EDITORIAL Dear Friends of »Matters of Activity«,

Wow! We've had some really eventful weeks behind us - with a visit from the Berlin Senator for Research, the Berlin Science Week and the opening of the Activarium – MoA's new showroom – to name just a few highlights. We are extremely proud that »Matters of Activity« was visible at Berlin Science Week with more events than ever before and thus was able to draw the attention of many new interested parties to its research. For all those who were unable to attend all the events, we highly recommend reading the reviews in this issue.
But let's not lean back just yet, we are looking forward to an exciting December wit the conference »Architectured Materials Across Scales« at Harnack House, and the workshop »Site-Writing with Technologies of Capture« at the Museum of Decorative Arts.

Enjoy reading!
Antje Nestler, Carolin Ott & Franziska Wegener

Material Form Function | Air | Collactive Materials | Science Communication | Speculative Design Ubiquitous and yet invisible: Air accompanies us daily and is an essential foundation of life. More than that, air will play a fundamental role in determining what futures become possible for us as humans. The exhibition »AIRBOUND. Sensing Collective Futures« (Oct 20th-Nov 9th, 2023) by CollActive Materials offered new perspectives on air as a material, a connecting social element, and a decisive space for negotiating futures. → more

On Monday, October 30th, »Matters of Activity« welcomed the Berlin Senator for Higher Education and Research, Health and Long-Term Care, Dr. Ina Czyborra, as a guest at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The directors of the Cluster of Excellence, Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schäffner, Prof. Dr. Peter Fratzl and Prof. Dr. Horst Bredekamp, were joined by HU President Prof. Dr. Julia von Blumenthal and HU Vice President for Research Prof. Dr. Christoph Schneider. After a presentation of the four Cluster spokespersons about the current research of »Matters of Activity«, MoA researchers gave concrete insights into three research fields: Microbiologist Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge and transdisciplinary designer Emma Sicher spoke about the productive interweaving of microbiology and design in research on bacterial cellulose. Cultural and media scientists Dr. Martin Müller and Léa Perraudin gave insights into the work of »CollActive Materials«, an experimental laboratory where people from society and science speculate together about the materials of tomorrow. Prof. Dr. Igor Sauer, head of Experimental Surgery at Charité, and interaction designer Anna Schäffner showed how surgical robots can interact more intelligently with their environment in the future. The visit is part of a series in which the senator visits Berlin's seven Clusters of Excellence to gain insight into their work and importance for the city. → more

Matters of Activity participated in this year's Berlin Science Week with more events than ever before. From specialized workshops such as → Brain Roads and → Threads (see separate report) to the → Open Space Days, where Cluster members provided insights into a broad spectrum of research at Sophienstraße, from the rather intimate → Performance Lecture at the Medientheater in Georgenstraße to the → Science Slam in the Säälchen am Holzmarkt, where 400 guests flocked to hear young scientists from Berlin's Clusters of Excellence: The program was extremely diverse and very well received.

The second event in the »Activating Circular Network» series unfolded on November 8th, 2023 as a pivotal part of MoA Berlin Science Week. The aim of the organizers Lucy Norris, Hanna Wiesener and Khashayar Razghandi was to bring together diverse actors — researchers, designers, entrepreneurs, activists, and artists — to explore the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy of natural fibres. The one-day event comprised two sessions, ›Localities‹ and ›Temporalities‹, where around 60 participants engaged with speakers invited to give short impulse talks, panels, and workshops, to discuss the challenges of different production cycles, building regional supply chains, the potential of new resources, and alternative perspectives on the transition to a bio-economy in which fibres will play a key role. → more

On November 8th and 9th, Matters of Activity opened its doors to the general public for the first time as part of Berlin Science Week. More than 140 guests on both days were given an insight into the Cluster of Excellence's research. A special highlight was the opening of the MoA showroom, the Activarium, on the evening of November 8th. Selected objects from MoA research can be experienced here. Anyone interested can contact Antje Nestler for a guided tour.

On November 9th, numerous MoA researchers were involved with inputs, guided tours, hands-on demonstrations, a light show and an exhibition. It was also a pleasure to present the research to the members of the Scientific Advisory Board, who had traveled to the meeting the following day. The full program and more photos can be found on the website. → more

Material Form Function | Temporality Time has become an increasingly critical factor and concept in the wake of Anthropocene debates. With the workshop »Critical Times. Part I: Multiple Matter«, which took place at »Matters of Activity« on November 17 and 18, the organizers asked, what times and temporalities shape the pressing crises of the present but also what temporalities allow for a critical response to a homogenizing crisis of such a present. The focus of the workshop resided in the conjunctions between speculative practices and narratives, other-than-scientific modes of sense-making as well as enchanting, violent, or haunting counter-/temporalities unfolding through eco-artistic practices. Around twenty-five multidisciplinary workshop participants engaged in discussions together with our invited guests — T.J. Demos, Sandra Jasper, Kiran Pereira and David Weber-Krebs.  → more

Material Form Function Recycling of current packaging solutions and materials is often impeded by difficult or even impossible separation into their original components. In nature, however, solutions for efficient and sustainable coatings and packaging are omnipresent, but surprisingly little is known about these natural packaging and protection solutions. We are delighted to congratulate Michaela Eder on the funding approval of the project »Seed coats as inspiration for sustainable packaging« in the amount of 1.2 million euros by the Volkswagen Foundation. Eder's team at the MPICI and colleagues around John Dunlop of the MorphoPhysics Group at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg will monitor the environmental conditions of plants with seeds with thin testa growing under extreme alpine conditions as well as those of their close relatives in low-land regions to assess environmental effects on seed coat properties and functionalities. The four-year project is being funded as part of the Societal Transformation profile area, with which the foundation supports research that expands and critically reflects on knowledge about transformation processes. → more

Doctoral Program | Material Form Function | Science Communication | Fungi/Mycelium | Master Open Design | Prototype / Model | Tessellation In the interview that was aired on a National television show about Science Communication in November, MoA member Heidi Jalkh presented her research on bio-inspired materials and reports on her work at »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, which began with her participation in the »Open Design« program. The full interview can be seen on the La Liga della Ciencia Channel on YouTube.

Filtering In Berlin blühten um die Jahrhundertwende Automatenrestaurants auf. Diese Restaurants verkauften Speisen aus Automaten und propagierten das Prinzip der Selbstbedienung. Sie waren damit ein gastronomisches Versprechen auf die technisierte Zukunft des urbanen Lebens und der Ernährung. Doch wer arbeitete im Automatenrestaurant, wer ging dort essen und warum? Welcher Semantiken und Technologien bedienten sich die vermeintlichen Zukunftsrestaurants? »Zu Gast im Automaten« von Alwin Cubasch beleuchtet Aufstieg und Fall der Automatenrestaurants und wirft damit ein Schlaglicht auf Reichweite und Grenzen des technologischen Gestaltungswillens der Hochmoderne und ist mit dem Wissenschaftspreis des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlins e.V. sowie dem Preis für Berlin-Brandenburgische Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Berlin-Brandenburgischen Wirtschaftsarchivs e.V. ausgezeichnet worden. → more

Cutting | Symbolic Material | Brain | Publications The influence of language on human thinking could be stronger than previously assumed. This is the result of a new study by Professor Friedemann Pulvermüller and his team from the Brain Language Laboratory at Freie Universität Berlin. In this study, the researchers examined the modeling of human concept formation and the impact of language mechanisms on the emergence of concepts. The results were recently published in the journal »Progress in Neurobiology«. → more

News We're happy to announce a relaunch of some of our website content! Next to collections that give you easier access to certain materials and topics on the front page and the search site, most of our projects relaunched their project websites with new insights into their work.

Please explore all the new content here: → www.matters-of-activity.de

Podcast | Exzellent Erklärt Hört rein in die neuen Folgen des Wissenschaftspodcasts »Exzellent Erklärt« mit spannenden Interviews mit unseren Berliner Kolleg:innen:

SCIoI
Wir wissen noch erstaunlich wenig über Intelligenz. Zum Beispiel wissen wir nicht, wie sie entsteht. Das Cluster »Science of Intelligence« in Berlin versucht, dazu grundlegende Hypothesen aufzustellen. Dazu forschen sie sowohl an Tieren wie Kakadus oder Fischen, gehen aber auch neue Wege und programmieren Roboter, um bestimmte Verhaltensweisen zu erforschen. Robotiker und Cluster Sprecher Prof. Dr. Oliver Brock klärt uns auf.

MATH+
In dieser Podcastfolge beantworten der MATH+ Cluster-Sprecher, Prof. Michael Hintermüller, und die Nachwuchsgruppenleiterin Dr. Sarah Wolf die spannende Frage, ob Mathematik die Welt verbessern kann. Sie sprechen darüber, wie sich die anwendungsorientierte Mathematik von MATH+ mit anderen Disziplinen bei relevanten Zukunftsfragen einbringt, zum Beispiel bei der nachhaltigen Energieversorgung und Mobilität oder der Verkehrsplanung. Sie erzählen auch davon, wie mit Hilfe mathematischer Modelle schmerzstillende Medikamente entworfen werden, die wirksam sind, aber nicht süchtig machen.

Natürlich sind die Folgen 35 und 36 ebenso spannend! ↗ more

Material Form Function From academic knowledge production to policy making, urban resilience planning or disaster management, there are few fields today that are not linked to design processes and practices. While (Western) design discourse has traditionally been connected to industrial production, modernist aesthetics and rational problem solving, more recently the concept of design has been invoked in debates that seek to address world-making and complex problems on a planetary scale from a position of limited knowledge.

In this lecture series, together with invited speakers, we seek to understand such virulent and all-encompassing understandings of design in their potentials and limitations. How can they be theoretically framed, historically and genealogically located, and critically engaged from the perspective of interdisciplinary design studies? → more

Cutting | Brain | XR | Graphic Anthropology In December 2023, the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin will host the workshop »Site-Writing with Technologies of Capture« in partnership with the ExC »Matters of Activity«. This workshop, curated by Maxime Le Calvé, is a collaboration between the Speculative Realities Lab (MoA, Charité), Shauna Janssen, a visiting scholar from Concordia University in performance studies and site-specific practices, and the Berlin-based artist duo MELT. The dual focus of this two-day workshop is an interdisciplinary exploration of the notions of border and dis/orientation, and the first presentation of Subcortical Matters, an immersive brain data visualization platform developed by the SpecLab.  → more

Material Form Function | Weaving | Yarns/Fibers | Willow The workshop on December 13th and 14th will bring together scientists, engineers, architects and designers. The goal is to discuss the role of structure in (re-)defining active and adaptive material properties from the nanoscale to the dimensions of a building. The workshop will include renowned international speakers, as well as researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam, the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Actvity« as well as the weissensee school of art and design berlin. All places are already fully booked. → more

Job Opportunity Outside of MoA The Lise Meitner Group »Coded Objects« led by Anna-Maria Meister at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute seeks to appoint a Pre-Doctoral and Postdoctoral position. The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, founded in 1897, has been one of currently 85 institutes of the Max Planck Society, Germany's most successful research organisation for basic research, since 2002. Research focuses on the history of art and architecture from a transcultural perspective. → more