »Alchemic Laboratory«, curated by Ingrid Paoletti, from July 15th to December 11th, 2022.
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Still from Interview with Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi showing the making of parts of the »Active Curtain Project« shown at the exhibition »After Nature« at Humboldt Lab. Copyright: Anne von Petersdorff (info@annevonpetersdorff.com) for Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Interview with Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi
The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« investigates materials that are built by bacteria. Architects and biologists work together to explore new, sustainable materials. Some of these bacterial structures are on display at the Humboldt Lab. In the interview with Cluster Members Bastian Beyer and Skander Hathroubi, parts of the development of the »Active Curtains Project« are presented in more detail.
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Can Bacteria Spin a Yarn? Kick-Off event »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch«, Humboldt Forum Berlin, 29 April 2021. Copyright: Humbolt Forum
Cluster Members Opened Event Series »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch« at the Humboldt Forum
On Thursday, April 29th, 7–9:30 pm, members of the Cluster gave insights into the research of »Matters of Activity« in an interactive live show, thus opening the event series »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch« at the Humboldt Forum.
Using concrete examples from the Cluster projects »Weaving« and »Filtering«, MoA members Bastian Beyer, Alwin Cubasch, Peter Fratzl, Regine Hengge, Claudia Mareis, Léa Perraudin, Christiane Sauer and Wolfgang Schäffner showed how the natural sciences, the humanities and the design disciplines work closely together to find innovative solutions to contemporary problems.
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Fermentation toolkit. Copyright: Bastian Beyer
Next Workshop »Kombucha Refresher«
Out of the workshop »Ferment-Activity and Nurturing Materials« organized by Cluster Members Maxime le Calvé, Alwin Cubasch and Anna Heitger in December 2020 the so-called »ferment-activity club« has emerged to continue exchange about fermentation practices. Semi-regular meetings will be started in order to pursue a »club of activity« approach to research: sharing experiences, staying with the trouble, and learning together about other fermentation practices in an online workshop format. The next meeting, »Kombucha Refresher«, will be held on Wednesday, 28th of April at 4 pm.
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Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Pliable Architecture (2021), Copyright: Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio.
Essay by Regine Hengge and Karin Krauthausen on the Occasion of the Exhibition »Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos« Published
Regine Hengge's and Karin Krauthausen's essay »The Event of Fibre« has been published in the volume accompanying the exhibition »Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos« which will be shown in Berlin's Gropius Bau from April 29th to September 15th, 2021.
Whether in DNA interactions, bacterial biofilms or city architectures, weaving can be a model for different and relational »ecologies of life«. Ranging across artistic practices, cell biology, and human forms, molecular biologist Hengge and cultural historian Krauthausen (both Project »Weaving«) examine what we can learn from nature's enmeshed processes.
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Biomaterials from Postdam for Charité Dentists
Cluster Member Cécile Bidan Receives Further Funding
Cluster member Cécile Bidan receives further funding for the interdisciplinary research project »InterDent«, together with dental colleagues at the Charité. Its goal is to make dental fillings or crowns more durable in the future. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding this project with 2.1 million euros, initially for three years.
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Poster Shelf Live. Copyright: Matters of Activity
An Online Event on 10 December 2020
Fermentation is a complex set of techniques bridging food substances, microbes, and the environment, which makes us question the distinction between decay and flourishing. Inherently a filtering activity, fermentation relies on the long-standing relationship of yeast and bacteria to nutrients and the elements. Through practices of food transformation, preservation and consumption, the newly woven symbiotic entities emerge from fermentation processes and enter into a different ecosystem – that of the human body, itself a multi-organism entity. These entities are directly in correspondence with our microbiome: fermented food has, in a way, already stepped into the human digestive system before it is ingested.
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Poster Workshop »Material as Environmental Device«. Copyright: Kristina Pfeifer »detail woven skin of Kurdish black tent« & Cécile Bidan »detail of bacterial cellulose biofilm«
A Zoom Workshop on 10 September 2020
The workshop »Material as Environmental Device« on September 10th, 2020 gathers researchers and practitioners from the fields of architecture, ecological anthropology and the natural sciences to discuss the status of the material as an active element of environmental design on the basis of past and contemporary buildings and current research in the Cluster »Matters of Activity«. Three thematic sessions – »Materials and Environments«, »Essential Material« and »Active Skins« – focus on different aspects of material activity, addressing design and production techniques, ecological and cultural implications and the prospects of climate-responsive architectures.
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The weaving/braiding robots are part of an experimental setting of the ERC group PENELOPE. Copyright: Karin Krauthausen
with Dr. Ellen Harlizius-Klück
The »Weaving« project continued its series »Weaving in Different Disciplines« on November 7th, 2019 with Dr. Ellen Harlizius-Klück, Project Leader of the ERC group PENELOPE at Deutsches Museum Munich.
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Wild silk wrapper from the Marka Dafing in Safané, Burkina Faso (showing the sheen). Video still from the film installation at the exhibition »DAOULA | Sheen. West-African Wild Silk On Its Way« (Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin). Film installation by Thabo Thindi with film material from Salif Sawadog and others.
West-African Textile Craft Meets European Science and Design
Bacterial Weavings
From Microbiological Activity and Fibrous Biofilm Matrices to Design and Architecture