Poster Lecture Series 2024, Photo: Charlotte Linton. Copyright: Matters of Activity.
New Lecture Series Organized by MoA Member Lucy Norris Starts on 2 May
Rapidly increasing socio-ecological damage and the urgent need for care, repair, and recovery have led to renewed calls for regenerative design as a means of wayfinding towards new forms of just and sustainable life on earth, prompting critical questions concerning the reconfigured pasts they invoke to the possible futures they open up. Aiming to (re)design the way we live to support our interdependence on natural ecosystems, regenerative systems thinking is being applied to fundamental fields of human activity, from food production and agriculture to medicine, textiles, architecture, rural revival, and the urban built environment to other-worldly materialities. The lecture series organized by Lucy Norris, which begins on May 2nd, will, among other things, explore how traces of former ways of being in the world and concepts such as ›indigenous knowledge‹ are referenced as ways to move forward and ask what futures are being imagined by whom and for whom, and how some forms of living are enabled while other possibilities are negated.
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Key Visual, MoA Design Research Studio, 2024. Copyright: Matters of Activity
MoA Design Research Studio at weißensee school of art and design Enters New Round
In the »Shaping Water« project, starting in the summer semester of 2024, Prof. Carola Zwick, design researcher Dominic Eger Domingos, and design students want to examine and challenge civilizational standards, usage patterns, and experiences to rethink the medium of water and how we experience it. Through this exploration, we aspire to develop new interaction concepts and product ideas, brought to life in prototypes and exhibits that resonate with users on a tangible level. The project is part of the Design Research Studio within the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« (Filtering) and is constantly supported by eLAB (Laboratory for Interactive Technologies of KHB) throughout the project starting with a hands-on workshop delving into physical computing as expression of design.
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Keyvisual Coding IxD
Interactive Exhibition of the Semester Project »Coding IxD« kicks off February 14 at Weizenbaum Institute
Save the date for the opening of the final exhibition and panel discussion of the interdisciplinary semester project »Coding IxD« on February 14h, 2024, at 6 p.m. at the Weizenbaum Institute to explore the interactive student projects. As we enter a world where technology does not only surround us, but is also inseparable from and inside of us, it is time to rethink how we design for and with the human body. The rise of wearables, body tattoos, and e-textiles demonstrates the increasing ubiquity of technology in capturing vital body data.
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MoA Design Research Studio »DeLIGHTful«, 2023/2024. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Final Presentations of MoA Design Studio at Weißensee School of Art and Design
The MoA Design Research studio project »deLIGHTful interactions« kindly invites you to its final presentation on February 14th, 2024 4-6 pm at Flughalle 4th floor, weißensee school of art and design berlin. Using the example of light, project contributors led by MoA member Carola Zwick explored how civilizational practices and rituals evolve when technological conditions change. Light offers itself as an exciting and, above all, highly accessible topic to illuminate this field of tension in an exemplary way. For »deLIGHTful interactions«, students worked with light as an active material, demonstration the wide range of technological possibilities at our disposal to develop meaningful and enjoyable interactions.
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»Yu Li, a diary of cooking a curtain« by Tin Qizhen Gao, detail of curtain. Copyright: Mareike Stoll for MoA Design Research Studio Beyond the Curtain
Documentation of the Final Presentations and Exhibition
The Final Presentations of the MoA Design Research Studio »BEYOND THE CURTAIN. Creating Transient Environments« took place on February 13, 2024, at the Foyer of the Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin. The MoA Design Research Studio »BEYOND THE CURTAIN. Creating Transient Environments« explored curtains as active spatial elements. Within the framework of the semester project, numerous inspiring and convincing works were developed.
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Visual Master Architecture and Urban Design Thesis Review. Copyright: Leibniz University.
Master Architecture & Urban Design Thesis Review takes place on 24 January
Cluster Professor Karola Dierichs has been invited to a Thesis Review at Leibniz University in Hannover as one of four experts with an excellent academic and artistic profile. The presentation of outstanding Master's theses from the Architecture and Urban Design programme, taking place on 24th January 2024, serves as a starting point for professional debate. The format of the Thesis Review is intended to celebrate the diversity of the discipline, pick up on current trends in the professional discourse and identify design responses to major challenges.
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Links: Detail des Himmels um die Darstellung der Asia im Deckenfresko Giovann Battista Tiepolos im Treppenhaus der Würzburger Residenz. Copyright: WikimediaCommons, Foto: Myriam Thyes, CC BY-SA 4.0; rechts: Kasimir Malewitsch, Das schwarze Quadrat, Öl auf Leinwand, 1915, Tretjakow-Galerie, Moskau. Copyright: Public Domain.
Cluster Co-Sprecher Horst Bredekamp und Olaf Müller über naturphilosophische und bildwissenschaftliche Perspektiven der Aufklärung
In der Ideengeschichte der Metaphysik, Kunst, Naturphilosophie und Naturwissenschaft treten immer wieder ganze Netze dualer Gegensätzlichkeiten wie die zwischen Licht und Schatten, Geist und Materie, Wärme und Kälte, Plus und Minus, Gott und Schöpfung, Ausdehnung und Zusammenziehung, Vernunft und Gefühl, Denken und Wahrnehmung auf. Die im Wintersemester 2023/2024 von Cluster Co-Sprecher Horst Bredekamp und Olaf Müller angebotene Vorlesung wird in ihrem Versuch, eingeschliffenen Dualismen zu entgegnen, zentrale Anliegen von »Matters of Activity« thematisieren. Im Wechselspiel der Fächer Kunstgeschichte und Philosophie, also auch mit Blick auf die Polarität von Text und Bild, werden historische Varianten dieser Ideen zur Diskussion gestellt und mit dem aktuellen Stand derartiger Überlegungen verknüpft. Start ist Montag, der 30. Oktober 2023 um 18 Uhr, die Vorlesung ist offen für Hörerende aller Fakultäten sowie für die interessierte Öffentlichkeit.
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Claudia Mareis spricht auf Auricher Wissenschaftstagen
Die Auricher Wissenschaftstage richten sich an Schülerinnen und Schüler. Ob Vorträge von Nobelpreisträger:innen oder hautnahe Einblicke in renommierte Forschungszentren – seit 1992 bietet das Veranstaltungs- und Stipendienprogramm spannende Weiterbildungsmöglichkeiten. Cluster Co-Direktorin Claudia Mareis ist Teil des Programms mit dem Titel »Welt als Entwurf. Gestaltung im Kontext sozialer, politischer und ökologischer Probleme«.
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Syntopia. Copyright: Jihae Lee, weißensee school of art and design berlin
Final Review of MoA Design Research Studio
We hereby cordially invite you to the final review of the MoA Design Research Studio »Syntopia—Harvesting the Forest«, which will take place on Tuesday, July 18th, in Room 2.03 at weißensee school of art and design berlin. The studio led by Cluster Professor Karola Dierichs, investigated how materials collected in the forest can be formed into architectural structures. Such materials can for example be branches, leaves, moss, bark, grass, or even earth.
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Still of documentation of the workshop »Anthrologies of Technique, Techniques of Anthrology«. Copyright: Xu Ding
Multimodal Ethnographies of Making
The Cluster Members Maxime Le Calvé and Sharon Macdonald organized the final workshop presentations of the seminar »Anthropologies of Technique, Techniques of Anthropology: Multimodal Ethnographies of Making« on Friday, July 14th, in the Objekt Labor of the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik. The students introduced the participants ›hands-on‹ to techniques that they have explored during the semester, such as etching, live photos, sketching, dancing, self-portrait or lorming (a technique for tactile communication with people who have both visual and hearing impairments).
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»Textile Gestures - Mapping Tactile Practices with Architectural Yarns«, Hand-on Workshop at Bauhaus Study Rooms. Copyright: Thomas Meyer
Hand-on Workshop at Bauhaus Study Rooms
The Architectural Yarns research group at »Matters of Activity« has been hosting a hands-on workshop on tactile knowledge in performative research at the Bauhaus Study Rooms 2023.
During the one-day workshop, a group of 45 international students from Bauhaus Foundation Dessau, Coop Design Research of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences explored, verbalized and mapped tactile practices and textile gestures with large-scale yarns made of natural fibers. By investigating reconfigurable textile techniques with yarn samples, insights into collective design and construction processes of fiber-based materials such as ›Architectural Yarns‹ were gained.
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Hybride Formen. Copyright: Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch
A Participative, Artistic-Research Theater Piece of the Master's Program »Spiel und Objekt«, Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, Taught by Clemens Winkler
The participatory, artistic-research theater piece by the students of the Master's Program »Spiel und Objekt« at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts is divided into »Three Perspectives« and »Playing Emissions«. In »Playing Emissions« you enter the theme park of air futures! Experience the production of steam, body heat, sweat, feelings, breathing exercises in various eventful dramaturgies. How do we transform strong personal emotions from moments of crisis into new forms of collaborative play? The piece was created in collaboration with the experimental lab »CollActive Materials«, the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
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Poster Lecture Series, May–June 2023. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Cluster Professors Present their Research at Public Lecture Series at weißensee school of art and design berlin
On Wednesday, May 17th, at 5 pm, the public lecture series »see - ander(e)s sehen« started at weißensee school of art and design berlin, with four MoA members taking part in this semester's program. The first lecture was given by Karola Dierichs, Cluster professor for »Material and Code«, sharing her insights about »Designing Matter-Teaching Research and Research through Teaching.« Patricia Ribault, Thomas Ness, and Lucy Norris will give further lectures in the following weeks.
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Borneo Summer School 2023, Photo: Gary Loh Chee Wyai. Copyright: Jürgen Sieck/HTW Berlin
Report on Summer School 2023 at Borneo Cultures Museum, Kuching
From March 1st to 15th, 2023, MoA members Alwin Cubasch and Jürgen Sieck, together with Eileen Klingner, Verena Metze-Mangold, Elisabeth Thielen, Sophie Schauer, as well as several students, traveled to the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo for the Filtering project to conduct the DAAD-funded Summer School »Digitization of Indigenous Knowledge for Extended Reality and Culture« on site. In addition, six Malaysian scholars and 20 students participated who not only have insight into the indigenous culture and way of life of Borneo but are also members of different indigenous groups. The Summer School took place at the Borneo Cultures Museum in the provincial capital of Kuching, the second-largest museum in Southeast Asia.
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Minimal Machines 2
Hygroscopic Hemp
The MoA Design Research Studio »Minimal Machines 2« investigated functional applications for the shape-change of hemp-rope under variant ambient humidity conditions. Hemp is a biogenic plant-based material. It displays hygrophilic behaviour meaning that it absorbs water from the environment and consequently changes shape.
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»Extracting the Surface« workshop at Tieranatomisches Theater during the stretching senses school, 2022. Copyright: Subterranean Matters
Yoonha Kim and Maxime Le Calvé Reported at Conference of the Film Festival at the Royal Anthropological Institute
Cluster members Yoonha Kim and Maxime Le Calvé represented the Cluster at the online conference of the Film Festival at the Royal Anthropological Institute (London, UK), an event bringing together the global scene of visual anthropology. Together, they presented the paper »The patchy paths of the stretching senses school: the coming-of-age of an emerging learning community and immersive media collective between speculative ethnography and creative coding in Berlin« on March 8th, 2023.
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In an Interview, He Presents Possible Synergetic Interfaces Between the Cluster and the Theater School
Research Associate Clemens Winkler has been appointed visiting professor »digital media« at Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch. In an interview, the design researcher introduces himself and presents possible synergetic interfaces between the Cluster and the theater academy. In the course »Spiel und Objekt«, he creates playful stage spaces with students to negotiate human perspectives on current socio-technological ecologies and post-fossil futures.
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Teaser Coding IxD (7), Let’s Get: Physical, 2023.
From the Practice of Interdisciplinary Education: Making Data Tangible
In the winter semester 2022/23, »Coding IxD« entered its seventh round. This time, students were researching and discussing the possibilities of data physicalization to take informed action based on personal data. The results of their explorations can be experienced during an exhibition at the CityLAB Berlin from February, 16th–23rd, 2023.
The interdisciplinary course for students from the Department of Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Product Design at weißensee school of art and design berlin is based on a long-standing cooperation between MoA members from these institutions: Claudia Müller-Birn (Freie Universität Berlin) from the Human-Centered Computing Research Group and Carola Zwick, Judith Glaser and Thomas Ness from the Embodied Interaction Group at kunsthochschule weißensee. more
The interdisciplinary course for students from the Department of Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Product Design at weißensee school of art and design berlin is based on a long-standing cooperation between MoA members from these institutions: Claudia Müller-Birn (Freie Universität Berlin) from the Human-Centered Computing Research Group and Carola Zwick, Judith Glaser and Thomas Ness from the Embodied Interaction Group at kunsthochschule weißensee. more
Final Presentation »The Tone of Things«. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Final Presentation of the Interdisciplinary Semester Project (eLAB)
In the interaction with our environment, all senses play together shaping this experience. In addition to visual and tactile qualities, physical things also have a sound inherent in their material and form, which can be experienced in the process of interacting with them. Objects of the technosphere often use sound only in a very primitive form to convey information. In this project, we explored the auditive space in order to enrich everyday objects and situations through consciously designed sound experiences. The goal of the studio project, finally presented on February 16th, 3.00 pm was to create an interaction or an object that exemplifies this new quality and thus establishes the »tone« as a dimension to be designed.
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Coding IxD 7, Invitation Flyer, 2023. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Interactive Exhibition of the Project »Coding IxD« Runs until 23 February
Unconsciously or consciously, we record our routines, for example by using a pedometer, marking our favorite places in the city, or monitoring our electricity and water consumption. How can this personal data be made tangible? This is the question that students from the Department of Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Product Design at the weißensee school of art and design have been exploring together as part of the interdisciplinary course »Coding IxD.« The results of the project are presented in an interactive exhibition at CityLAB Berlin from February 16th-23rd, 2023, between 11 am and 5 pm.
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MoA Diagram: Workshop Research Modules for the Creation, Cognition and Perception of Matter. Copyright: Franziska Wegener
Intensive PhD Workshop hosted by MoA
For the Cluster's newly formed doctoral cohort the year started with an intensive workshop on interdisciplinary collaboration hosted by »Matter of Activity« under the supervision of Karola Dierichs and Franziska Wegener. The workshop »MATTER. Research Modules for the Creation, Cognition and Perception of Matter through Design, Materials Science and Cultural Science« that was held February, 5th–10th, 2023, invited Pre-Doctoral Candidates to engage in an interdisciplinary discourse and practice diving deeply into the challenge of how to learn and appropriate each other’s scientific language for more productive research collaborations.
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Rain-sheltered pathway at the University of Technology Sarawak, Sibu, 2022, Photo: Christian Kassung. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Filtering Project Prepares DAAD Summer School in March 2023 at University of Technology Sarawak in Malaysia
In December 2022, MoA Principal Investigators Christian Kassung and Jürgen Sieck traveled to Malaysia for the Filtering project in preparation of the DAAD Summer School »Digitisation of Indigenous Knowledge for Extended Reality and Cultural Heritage« taking place on-site at the University of Technology Sarawak in March 2023. The journey was dedicated to visits of several cultural institutions and museums, meetings and workshops with managers of local project partners, and field trips.
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Presenting the Humboldt Award to Heidi Jalkh. Photo: Phil Dera. Copyright: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Cluster member Heidi Jalkh has been awarded for her master thesis »Making matter active through form. Fabricating bio-inspired behavior with auxetic structures« with the Humboldt Award 2022 in the category »Research to Innovation«. Our warmest congratulations! The thesis at the department of Cultural History and Theory and is part of the Master »Open Design« and shows how the use of geometry and spatial arrangement can be used to provide a conventional elastic material with unconventional behavior and functionality. Thus, through interdisciplinary research, Heidi Jalkh has succeeded in weaving concepts from biology, materials science, and engineering from a designer's perspective to create new »active materials«.
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Stretching senses school logo with a photo of mycelium growing on willow, 2022. Copyright: Natalija Miodragovic & Dimitra Almpani-Lekka, Biomaterials Lab TU Berlin and MoA, 2022
at UdK »InKüLe – Innovationen für die künstlerische Lehre«
The stretching senses school, an MoA project curated by Cluster anthropologists Yoonha Kim (OSA) and Maxime Le Calvé (Cutting), is starting a longer teaching collaboration with the UdK-based project InKüLe »Innovationen für die Künstlerische Lehre«. The stretching senses school is an emerging learning community around immersive arts, creative coding and speculative ethnography. It aims to explore more-than-human perceptions through making practices bringing in conversation various immersive media. The collaborative workshops with InKüLe were focused on the potential of artistic education to change our relations to the environment through an engagement at the level of anthropotechniques.
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Poster »Frictioned Functionality«. Copyright: Matters of Activity
MoA's First Interdisciplinary Autumn School 17–22 October 2022
Against a background of ecologies in crisis, the interdisciplinary Autumn School »Frictioned Functionality: Un/Designing Un/Sustainable Matter« invited Post-Docs, PhDs and MA students from the humanities, natural sciences and design to work through the conflicted entanglement of materiality, design and un/sustainability, using frictioned functionality as the guiding principle. In the context of this Autumn School, frictioned functionality has been understood as a working concept to reopen other narrative and performative spaces of imagination in and beyond unruly times. The autumn school took place from October 17th–22nd, 2022.
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Flyer MOD at Humboldt Lab Event. Copyright: June Audirac
Open Design Master's Students' Projects Exhibited at Humboldt Lab
Our ever-so-evolving world presents us with numerous dilemmas and challenges when it comes to designing a better tomorrow. A new sensibility is required, gathering and collaborating with intelligences within nature, and thus fundamentally shifting away from obsolete and destructive routines.
The students of the Open Design Master Program are facing those challenges by radical unlearning, creating new strategies focused on the necessity of »growing sensescapes«. We are happy to invite you to a day full of the growth of sensescapes on July 25th at Humboldt Lab.
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Master Students and Visitors at the »Growing Sensecapes« event in the Humboldt Lab. Photo: Carmen Gloria Cuello Quintana.
Open Design Master's Students' Projects Exhibited at Humboldt Lab
With the event and exhibition »Growing Sensecapes«, the students of the »Open Design« Master Program wanted to bring forward the numerous dilemmas and challenges they face, not only as students but also as individuals, when it comes to designing a better tomorrow. A permanent flow of people engaged with the students in their reflections at the Humboldt Labor on July 25th 2022. Visitors encountered the six projects that were developed during the Seminar Laboratory Projects led by Cluster members Frank Bauer, Bastian Beyer, Maxime Le Calvé, Jose D. Cojal Gonzaléz, the lecturers from the Universidad de Buenos Aires Rodrigo Martin Iglesias, José Ignacio Alvarez-Hamelin and the support of Brazilian artist Rejane Cantoni.
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Students during a visit to HNE Eberswalde/ Seminar Spatial Structures with Karola Dierichs and Michaela Eder. Copyright: Carmen Gloria Cuello Quintana
3rd Semester in Berlin is Almost Over
After two semesters of online interactions, 27 students came together in Berlin for their third semester of the international interdisciplinary Master’s program »Open Design« While having focused in the themes Elements and Experiments during previous semesters, Projects has been the key word guiding the student’s work during these weeks. Their focus has been on analyzing specific interdisciplinary design processes and applying design strategies for the development of innovative projects, bringing together the various elements of Gestaltung and empirical methods.
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Flyer Open House 2022. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin.
Matters of Activity Involved in Many Projects Presented
This year, weißensee school of art and design berlin finally opened its studios for the traditional open house after two years of digital presentations only due to the pandemic. On July 9th and 10th, 12–20 pm, there was be the opportunity to learn more about the students’ projects and works developed during the last year, many of them in cooperation with or in classes led by members of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.
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Minimal Machines 2 – Hygroscopic Hemp. Copyright: Nuri Kang / weißensee school of art and design berlin, Image: Karola Dierichs / weißensee school of art and design berlin, Matters of Activity.
Final Presentation of MoA Design Research Studio
On 5 July 2022 the final review of the MoA Design Research Studio »Minimal Machines 2 – Hygroscopic Hemp« took place at at weißensee school of art and design berlin. The MoA Design Research Studio »Minimal Machines 2« investigated functional applications for the shape-change of hemp-rope under variant ambient humidity conditions.
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KonsOasis. Copyright: An Guoliu
Small Solar Self-Suppliers
In the summer term of 2022, the Embodied Interaction Studio hosted the practice project »Heliobolici« at the weißensee school of art and design berlin. The Bachelor's and Master's students in the Product Design Department investigated solar technology's potential to make artifacts energetically independent. The solutions developed range from concepts for public infrastructure to personal use.
Many objects, tools or services we use daily require energy to produce heat, light, motor or computing power. A whole range of these artifacts could achieve energy self-sufficiency through solar power. In the project, we investigated objects and application contexts in which solar energy could be used to achieve energy independence. »Heliobolici« explored the question of to what extent this product dimension can generate new rituals of use and, therefore, new aesthetic archetypes. more
Many objects, tools or services we use daily require energy to produce heat, light, motor or computing power. A whole range of these artifacts could achieve energy self-sufficiency through solar power. In the project, we investigated objects and application contexts in which solar energy could be used to achieve energy independence. »Heliobolici« explored the question of to what extent this product dimension can generate new rituals of use and, therefore, new aesthetic archetypes. more
Copyright: Anders Ingvartsen
MoA Colloquium with Julian Lienhard
On June 10th, the MoA Colloquia at weißensee school of art and design continued with a talk by Professor Dr.-Ing. Julian Lienhard, structural engineer and since 2019 head of the Chair for Structural Design (TWE) and director of the institute of Architecture at the University of Kassel. The MoA Colloquia gave the opportunity for a small group of students to meet and exchange with leading experts of the field of computational design.
Poster »On Gestaltung«. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Lecture Series at Weißensee School of Art and Design Continues
Our modes of giving form evolve and hybridize more and more, but they are also inhabited by common and timeless questionings that have to do with our demiurgic tendencies. This lecture series, initiated in 2021 by Patricia Ribault and Jörg Petruschat, questioned the processes of formation and transformation of the material world we live in through various concepts: constraint, function and dysfunction, formativity and performativity, visualization and representation, activity, bricology..., all of which constitute the inseparably mental and material set of operations that lead to the genesis of a thing.
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Dis/Entangling Material Futures. Copyright: Claudia Mareis
Lecture Series by Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis Continues
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.
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From left to right:
KIM | Milda Benjes, Nik Naumov, Aljoscha Peters, Alexia von Salomon
Doc-U | Anton Wille, Jonathan Rex, Una Preuß, Yiawen Yao
Discus | Antonios Hazim, Johannes Schmidtner
Bubble+ | Sarah Leicher, Ran Zhang, Alpaslan Inceismail
Cookie.Jar | Luis Günther, Benny Christian Henning, Meret Sonnenschein
CO2NLINE | Julia Mellert, Simon Sasse, Youran Song
Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Review Interactive Exhibition of the Project »Coding IxD«
What is digital sovereignty, and how can it be enabled by design? Students from the Department of Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Product Design at weißensee school of art and design berlin explored these questions as part of the interdisciplinary course »Coding IxD« by means of Neo-analogue artefacts, i.e., products that represent a synthesis of the virtual and the material in form and function. The results of this project has been showcased in an interactive exhibition at the Weizenbaum Institute Berlin in February.
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Designing Matter 2. Copyright: Clara Poeverlein / weißensee school of art and design berlin
Final Review of the MoA Design Research Studio
On Tuesday, February 15th 2022, 10 a.m.–5.30 p.m., the contributors of the MoA Design Research Studio »Designing Matter 2« presented their results during a one-day final online review. »Designing Matter 2«, supervised by MoA members Karola Dierichs, Felix Rasehorn, Mareike Stoll, Mason Dean, Michaela Eder, Charlett Wenig, Binru Yang and John Nyakatura, investigated tessellated surfaces as material systems for textile architecture and product design.
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Material Geometry — Intersecting Cones I. Copyright: Karola Dierichs and Katharina Lindenberg; Institute for Computational Design and Construction, University of Stuttgart; Städelschule Architecture Class; 2013
MoA Colloquia Continue with Prof. Katharina Lindenberg
On February 8th, Professor Katharina Lindenberg gave a lecture on »Methods of Computational Design in the Context of Materialization« as part of the MoA Colloquia series at weißensee school of art and design berlin. Katharina Lindenberg is an architect, lecturer and researcher with a strong focus on material systems, computational design methods and geometry.
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»Digital:Sovereignity«. Copyright: Project Coding IXD
From the Practice of Interdisciplinary Education: Reshaping Digital Self-Determination
After an unavoidable pause due to the pandemic situation last year, the practice project »Coding IxD« (Informatik x Design) took place for the sixth time at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« – this year covering the topic on »Digital:Sovereignty«. The course offer is a cooperation of the working group Human-Centered Computing headed by Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn (FU Berlin) and the Embodied Interaction Group by Prof. Carola Zwick, Prof. Judith Glaser and Prof. Thomas Ness (weißensee school of art and design berlin).
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Poster »Dis/Entangling Perspectives in Material Research«. Copyright: Matters of Activity | Image: Michaela Büsse
Online Lecture Series Starting on 25 October 2021, every Monday 4:15 pm–5:45 pm (CEST)
Materials such as water, sand, coal or crude oil are essential resources for industrial production, technological and infrastructural development. Although they are omnipresent in everyday life, their genealogies, epistemologies and ontologies are rarely called into question.
This lecture series, organized by Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis, focused on the ecological, sociopolitical and symbolic interrelations that unfold around the industrial utilization and commodification of materials. A critical historical perspective shows, among other things, that materials are often the result of and object to precarious geopolitics and biopolitics as well as unsustainable modes of production and consumption. As such the lecture series connected two discourses on material/political and power/knowledge relations.
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Copyright: Leila Wallisser / weißensee school of art and design berlin
From Tile to Tesselation
The MoA Design Research Studio »Designing Matter 2« investigated tessellated surfaces as material systems for textile architecture and product design. A tessellated surface is composed of individual units—tiles—which are connected by a joining material—such as tissue. Designing the materiality and the geometry of these individual units and their joints allows to calibrate the functionality of the overall tessellation.
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Copyright: Elaine Bonavia & Elisa Martignoni, weißensee school of art and design berlin, 2021
Final Presentation of MoA Design Research Studio
»Minimal Machines« was an MoA Design Research Studio Project investigating the development of machines for non-augmented and augmented spinning on an architectural scale. The machines were to be used as devices in conjunction with a designed material. Given that one of the core paradigms of designing matter is the abolition of machines in favor of matter’s own inner activity, these machines were to be minimal. This could imply tools that are designed to perform the bare minimum required in the assembly of a designed material. Still, it could also mean that matter is designed to become operational—or machinic—itself.
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Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Final Review on 13 July 2021
The MoA Design Research Studio »Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn« explored the upscaling of fiber into yarns as structural elements for the architectural scale and context. It was carried out as a transdisciplinary exchange between architecture, textile technology, materials science and cultural studies aiming at new concepts for sustainable design technologies.
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BUGA Fibre Pavilion 2019, ICD/ITKE, University of Stuttgart, Copyright: Roland Halbe
Kick-Off Event of the new MoA Colloquia at weißensee school of art and design
On July 1st 2021, the MoA Colloquia at weißensee school of art and design was inaugurated by Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers. Jan Knippers is a consulting structural engineer and has been head of the Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart since 2000. His interest is in innovative and resource-efficient structures at the intersection of research and development and practice. The MoA Colloquia gave the opportunity for a small group of students to meet and exchange with leading experts of the field of computational design. The lectures were streamed and accesible to the wider public.
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WEON prototype. Copyright: Netta Gigi, Harrison Tan, Fu Yitao, Jehyun Kim
Collaborative Studio Project with Students from the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, and weißensee school of art and design berlin
The phone call has taken a back seat as an interaction and is replaced by the multitude of applications such as navigation, healthcare, Internet of Things or social media. Various filters and filtering technologies interact simultaneously to shape our access and exchange with our environment. The studio project »Ultratool« addresses this development and investigates conditioning cultural and social behaviors within the technology ecosystem we live in. The aim of the project is to develop new product ideas and concepts, based on various analyses and design methods on technical and cultural aspects. »Ultratool« is a collaborative studio project of MoA Design Research Studio with students from the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, and weißensee school of art and design berlin. The final presentation was held on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021 at 10.00 am–12.30 pm (CET).
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Circular processes and feedback loops in additive manufacturing processes, Babette Wiezorek 2016, porcelain, 3D printing (detail). Copyright: Babette Wiezorek 2016.
New Online Lecture Series at weißensee school of art and design berlin
On Tuesday, May 11th the online lecture series »On Gestaltung« started which was initiated by Cluster members Jörg Petruschat and Patricia Ribault at weißensee school of art and design. This lecture series was conceived in two parts: »Theories«, which complements Jörg Petruschat’s seminar »Theories of Gestaltung«, and »Actions«, which was an extension of Ben Lignel’s seminar »Performing Research: Being with / Learning with / Speaking with an Object«. The following speaker on June 8th was Glenn Adamson, curator and writer, previous director of the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), head of research at the V&A (London), and Curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee.
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Copyright: Ilkin Taşdelen, Ana Vila, Master Open Design
Cohort 2021-2023 Virtual Semester Kick-Off
In April 2021, the first virtual semester of the international interdisciplinary Master's Program »Open Design« kicked-off. In the opening week, 40 students from all over the world accompanied each other on virtual walks in their study locations, interchanging visual impressions and audio files discussing different topics, ranging from ecological and sustainable design, the philosophy of the Anthropocene to emergency design and DIY.
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Situated Digital Agencies. Copyright: Maxie Schneider
Seminar Series between MoA's Doctoral Program and the Department of Digital and Experimental Design at UdK Berlin
During the summer semester 2021, the teaching format »Situated Digital Agencies« bridged institutions just as much as cultures of knowledge, research and teaching. Along transdisciplinary and dialogic encounter it followed how digital technologies are situated between discourses of arts and design, humanities, and sciences – and suggested how precisely in these moments, they are altered, appropriated and possibly augmented towards epistemological and ontological surplus.
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Biological materials are built with a limited number of building blocks, based on polysaccharides, proteins, and minerals. Copyright: Julia Blumenthal
Peter Fratzl holds Lecture Series for an Interdisciplinary Audience at HU
The lecture series took place every second Tuesday 4:15–5:45 pm and was addressed to a pluridisciplinary audience, including sciences, design and cultural studies. All required basics from biophysics and biochemistry to mechanics were provided. The lecture series introduced relevant structural features from molecular to macroscopic scales using examples for materials based on proteins or on polysaccharides, in particular cellulose and chitin.
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Vivian Tamm, Smart Organic Light Objects (SOLO). Copyright: Vivian Tamm / weißensee school of art and design berlin
Digital Exhibition at »Greenhouse 2021«
The studio project »SOLO - Smart Organic Light Objects« explored the potential of new technologies for interacting with light beyond existing archetypes and traditional interfaces. New qualities of light as well as novel dynamic, responsive interactions were created catering to human behavior differently. Through an iterative design process, students from both the BA and the MA track of the Product Design program at weißensee school of art and design berlin developed concepts and prototypes demonstrating these new interactions with light in private or public settings. The works were on digital display at the Stockholm Furniture Fair »Greenhouse« February 10th–11th.
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Hydroweave. Copyright: Stefanie Eichler & Juni Neyenhuys, weißensee school of art and design berlin
The Work was Realized at weißensee school of art and design berlin Within the Framework of the MoA Design Studio
»Hydroweave« by Stefanie Eichler and Juni Neyenhuys was awarded a recognition in the field of »Study« at the Raumprobe Material Award 2020. The project, which centers on a research-based design approach, was created in 2019 at weißensee school of art and design berlin as part of the MoA Design Studio »Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkles« under the direction of Prof. Christiane Sauer. Since 2005, Raumprobe has been a constantly growing online material database and physical material exhibition in Stuttgart. Raumprobe has been awarding the prestigious Material Prize annually since 2013, recognizing special materials.
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Ran Zhang, Design Sprint: Haptic Vision, 2020. Copyright: Ran Zhang
Final Presentation on 2 February 2021
In February 2021 we were heading towards the end of the hybrid semester and the Embodied Interaction Design Studio »Hyper Haptics«. On behalf of the group students were invited to the final presentation. The student projects covered a wide range of interaction concepts and haptic augmentation strategies.
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Project: Lara Rocho, weißensee school of art and design berlin. Copyright: Dr. Mareike Stoll
Final Review at weißensee school of art and design berlin
The MoA Design Research Studio »Designing Matter 1« investigated designed filaments and fabrics as architectural material systems.
»Designing Matter« denotes the definition of the form and the materiality for the component elements of a material in order to achieve a specific functionality. This process allows to utilize and enhance the inherent properties of a given material and ultimately to generate novel ones. Codes – either analog or digital – are used to implement the design of the material by means of a systematization of this form-function interrelationship. In this context the MoA Design Research Studio made contributions with respect to the development of designed filaments and the close adherence of the architectural designed fabrics to the production sequences and patterns observed in silk-cocoons. Take a look at the projects!
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Embodied Interaction (1) : HyperHaptics. Oscillating between physical and virtual tactility. Copyright: Judith Glaser.
Oscillating between Physical and Virtual Tactility
This winter semester, the Cluster Professorship for ›Embodied Interaction‹ was hosting the practice project ›HyperHaptics‹ at the weißensee school of art and design berlin. Together with MoA researchers, Bachelor and Master students of the Department of Product Design explored the potential of interlocking virtual and physical tactility. ›HyperHaptics‹ is thus a direct continuation of the research work of the project »Cutting«. The overall aim of »Cutting« is to investigate the haptic dimension of the cut. How can new haptic experiences be encoded? How can the ›Sensing Knife‹ or ›Virtual Dissection‹ be experienced in a prototypical setup and what is needed for this?
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Yin 阴 , Cindy Peng. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin, Cindy Peng
Works on Display at weißensee school of art and design
The MoA Design Research Studio on »Growth« was a continuation of the »Scaling Nature« series introduced in Summer 2019. In this context, the core idea of the studio was to investigate matter as an active agent in the design process. This means that it has its own innate capacity of formation and performance, that is being designed from the bottom up. Scaling nature can be understood as the process of extracting principles from naturally occurring systems and taking them as inspiration for specific applications – during this process scaling operations necessarily are one key aspect of this translation. The results of the MoA Design Research Studio on »Growth« were on internal display at the weißensee school of art and design berlin from September 22nd to October 14th, 2020.
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Matters of Writing. Copyright: Matters of Activity
3rd Open Design – Academic Encounters Online
Do you see yourself as an author? This question was asked by Laura (Violeta) Colombo, lecturer in the Master's Degree in Open Design at the Universidad de Buenos Aires during the third meeting of »Open Design - Academic Encounters Online«.
A short silence, heads shaking, followed by shy hand signals. Why do we find it difficult to consider and also identify ourselves as authors? What makes for good writing? Why do we write, what do we write and how do we write it? These were some of the key questions of this week's online encounter held by Maxime Le Calvé, Research Associate at Matters of Activity in collaboration with Laura (Violeta) Colombo, Research Assistant at CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina).
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Open Design – Academic Encounters Online. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Academic Encounters Online
Announcing the deferral of »Open Design« to the summer term 2021 was a very difficult decision. We were all so much looking forward to start the program with a fantastically diverse group of 32 international students from all over the world. But only few days after the arrival of some of the students to Buenos Aires it became clear to us that we would not be able to start as expected. Borders were being closed, travel authorizations withdrawn, and flights cancelled. Both universities, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Universidad de Buenos Aires, operated in emergency presence mode and peoples’ everyday mobility everywhere became limited
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»Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkels«: Liquid Lacquer. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin / Luis Magg
Audience Online Voting for Most Popular Material Now Open – Vote Now!
Three of the projects from »Scaling Nature 1: Wrinkles« were nominated for the »Raumprobe Materialpreis 2020« – ›the‹ award for special materials. In the project »Scaling Nature 1: Wrinkles« students of the bachelor's program in textile and surface design at weißensee school of art and design berlin investigated material activity in natural structures and developed new design strategies for active surfaces in a spatial context. Until June 16th there is an online voting for the most popular material, selected by the audience – vote for our projects now!
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Copyright: weissensee school of art and design berlin
Review Interactive Exhibition of the Project »Coding IxD«
On February 12th, Product Design and Computer Science students of the weißensee school of art and design berlin and Freie Universität Berlin presented their work under the topic »Entity:City« in cooperation with CityLAB.
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Copyright: Institute for Art and Visual History Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Lecture Series »Art and Visual Theory« of the Department of Art and Visual History
All members and interested persons were cordially invited to the lecture of Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle on February 12th at 6:15–8:15 pm. The lecture series has been taking place since the winter semester 2019/2020. On January 22nd, Prof. Dr. Horst Bredekamp gave his lecture on »Die rückstürzende Metaphysik der Bildwissenschaft«.
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»Scaling Nature (2): Fibers, Muscles and Bones« Final Presentation. Copyright: weissensee academy of art berlin
Final Presentation at weißensee school of art and design berlin
On February 11th, 2020 the final presentations of MoA Design Studio »Scaling Nature (2): Fibers, Muscles and Bones« took place at weißensee school of art and design berlin. We are very happy that many MoA Members were able to attend and discuss the students' works, as the final presentations showcased the inspiring journey of this semester's research-based design projects.
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Copyright: Julien Letellier
Lectures from Prof. Stefano Bertocci und Julien Letellier
On Friday, January 24th at 10am, Prof. Stefano Bertocci and Julien Letellier gave a lecture on »Remote Sensing in Archaelogy and Architectural Heritage: Digital Documentation for Knowledge and Conservation« (Bertocci) and »Virtual Reality with High Resolution 3D Models for Research and Education« (Letellier).
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Copyright: Institute for Art and Visual History Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Lecture Series »Art and Visual Theory« of the Department of Art and Visual History
The lecture of Prof. Dr. Horst Bredekamp on January 22nd at 18:15–20:15 took place at Dorotheenstraße 26, 10117 Berlin.
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Design Studio »Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkels«, Design: Juni Neyenhuys and Stefanie Eichler. Copyright: weißensee kunsthochschule berlin
at NuThinkers during Domotex Tradefair in Hanover
Students of the bachelor's program in textile and surface design investigated material activity in natural structures and developed new design strategies for active surfaces in a spatial context and showcase these at Domotex, Hanover, January 10th to 13th, 2020.
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Interim Presentation
On Wednesday, December 11th, 2019 the Interim Presentations of the semester project »Entity:City« took place at the Cluster. The five interdisciplinary teams of students of Computer Science (FU Berlin) and Product Design (weißensee school of art and design berlin) presented their concepts.
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Copyright: Jonas Lauströer, Amir Andikfar, John Nyakatura (HU Berlin)
Under the title »MoA Talks«, the interdisciplinary lecture series continued on November 19th at weißensee school of art and design berlin.
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Deadline October 30 2019
The master’s degree program »Open Design/Diseño Abierto para la Innovación« is jointly organized by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) since 2015. It is an international and interdisciplinary double-degree program that focuses on the »design turn« in interdisciplinary research.
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»MoA Talks« is an interdisciplinary lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« running at weißensee school of art and design berlin. The lectures present different scientific positions from the Cluster. The first invited speaker in the winter semester 2019/2020 was Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Peter Fratzl.
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Coding IxD (5) - Entity:City
From the Practice of Interdisciplinary Education: Exploring Urban Spaces
The practice project »Coding IxD« (Informatik x Design) for students took place for the fifth time in a row at the Cluster of Excellence, that year under the term »Entity:City«. The course offer was a cooperation of the working group Human-Centered Computing headed by Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn (FU Berlin) and the product Design Department headed by Prof. Carola Zwick (weißensee school of art and design berlin). Computer Scientists and Product Designers were trained together in interdisciplinary teams.
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Joining Perspectives on Haptics - Design Workshop Filtering 2022. Foto: Felix Rasehorn
»Information Physicalization« provides a methodological framework for a symmetrical understanding of information and material within the research project of »filtering«. Based on empirical evidence that an active, spatial depth perception, in which we use our motor skills or other non-visual senses like touching, tangible or embodied information leads to higher accessibility, efficiency and cognitive benefits.
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