Alwin J. Cubasch
At the Cluster, Alwin J. Cubasch's research oscillates between the history of flavors, infrastructures and space satellite cultures with the aim to better understand how socio-technical materialities and body practices select, filter, and preconfigure pathways of agency in the digital age.
In his ongoing PhD, he studies NASA’s food-experiments during the early days of spaceflight focusing on the interconnections of food, science, and medicine.
In the last years, Alwin Cubasch worked as university assistant at the Department of History, University of Innsbruck and he holds a master’s degree from the TU Berlin, where he studied History of Science and Technology.
He was Managing Editor of NTM: Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
Cluster of Excellence
»Matters of Activity«
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Sophienstr. 22a
10178 Berlin
Articles
Cubasch, A. J., Engelmann, V., Kassung, C. 2021. »Theorie des Filterns. Zur Programmatik eines Experimentalsystems.« preprint.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4731045
Talks & Presentations
Beyer, B., Cubasch, A., Fratzl, P., Hengge, R., Mareis, C., Perraudin, L., Sauer, C., Schäffner, W., for the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«. Can Bacteria Spin a Yarn? We Need a New Culture of Materials. Panel Presentation at the »Can Bacteria Spin a Yarn? We Need a New Culture of Materials«, Humboldt Forum Berlin. Hybrid. 29 April 2021.
https://www.humboldtforum.org/en/programm/termin/science-humanities/do-bacteria-spin-a-yarn-20472/
Cubasch, A. J., Perraudin, L. Filtering. Talk at the »MitWissenschaft - Spinnen die, die Bakterien?«, Humboldt Forum Berlin. Virtual. 29 April 2021.
https://www.humboldtforum.org/de/programm/termin/wissenschaft/spinnen-die-bakterien-14206/
Cubasch, A. J. Freeze Dried Futures: NASA's Quest for Edible Spin Offs in Rural Texas. Panel Presentation at the 6th International Conference on Food History and Food Studies, Food Futures: Histories of Anticipation, Technology, and Culinary Imaginaries of Future Foodstuffs. Univesité de Tours and Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation, Tours. Virtual. 2 June 2021.
https://iehca-internationalconference.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/26.pdf
Cubasch, A. J. From Space to Home: NASA's spin-off projects to establish space food on American dining tables in the 1970s. Talk at the Dissertant/innen-Tagung für Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Umweltgeschichte 2021, Universität Salzburg, ASEH Environmental History Week 2021. Virtual. 20 April 2021.
https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-96233
Cubasch, A. J. Meal System For The Elderly: NASA Lebensmitteltechnologie und das Ernährungswissen der Kulinarischen Hochmoderne im Ländlichen Raum, Texas 1975-1977. Talk at the »Technikgeschichte über Mittag«. Gesellschaft für Technikgeschichte, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Technische Universität Dresden. Virtual. 22 October 2021.
Cubasch, A. J. Retort Pouches and Freeze Dried Fruits – Lebensmitteltechnologie als Gegenstand der Technikgeschichte. Talk at the Forschungskolloquium Technikgeschichte, Technische Universität Berlin. Virtual. 13 December 2021.
Cubasch, A. Of Bacon Squares and Spoon-Bowl-Packs – Or How to Dine in Zero-g. Talk at the Brown Bag Brunch, Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. 1 December 2020.
Le Calvé, M., Cubasch, A. J., Heitger, A. Space Food: Dreams of Eternal Shelf Life in Artificial Environments. Talk at the Workhsop: Shelf Life. Ferment Activity and Nurturing Materials, Transubstantiation (Tales). Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. 10 December 2020.
https://www.matters-of-activity.de/en/activities/2915/shelf-life-ferment-activity-and-nurturing-materials
Invited Moderation/ Comment
Cubasch, A., Petruschat, J., Eigen, L., Rasehorn, F., Nyakatura, J. A., Dierichs, K. Tessellated Material Systems. Material Legacies, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin. 8 December 2022.
https://www.matters-of-activity.de/en/activities/9518/round-table-tesselated-material-systems
Cubasch, A. J. Architectures of Weaving. A Symposium. Session 2 - Roundtable Discussion. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. 2 July 2021.
Cubasch, A. J. Session 3: VR – Immersion & Interaction. ACM Conference Culture and Computer Science – Physical and Virtual Spaces. HTW University of Applied Sciences. Virtual. 23 September 2021.
Events & Workshops
Cubasch, A. J., Cypko, M. A., Geoghegan, B., Miyazaki, S., Moeding, A., Müller-Birn, C., Stock, R. Automation, Control, and Incompetence. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 1 December 2022 - 2 December 2022.
https://www.matters-of-activity.de/en/activities/7904/automation-control-and-incompetence-socio-technical-ecologies-of-responsible-filtering-in-the-20th-and-21st-century
Cubasch, A., Ortner, H., Dietrich-Daum, E. 1. Jahrestagung des Forschungszentrums Medical Humanities. Universität Innsbruck, Austria. Virtual. 10 December 2021.
Cubasch, A. J., Weber, H., Winiwarter, V., Quast, R., Engelmann, V. Filtering Legacies – Filtering Wasted Environments. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin. Hybrid. 10 November 2021 - 11 November 2021.
https://www.matters-of-activity.de/en/activities/6577/filtering-legacies-filtering-wasted-environments
Highlighted by H-Soz-Kult, https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-127916.
Cubasch, A. J. Brown Bag Brunch with Siamak Gholami: Biotic and Abiotic Co-Filtering in Water Treatment. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. 8 November 2021.
Winiwarter, V. (lecturer), Mareis, C. (moderator), Cubasch, A. (organizer). Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials: A Borderline Case. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Hybrid. 11 November 2021 - 11 January 2022.
Cubasch, A. J., Perraudin, L., Cojal Gonzalez, J., Razghandi, K. How to environ? Epistemic & design perspectives on environments, cultural techniques, and structures. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. 13 November 2020.
Le Calvé, M., Cubasch, A. J., Heitger, A. Shelf Life. Ferment-Activity and Nurturing Materials. Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. 10 December 2020.
https://www.matters-of-activity.de/en/activities/2915/shelf-life-ferment-activity-and-nurturing-materials
Teaching & Courses
Cubasch, A. J. Vergangene Zukunft der Ernährung – Essen im Werbefilm der 1960er. Lecture, within the lecture course »Essen im Film« by Prof. Christian Kassung. 18 January 2022.
Cubasch, A. J. Archeologies of the Future. Workshop, weißensee school of art and design berlin. 26 April 2021.
https://kh-berlin.incom.org/workspace/1467/about
Lecturer: Dieckmann, E., Ness, T., Wiesener, H., Reichl, L., assessment panel: Green, S., Sheldrick, L., Sharifi, S., workshop/talk: Cubasch, A., Glaser, R., Reichert, S., Tholl, R., Ekstrøm, J., Crume, J., Satomi, M., Paeschke, M., Sprick, C., Hoske R., ULTRATOOL – Why Calling it Phone? Seminar, Dyson School of Design Engineering - Imperial College London; weißensee school of art and design. 6 April 2021 - 10 July 2021.
https://ultratool.designing-interactions.de/
External Grants, Fellowships, Scholarships & Residencies
Cubasch, A. 2022. Scholar in Residence. Deutsches Museum München. Fellowship.
https://www.deutsches-museum.de/forschung/forschungsinstitut/scholar-in-residence
Cubasch, A. 2022. Short-Term Doctoral Fellowship. German Historical Institute, Washington DC. Fellowship.
Hosting of Guest Researchers at the Cluster
Cubasch, A., Kassung, C., Birn-Müller, C., Filtering: Digital Cluster Fellowship. Hosting Amira Möding. from Cambridge University. 1 September 2021 - 28 February 2022.
Memberships
Cubasch, A. J. 2021 - 2024. DFG-Network: Modern Expeditions: Politics, actors and epistemologies of scientific travel since the nineteenth century. Member.
https://expeditions.hypotheses.org/