Research
The research program of »Matters of Activities. Image Space Material» places an emphasis on traditional and elementary practices, such as Weaving, Filtering, and Cutting. These practices facilitate the analysis, experimentation, and design of new forms of processes that rely upon the inherent structures and implicit codes of active materiality. To address the basic question of how to rethink matter as an active material and how to identify the ramifications of this fundamental cultural shift, we have developed an integrative research structure that fosters an essentially convergent research process. The three closely linked research units focus on three different approaches to material activity: from the basic level of cultural material practices and the material’s inherent active structures to the challenging idea of a novel kind of material codes. Thus, we launched the three research units with six initial research projects.
In these six projects, more than 40 disciplines systematically investigate design strategies for active materials and structures that adapt to specific requirements and environments. The Cluster focuses on a new role of design, which is emerging in the context of growing diversity and the continuous development of materials and visualization forms in all disciplines.
Practices
Practices serve our fundamental strategic purpose of unifying theory and practice. Our goal is to transform practices with a long cultural tradition into innovative processes, resulting in a fundamental change in our culture. Combining material processes and cultural practices is an essential research strategy for »Matters of Activity« enabling a highly concrete and ›tangible‹, but also epistemological and experimental analysis of the activity of images, spaces, and materials.
Structures
An essential second layer in our research are active structures generated through the materials' practices and activities. As we regard natural materials as an enormous repository of challenging geometric structures with unknown functions, a central goal here is to reveal the intrinsic relationship between the materials' form and functional dimensions. It is equally important to analyze the consequences of active structures and materials on the level of objects, individuals, and architectural spaces on daily basis. This approach will enable us to analyze how our own research activities will be transformed by recognizing the activity of materials, images, objects, and even buildings.
Codes
The research unit Codes addresses the methodological challenge of developing the idea of material code. Our focus on material practices is the merging of the symbolic and physical dimensions. We no longer conceive the material's inner activity as dysfunctional failures, but positively as an essential operative coded structure and a re-invention of the analog.
Laboratories and Displays
In order to create the best possible infrastructure for our reseachers, the Cluster cooperates with various institutions and implemented different laboratories to generate and display excellent research results.
Open Science Statement
With its own Open Science Statement »Matters of Activity« supports its members in opening up their research through additional financial means as well as personnel assistance within the Management Office and expressly advocates new ways of publishing and evaluating research results.