Editorial Dear friends of »Matters of Activity«,

With today's issue of CZ#, we are back from our summer break and hope you had a nice and relaxing vacation!

In September, we are especially excited about the hybrid DRHA conference »Digital Matters: Designing/Performing Agency for the Anthropocene« on September 5th–7th, the exhibition »Extended Reality – Code and Materiality in Art and Culture«, September 3rd–30th, and we are looking forward to the opening of »Stretching Materialites« on September 16th at Tieranatomisches Theater. The Cluster also has many interesting job opportunities right now, which you can find towards the end of this issue.

Happy reading
Antje Nestler, Carolin Ott & Franziska Wegener

Cutting | Publications | Brain In their article in the prominent neurosurgical journal, researchers from the MoA »Cutting« project describe how future tools will enable practitioners to treat brain diseases with unmatched accuracy by integrating analog and digital tools in new hybrid devices and workflows. → more

Weaving | Tree Bark | Wood | Forest | Publications Cluster members Charlett Wenig, Friedrich J. Reppe, Karin Krauthausen, Peter Fratzl and Michaela Eder together with colleagues published a paper in the journal »Philosophical Transactions A« by »The Royal Society«. Trees belong to the largest living organisms on Earth and plants in general are one of our main renewable resources. Wood as a material has been used since the beginning of humankind. Today, forestry still provides raw materials for a variety of applications, for example in the building industry, in paper manufacturing and for various wood products. → more

News | Podcast Charlett Wenig, member of the research group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials«, speaks about sustainable fashion and tree bark to wear in a new podcast produced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

Bark is a waste product of the wood industry. It is usually burned or processed into bark mulch. Charlett Wenig shows that the raw material can do much more: Even clothing can be made from it. She explores potential fields of application, creates different design scenarios for bark use while taking into account her research findings on structure, properties, and functions. ↗ more

News | Exzellent erklärt 57 Clusters of Excellence – one podcast: ↗ Exzellent erklärt (»Excellent Explained«) regularly reports from one of the research networks that are funded as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. The journey goes right across the country and the topics are just as diverse as the locations: from African studies to the future of medicine. All Clusters of Excellence share a common motivation: they address important issues of our time, work on unusual questions and conduct research for the society of tomorrow.

The project team of 10 Clusters, including »Matters of Activity«, is happy to finally and officially launch the German podcast on September 1st. »Matters of Activity« will also be joining them very soon with an episode. The first episode by the Cluster of Excellence ↗ CeTI will explore the topic »Taktiles Internet mit Mensch Maschine Interaktion« (»Tactile Internet with Human-Machine-Interaction«). Follow the podcast now already on all popular platforms!

Object Space Agency | Material Form Function | More-Than-Human | Science Communication | Performance 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. → more

Filtering | XR What does materiality mean for art and culture from today’s perspective? How can materiality be understood in our post-digital age, where digital technologies permeate creative work from start to finish, both in terms of tools and materials and conceptually? The exhibition »Extended Reality – Code and Materiality in Art and Culture,« September 3rd to 30th, 2021, illuminated various aspects of (digital) materiality through selected works from design, art, literature, music, performance and science that have been created with Extended Reality technologies (Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality). → more

Object Space Agency | XR The project proposed and explored a space in-between, using virtual reality (VR) technology and a digitized archive of images, it wants to invite reflection and research on various modes of knowing in connection to materiality and code, activity of images and the space needed for this. Can digital humanities open up to new comprehensive experiments around the presence and the absence, on the material picture-relations and the gaps of the in-between, moving toward regions of human knowledge which meaning cannot convey? → more

Object Space Agency | Stretching Materialities | Air | Climate | Cloud | More-Than-Human | Sensing – Vibrations | Stone | Textiles | Willow | XR | Performance 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. → more

Filtering | Material Form Function | More-Than-Human Our two-week »Talking Matters« lecture series, launched in May, was moving on to the next round. On September 14th, we we hosted an inspiring lecture and discussion from and with anthropologist Ignacio Farías from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on »Urban Vibrations: How Physical Waves Come to Matter in Contemporary Urbanism.« → more

Object Space Agency | XR The ongoing climate disaster puts many worlds in imminent danger. But conveying the entanglements of the more-than-human relations is an arduous task. Playful approaches can directly affect our sensory faculties beyond the realm of power and knowledge. The »stretching senses school« is an education-as-research project at the Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin (TA T) attached to the »Stretching Materialities« exhibition, co-partnered with the Node Institute Berlin. Through this workshop-based contribution to the exhibition, we intend to foster collaboration between anthropology and immersive interaction design. We will engage with research creation in order to raise awareness of the public on the multiscale and embedded interconnections between humans and other earthly beings. »stretching senses school« was issuing a call for application to the VR community until September 15th. The participation will be compensated. → more

Achievements This year, MoA Director Claudia Mareis was a guest member of the jury for the Artist in Residence program of the Textile and Design Alliance TaDA. The innovative program is aimed at practitioners in the fields of visual art, design, architecture, literature, performing arts or on transdisciplinary projects with a strong interest in textile production and its context. It is run by the cantons of St.Gallen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Thurgau and offers a unique opportunity to work together with renowned textile companies in Eastern Switzerland. → more

job The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« is looking for a Coordinator for the Experimental Laboratory for Science Communication »When Matter comes to life«. As one of six Experimental Laboratories for Science Communication funded by the Berlin University Alliance, it is invested in fostering novel ways of knowledge exchange. Researchers from the two Clusters of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« and »Science of Intelligence« will publicly discuss the activity and ›intelligence‹ of materials in order to make them graspable in the Experimental Laboratory. Materials that, following the example of nature, become ›intelligent‹ participants in society through their self-activity, fundamentally change our relationship to nature and technology. → more

job The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« is looking for an administrative employee for the Experimental Laboratory for Science Communication »When matter comes to life«. As one of six Experimental Laboratories for Science Communication funded by the Berlin University Alliance, it is invested in fostering novel ways of knowledge exchange.  Researchers from the two Clusters of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« and »Science of Intelligence« will publicly discuss the activity and ›intelligence‹ of materials in order to make them graspable in the Experimental Laboratory. Materials that, following the example of nature, become ›intelligent‹ participants in society through their self-activity, fundamentally change our relationship to nature and technology. → more

job The management of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« is looking for two administrative employee for supporting activities in simple administrative procedures. One of the two positions will be assigned to Finance and Human Resources, the other to the Secretariat (resp. the management of the Cluster in general). → more

job The managment of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« is currently looking for a student assistant in the field of literature and/or linguistics; alternatively, studies in another humanities or natural science field and/or library science. → more