Sand

Material Form Function | Sand | Air The building masses produced by humans have a direct impact on the weather. Buildings and construction account for 30 percent of Germany's CO2 emissions. The concretization of the land not only creates new heat phenomena with urban heat islands, but also a largely uncontrolled and far-reaching exploitation of natural resources such as sand and gravel. Cluster member Michaela Büsse will be part of the lecture performance and talk »100 Neue Wörter für Wetter: Verbautes Wetter«.

Material Form Function | Sand What kind of knowledge about environments do models create? And how can artistic media be deployed in making sense of these knowledge practices? In this panel at this year's Berlin Science Week Campus at Museum für Naturkunde Berlin on November 3rd, Associated Investigator in the »Material Form Function« research group Michaela Büsse will be in conversation with anthropologist Andrew Gilbert (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and human geographer Rossella Alba (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) about the role of technologies for environmental governance and film as a means of research. Based on Michaela's short film »Building with Nature« the audience is invited to engage with the engineering principles behind Zandmotor, an artificial peninsular close to The Hague in the Netherlands. The panel will be moderated by Stefan Schäfer, research group leader at the Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam where Michaela currently is a fellow. more

Material Form Function | Sand | Material Legacies | Science Communication Don't miss the Round Table »Politics and Poetics of Sand« which is part of the format series accompanying the exhibition »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« at Kunstgewerbemuseum. The Round Tables represent each of the exhibiting projects and the involved researchers and artists in a moderated dialogue with guests from different disciplines. The format brings a variety of perspectives to the exhibited works, its material legacies and entangled discourses and invites the public to engage. On February 9th design anthropologist and Cluster Member Michaela Büsse will discuss her work with geographer Katherine Dawson (University College London), communication expert Hannah Tollefson (McGill University Montreal) and environmental anthropologist Jerry Zee (Princeton University). Moderation: Jeff Diamanti (University of Amsterdam). more

Material Form Function | Fish Skins | Sand | Rubber | Textiles | Tree Bark | Yarns/Fibers | Tessellation | Science Communication | Material Legacies The exhibition »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« at Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin explored contingencies and ruptures between traditional crafts and the most recent developments at the crossroads of material research, design, engineering, and architecture. It brought together artifacts from the museum’s collection with work-in-progress installations by designers and researchers from the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« in order to initiate a dialogue about the historical, contemporary, and future conditions under which materiality unfolds.
By engaging with a series of different materials and techniques the exhibition encompassed both the problematization of unsustainable pasts and presents as well as the imagination of speculative material futures. Taking materiality as a starting point, each of the exhibits investigated its sociocultural, economic, and political context in order to disentangle the multiple interrelations that arise from and with materials. more

Material Form Function | Air | Circular Economies | Climate | More-Than-Human | Teaching | Sand The lecture series takes up the ambiguous role of materials in future-making practices along with the possible geo and bio-political precarity they may generate. Different materials from sand, water, or air to living cells and whole ecosystems are the objects and interface of a range of technologies that generate images of the future. Their probabilistic methods prepare the ideational and physical ground for large and small-scale design interventions (e.g., climate-resilient infrastructures). Register now and take part in the lecture series that continues until July 18th, every Monday 4.15 pm. more

Sand | Ocean »Materializing Futurity« investigates the ambiguous relationship between design and planning tools, environments and matter in reimagining and renaturating polluted landscapes. more

Science Communication | Air | Sand | Bacteria | Cellulose | Cloud | Fungi/Mycelium | Hemp | Prototype / Model | Stretching Materialities | Material Legacies | Daoula Sheen | Textiles | Tree Bark | Yarns/Fibers | XR | Willow | Wool | Water | Wood With the »Activarium«, we want to actively engage with potential partners from the industry, start-ups, NGOs, politics and society as a whole to initiate an exploratory exchange on active materials, bio- & culture-inspired innovation as well as sustainability approaches. We want visitors to experience our prototypes to make MoA’s intentions and research tangible and accessible. The »Activarium« serves as a work-in-progress showcase of different research strands and processes. Our visitors can dive into the research as it's happening, before its published results. Walk in and experience the »Activarium« Tuesdays, 10.00 am–12.15 pm or Thursdays, 2.00–4.00 pm! If you are a group of more than 5 people or if the opening hours do not fit your schedule, please contact us via moa.activarium@hu-berlin.de to schedule a visit! more