Non-trivial music instrument at Boch Digital Vorspiel, 2 February 2024. Copyright: Maxime Le Calvé
Workshop and Participatory Concert
The NTMI (NonTrivial Musical Instrument) embodies the idea of making complex sound worlds playable by intuition. It enables children and laypersons to explore many sound synthesis processes playfully and allows expert musicians to realize their sonic imagination by adapting/expanding its open-source architecture. In the workshop on April 18th, organized by MoA member Maxime Le Calvé and conducted together with Alberto de Campo, Professor for Generative Art / Computational Art (Berlin University of the Arts), sound researcher Nico Daleman, and the Speculative Realities Lab, the team explained and demonstrated the central concepts, then dedicated time to hands-on playing, experimenting, and improvising, first on individual setups, and finally as multiple sources of influence on a single NTMI environment.
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Poster with Abstract Visual Associations. Copyright: Rüdiger Wenk
Lecture Performance Organized by »Object Space Agency« During Berlin Science Week 2023
In this lecture performance, Rüdiger Wenk presents his auditive associations of images in the plural based on his cybernetic algorithm as part of analog sound synthesis. Rüdiger Wenk first explains the basics of his cybernetic algorithm consisting of envelope follower (signal input), modal synthesis (body), and asynchronous granular synthesis (space) in the context of feedback within this current lecture performance.
The visual works, which will be shown in the course of the Berlin Science Week 2023 by the Institute of Art History of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in cooperation with »Object Space Agency« on November 7th, can be seen from 6:00 pm in the Medientheater. The lecture performance starts at 7:00 pm.
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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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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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Film Poster. Copyright: Carly Lave
VR Dance Film »Paar« Directed by Carly Lave, Supported by MoA
»Paar« is a VR dance film split between a physical world and a virtual world, using 360° video together with motion capture technology, to dance the theater to life in VR. The virtual environment of the Tieranatomisches Theater is created from the 3D photorealistic rendering of the theater, making for 180° of the virtual world and 180° of the physical world. In »Paar«, the dancers’ movements are tracked via motion capture technology. This recorded movement data was mapped into the virtual environment of the TA T through avatars. On February 24th at Mercedes Benz Kino in Berlin, »Paar« was in a movie demo from a Hamburg-based VR startup.
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Poster: Scoring Perspectives for Speculative Ethnography
Workshops and Interactive Performance with Dorte Bjerre Jensen
Cluster Members Maxime le Calvé and Yoonha Kim were delighted to invite to two days of stretching senses school workshops on 24th & 25th of November with Dorte Bjerre Jensen at the Cluster and in the Kunstgewerbemuseum at the »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« exhibition. The two workshops helped pushing forward collective experiments in speculative ethnography and research-as-exhibition. They brought together bodies and spaces into motion, and evaluated the potentials of an interdisciplinary practice of »scoring« to explore, describe and analyze in first-person the activity of images, spaces, and materials based on the micro-phenomenological method.
Paar. Copyright: Gamelab Berlin
The VR dance »Paar« directed by Carly Lave, which premiered at Tieranatomisches Theater in June 2022, has been accepted and awarded into several global festivals, including the FIVARS VR Film Festival Toronto and the DigitalMediaFest Rome. »Paar« won Best Short Film in Virtual Reality at the OneEarthAwards film Festival on September 30th in India. The project was supported through Gamelab Berlin, »Matters of Activity«, and the Tieranatomisches Theater.
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Paar. Copyright: Gamelab Berlin
On June 9th in the Tieranatomisches Theater
On Thursday, June 9th, at 7 pm, the premiere of »Paar« took place in the Tieranatomisches Theater. »Paar« is a VR dance film split between a physical world and a virtual world, using 360° video together with motion capture technology, to dance the theater to life in VR. The virtual environment of the Veterinary Anatomy Theater (Tieranatomisches Theater, TA T) is created from the 3D photorealistic rendering of the theater, making for 180° of the virtual world and 180° of the physical world. In Paar, the dancers’ movements are tracked via motion capture technology. This recorded movement data was mapped into the virtual environment of the TA T through avatars.
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Poster »Viral Theatres: Pandemic Past/Hybrid Futures«. Copyright: Francesca Sciarmella
Exhibition Organized Together with ExC Temporal Communities
How hybrid is the future of theatre? In what ways has the pandemic changed how we work in theatre and gather in it as a public space? The opening symposium »Viral Theatres: Pandemic Past/Hybrid Futures« explored these questions. In three days of events, it took stock of how pandemic time has moved from a state of exception to new normality between viral outbreak and containment and what that means for theatrical production. You can visit the accompanying exhibition in the Tieranatomisches Theater (Veterinary Anatomy Theater) in Berlin until June 3rd.
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Foto: Lena Dues. Design: NODE Berlin Oslo
Performance, Conversation, Lecture in the Exhibition »Stretching Materialities«
Where are the boundaries between living and dead matter? This evening of performance, artist-curator conversation, and lecture explored experiences and narratives between the organic and the inorganic associated with artifacts, natural objects, and the interior of our own bodies. This event was part of the exhibition by MoA project »Object Space Agency« at Tieranatomisches Theater »Stretching Materialities. Hidden Activities in Objects and Spaces«.
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Anne Duk Hee Jordan, »Making Kin 3.0«, 2021, KIOSK, Ghent, Belgium. Site specific Installation, with works included »Atmospheres of Breathing«, 2020-2021, »Singing Saw«, 2018, »I am so ashamed«, 2020, »Staying with the trouble«, 2019. Curated by Simon Delobel. Photo: Paulius Sliaupa
Lecture and Artist Talk Now Online
Are there aesthetic links between clouds, robots and the sea? The lecture by Babette Marie Werner, the performative talk with visual artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan and artistic and design researcher Clemens Winkler explored relations between visual interpretations of metabolic formations, biodiversity and new ecologies in art and design. This event was part of the exhibition »Stretching Materialities« by »Object Space Agency«. Follow the link to watch the full artist talk online.
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3D printed prototypes by B. Pekcagliyan, W. Rybakova, N. Vega, & P. Greta for »Subterranean Matters« Project, in »Stretching Senses School«, Matters of Activity.
New Publications present Findings of Stretching Senses School at TA T Berlin
Playful approaches can directly affect our sensory faculties beyond the realm of power and knowledge. The »stretching senses school« was an education-as-research project at the Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin (TA T) attached to the exhibition »Stretching Materialities«. This workshop-based contribution to the exhibition was framed as a collaboration between anthropology and immersive interaction art. Cluster members engaged with creative coders and digital artists in experimental curation work, with the intention to raise awareness of the public on the multiscale and embedded interconnections between humans and other earthly beings. Four new publications by MoA members and participants now introduce the method and implementation of the workshop which was carried out last fall in the Tieranatomisches Theater and discuss the experimental testing in three specific projects.
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Karin Krauthausen in conversation with Milo Rau. Copyright: Mosse Lectures, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
MoA Member Karin Krauthausen in Conversation with Milo Rau at the Mosse Lectures
How does a Jesus film become a political campaign and a new distribution system for tomatoes and art? How do unlikely solidarities emerge between continents, between artists and activists, between genres and forms of production? What is a symbolic institution and how can we change the world through art? On Thursday, January 13th, 2022, director and author Milo Rau and MoA member Karin Krauthausen talked about »Performance and Politics«.
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Anna Kubelík, The Well-Tempered Hygrometer III, Object Lab of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Copyright: Matters of Activity.
Sound Performances Accompanying the Exhibition »Stretching Materialities«
The »Well-Tempered Hygrometer« by artist and architect Anna Kubelík was an installative and constructive sculpture from 2013. The title reveals the hybrid character of the work: on the one hand, the artist has conceived it as a geometric interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier by making very direct and precise references to this work which is fundamental for keyboard instruments. The sound performances accompany the exhibition »Stretching Materialities« by designers and researchers of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, which could be visited in the adjacent building of the Tieranatomisches Theater.
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MoA Exhibition »Stretching Materialities«. Copyright: Offshore Design
Hidden Activities in Objects and Spaces at Tieranatomisches Theater
Matter is dead? Objects are lifeless? Think again! In the exhibition »Stretching Materialities« the liveliness and activity of matter could be experienced in a completely new way. From September 16th, 2021 to March 4th, 2022, the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin became an interactive playground: an actual cloud levitated in the middle of the room, reacting to body heat and movement, hovering around the visitors like a strange creature. Stones revealed their weathering as a dynamic process of change. Large willow structures, carefully co-crafted by humans and computers, were interwoven with the inhabitable space. Korean ›durumagi‹, a silk overcoat connecting the digital and physical realm, vibrated on the visitors’ skin as they interacted with diverse materials. Walking through the room with VR headsets on, visitors could enter a glass elevator and travel straight down into the materials presented – into the CT scan of a stone or high up into the clouds to interact with air molecules.
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Teaserpicture DRHR2021. Copyright: Ravi Kumar / Unsplash.
Registration Open Until 3 September 2021
From September 5th–7th, 2021, the 25th Annual DRHA Conference »Digital Matters: Designing/Performing Agency for the Anthropocene«, took place in Berlin. The event was hosted by the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and further supported by a partnership with the Cluster of Excellence »Temporal Communities - Doing Literature in a Global Perspective«.
The conference was co-organized by Cluster member Christian Stein and several MoA members were involved by contributing to the conference. MoA Director Claudia Mareis delivered a keynote lecture entitled »Designing resilience: on a third culture with many transitions« on Monday, September 6th.
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Banner Lab Tour »Stretching Materialities«. Copyright: Offshore Design
Getting a Glimpse of the Exhibition
In June 2021, the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« invited to a special kind of lab tour: At Tieranatomisches Theater, the project »Object Space Agency« opened virtual gates on June 29th, 3.45 pm to let you experience the hidden activities of materials:
Enter a tangible atmosphere, let the wind blow in your face, feel crackling rattan braids under your feet, immerse yourself in virtual reality perspectives and travel with our glass elevator. And it doesn't stop there: wear haptically vibrating clothing that responds to its surroundings and experience weathering over millennia with selected stone samples. In »Stretching Materialities«, you can experience what no one else sees: The objects and structures around us are active and alive. And we interact with them whether we realize it or not.
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Website DRHA Digital Matters. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja
Call for Participation for the 25th Digital Research in Humanities and Arts Conference
The 25th Digital Research in Humanities and Arts conference invited contributions and interventions that focused on transfers and interactions between digital and natural environments. »Digital Matters« took on the challenge of exploring new material and multi-species agencies, forms of embodiment, and interactions between the Performing Arts, the Humanities and the Natural Sciences that engage the sense of relationality and expanded scale the Anthropocene affords. The conference was organized by Cluster member Christian Stein (Project Object Space Agency) in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence »Temporal Communities« and took place on September 5th–7th, 2021.
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Antart Field/Works Talk #6 Natalija Miodragović in Conversation with Ivana Franke. Copyright: Antart
Natalija Miodragović in Conversation with Ivana Franke
»Softicity« is an online video performance which was streamed on March 25th. It featured soft fungi environments collected during fieldwork and is a study for possible symbiotic cohabitation with new urban materiality. A set of instructions engaged the remotely attending audience to question the sensory modalities, the materiality and the intra-climate of personal habitat. The online collages and videos will served as the imaginary of a different, softer city. This exhibit was part of a larger speculative research in atmospheres of fiber architectures. Natalija Miodragović takes art and space as vehicles for anticipating social change. The focus of her work is the perception and understanding of space, lightweight, flexible, unfoldable and textile structures.
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Field/Works. Copyright: Antart
Series Curated by Cluster Member Maxime Le Calvé
For anthropologists and artists »doing fieldwork« in contemporary worlds, art can be much more than an object of investigation. Curation and creation through visual, audio, or performing arts are at the heart of their work, extending the established anthropological interest in writing as a medium of thought and knowledge sharing. The exhibition »Field/Works« presented works by anthropologists and artists who broke disciplinary boundaries, and whose practice foregrounded experimental, and open approaches to the theme »field/works«. This series was curated by Jen Clarke and Cluster Member Maxime Le Calvé.
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Golem Labor Performance. Copyright: Carly Lave, Gamelab Berlin
Gothe-Institut Prague and Gamelab host Conference on XR on 15 October 2020
The international workshop series Golem-Labor by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the Gamelab brought together contemporary dance and mixed reality technologies. In an online conference, XR experts and artists addressed the question of how the (performative) arts and (XR) technologies can interact.
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Antart Exhibition Project. Copyright: Antart
Call for Contributions for ANTART Network Exhibition at EASA
Cluster members Maxime Le Calvé was co-organizing the exhibition »Field/Works. Kaleidoscopic Activities Between Anthropology and Art« togehter with the ANTART Network at EASE and they were seeking contributions. The submission deadline was MAy 22nd. The event took place virtually July 21st to 24th, 2020.
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Well-Tempered Hygrometer. Stretching Materials as a Sound Installation. Copyright: Anna Kubelik and Oliver Schmid
The artist Anna Kubelik and the musician Oliver Schmid were invited by »Object Space Agency« to exhibit and perform the sculptural installation »Wohl-Temperiertes Hygrometer« in the Objekt Labor.
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