Weaving is one of the oldest cultural techniques, older than agriculture and writing. Even in nomadic cultures, textiles ensure survival: they extend the function of the skin and make it mobile, by the »garment« (»Gewand«) as well as the »wall« (»Wand« - tent or first huts) which protect against wind and weather, but also regulate the exchange with the environment. In this sense, textiles structure the environment and adapt it to the anthropos - and vice versa: humans adapt to their environments through the use of textiles, not only as an individual, but in and for the collective. Many questions arise: What holds collectives together and protects them? How do bacteria weave? How does this effect other cultural techniques? How for example can architecture be knitted?
Scan from Drawing of the Caribbean hut. From Gottfried Semper: »Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten», or »Praktische Ästhetik», Vol. 2, München 1863.
Weaving and tissue are also of fundamental importance in microscopic worlds: bacterial cultures establish biofilms, i.e. multicellular collectives embedded in a dense extracellular matrix of interwoven nanofibers that protect against hostile environment (such as predators and antibiotics). These networks function as filters of environmental influences, but also regulate their own energy balance and establish a basal signaling system. Such material and symbolic tissues are challenging objects of research in molecular and cell biology as well as in medicine. In addition, structures and processes in microbial biofilms, can also inspire the design for »smart materials«.
Scanning electron microscope image of a biofilm: Escherichia coli in pEtN cellulose. Copyright: Diego Serra and Regine Hengge.
Mathematics is also looking for new geometric descriptions of woven structures, from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale. The research within the project focuses on the tissue of the skin, but also on various traditional methods of basket weaving and the influence of the weaving method and the starting materials on the resulting properties and function. For example, mammalian skin establishes a permeable barrier between the inside and the outside of the body. The woven microstructure of the dead cells in the outer layer of skin allows the actuation of the skin as a filter in response to humidity. The skin is a matter of activity due to its structure. If one translates this interaction of material, form and function into the abstraction of a mathematical object, then one obtains a spatial structure of interwoven lines that is complicated, symmetric and chiral. So far, mathematics has not been able to describe and quantify such woven geometries in a useful way. But we need such a geometric characterization of spatial structures, because it is the language and the framework that enables an exchange between the disciplines. In nature, such complicated woven patterns are often constructed via templating onto two-dimensional hyperbolic membranes, with protein fibers growing onto the resulting scaffold. The woven geometry envisaged in the project is the means and prerequisite for a series of interdisciplinary experiments on woven, braided or knitted structures that bring together Biology, Material Sciences and Design, but also Anthropology and Cultural Studies.
Project »Turm 2« of Bastian Beyer, 2015. Installation view: Environmentally responsive textile composite structure (natural fibres and bio-derived resin). Copyright: Bastian Beyer.
The use of textiles in an Architecture and Design is rooted in an extensive technological and cultural history. Ancient vernacular textile architecture such as yurts and tents catered for the need of nomadic cultures for ephemeral, mobile and transportable shelters. Their membranous and lightweight character presents a soft and dynamic antidote to rigid and heavy structures, such as wood or stone architecture. In the project »Weaving« a new idea of softness and flexibility for Architecture and building skins will be investigated, focusing on fibrous scaffolds and skins by emphasizing the process of construction in parallel to its result. The manufacture of fabric and its underlying logic of interlacing, interweaving, winding or felting offers a unique assembly principle with distinctive material continuity and the potential for structural, geometrical and performative variance throughout the surface. The behavior of the overall material is not only dependent on the textile construction method but similarly influenced by fiber and yarn properties. This unique hierarchical interdependence presents a Design challenge on multiple levels. Experimental objects in Materials Sciences as well as biological systems are being looked upon as role models. Biology offers myriad examples of fibrous materials where local material gradients and heterogeneous tissue generate highly efficient and optimized structures. They adapt over time according to their environment and local conditions and reconfigure their internal structure according to internal stresses. These underlying material strategies present a valuable source of inspiration which can inform the Design of contemporary textile materiality and novel tectonics: active fiber structures perform between rigidity and softness in nature and will be transferred into active material concepts for Design, Architecture and Engineering. The development of biologically inspired material systems allows for sustainable developments of efficient structures in the spatial-architectural context.
Quipu (talking knot) from the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino of Santiago de Chile. Copyright: Regine Hengge.
The exchange processes that enable and regulate woven structures are both material flows and signaling processes. This applies from microbial biofilms to the field of anthropology. Thus, even before the invention of writing and numbers, weaving anticipated symbolic techniques. The weaver has to think ahead: from the binary movement of the weaving shuttle or crossing thread/weft (binary = above or below the vertical thread/warp), the result of the two-dimensional woven surface must be deduced. The structure, the pattern or the motif is calculated in advance with the help of binary decisions and by counting the threads—representing mathematical knowledge »avant la lettre«. The formation of patterns and motifs as well as the practices of spinning, knotting, braiding, crocheting, and knitting associated with weaving precede the development of writing and numbers, or form alternative paths, as in the »quipu«, the so-called talking knots. The woven and/or knotted structures encode knowledge and serve as a medium of communication (the etymology of »text« still knows about this relationship). Thus, the quipu creates social worlds.
From the biofilm to the cell structure of the skin to the social communities of the anthropos, weaving - as a material and symbolic practice as well as a regulating structure - contributes to the formation of networks. These collectives establish themselves by drawing a boundary between inside and outside that can be flexible or firm, but usually are semipermeable and selective. The cocoon manifests this function of weaving and woven structure (tissue, textile, fabric), whether as a biofilm, pupation, skin, tent or hut. »Weaving« investigates woven structures from the micro to the macro range, from organic or inorganic materials, from »nature« to »culture« and from material or symbolic factuality. Perspectives and objects come from the participating disciplines, i.e. Molecular Biology, Materials Sciences, Mathematics, Architecture, Design, Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Literary Studies, as well as from the collaborations with the projects Symbolic Material and Material Form Function. The different methods and analyses finally converge in the object and the function of the cocoon.



























- Weaving Practices – An Exploration into the Materials, Techniques and Design of Fabrics Event 29.10.2020
- Myfanwy Evans: Building Tangled Structures through Experimental Geometry and Topology Event 20.10.2020
- From Fiber to Yarn: A Discussion Between Textile, Biology and Design Event 16.10.2020
- Past and Present in Mathematical Weaving Event 25.9.2020
- Material as Environmental Device Event 10.9.2020
- On Activity Event 7.2.2020
- Membranes as Molecular Machines Event 10.1.2020
- Weaving in Different Disciplines Event 30.8.2019
- Animal Materialities Event 5.12.2019–6.12.2019
- Weaving in Different Disciplines Event 7.11.2019
- The Silkworm Project and Other Work
Event 22.8.2019
Krauthausen, K, Kammer, S. eds. 2020. Make it Real. Für einen strukturalen Realismus. With contributions by Hendrik Blumentrath, Stephan Kammer, Andrea Krauß, Karin Krauthausen, Thomas Meinecke, Nathalie Moser, Ulrich Peltzer, Cornlia Pierstorff, Milo Rau, Kathrin Röggla, Elisabeth Strowick. Zürich: Diaphanes.
Douny, L. 2019. »Wild Silk Textiles of the Dogon of Mali: The Production, Material Efficacy and Cultural Significance of Sheen.« In The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader, edited by Luvaas, B., Eicher, J. B. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 117-122.
Krauthausen, K. 2019. »Wette auf die Wirklichkeit. Erzählkalkül in 'die ansprechbare' und 'Wiedereintritt in die Geschichte I' von Kathrin Röggla.« In Literatur im Ausnahmezustand. Beiträge zum Werk Kathrin Rögglas, edited by Marx, F., Schöll, J. Reihe: Literatur und Gegenwart, Band 2. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 155-181.
Hengge, R. 2020. »Crosstalking second messengers.« Nature Microbiology, 6, (1): 9-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-00842-3
Pruteanu, M., Hernández Lobato, J. I., Stach, T., Hengge, R. 2020. »Common plant flavonoids prevent the assembly of amyloid curli fibres and can interfere with bacterial biofilm formation.« Environmental Microbiology, 22, 5280-5299. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.15216
Richter, A. M., Possling, A., Malysheva, N., Yousef, K. P., Herbst, S., von Kleist, M., Hengge, R. 2020. »Local c-di-GMP Signaling in the Control of Synthesis of the E. coli Biofilm Exopolysaccharide pEtN-Cellulose.« Journal of Molecular Biology, 432, (16): 4576-4595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2020.06.006
Serra, D. O., Hengge, R. 2019. »A c-di-GMP-Based Switch Controls Local Heterogeneity of Extracellular Matrix Synthesis which Is Crucial for Integrity and Morphogenesis of Escherichia coli Macrocolony Biofilms.« Journal of Molecular Biology, 431, (23): 4775-4793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2019.04.001
Evans, M., Hengge, R. Buckling, Wrinkling and Folding: Microstructure, Active Matter Behaviour and Geometric Modelling of Bacterial Biofilms. Talk at the Annual Conference of the Cluster »Matters of Activity« 2020, 11 November 2020. https://www.virtualspace.matters-of-activity.de/annualconference/?id=9
Fratzl, P. Natural Active Materials. Talk at Annual Conference of the Cluster »Matters of Activity« 2020, 11 November 2020. https://www.virtualspace.matters-of-activity.de/annualconference/?id=1
Fratzl, P. Natural Active Materials. Talk at the Annual Conference of the Cluster »Matters of Activity« 2020, 11 November 2020. http://www.virtualspace.matters-of-activity.de/annualconference/?id=0
Rešetar, I., Beyer, B. Soft Fibrous Structures: Spatial Concepts for Cellulose Biofilms. Talk at Annual Conference of the Cluster »Matters of Activity« 2020, 11 November 2020. https://www.virtualspace.matters-of-activity.de/annualconference/?id=9
Schäffner, W. Material Energy Information: Towards an Analog Code . Talk at the Annual Conference of the Cluster »Matters of Activity« 2020, 11 November 2020. https://www.virtualspace.matters-of-activity.de/annualconference/?id=9
Zheng, B., Hengge, R., Laitinen, R., Rillig, M. Botanical Comrades 植物同志 Plants Practice Politics. Berlin Science Week. Gropius Bau, Berlin. In cooperation with Schering Stiftung. 7 November 2020. https://falling-walls.com/event/botanical-comrades-植物同志-plants-practice-politics/
Fratzl, P., Schäffner, W. et al. Behavioral Matter: Composer avec le vivant. Workshop. Centre Pompidou, Paris. In cooperation with Ensadlab (École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris) and the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«. 23 March 2019. https://fonds-perspektive.de/fr/behavioralmatter/