Dear friends of »Matters of Activity«,

In this issue, we would like first and foremost to invite you to our 2nd Annual Conference, titled »Tipping Points: Plastic, Contingent and Unstable Matters« on November 16–17th. We look forward to seeing you online! Of course, many other exciting activities are happening before the conference that we would like to make you aware of, such as Berlin Science Week, the Kick-off of the lecture series »Dis/Entangling Perspectives in Material Research« and the workshop »Filtering Legacies«, including another »Talking Matters« session.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue and wish you an excellent start to the week,
Antje Nestler, Carolin Ott and Franziska Wegener

Event | Annual Conference | Tipping Points This year's MoA Annual Conference is all about matter in motion. We will discuss transition and contingency, processes of acquiring and losing form, and the creative potential of the unfinished and indeterminate.

We live, create and act in a time of tipping points. On a planetary scale, the tipping point is understood as an abrupt and irreversible change that is causing the Earth´s climate and other systems to fall out of their stable state. Such transitional phenomena are particularly significant in climate research, but no less in material, biological, anthropological and aesthetic contexts.

Beyond »points of no return«, the focus of the conference is on multi-stable, ambivalent and dynamic constellations: from adaptive processes of bacterial growth over fluid structures to plasticity in architecture, ongoing Cluster projects will be presented in 13 lectures and virtual lab tours. Between the ambiguities of image and language and the unpredictability of scientific modeling, various tipping points will be explored down a range of emerging interdisciplinary and methodological avenues.

Find all relevant information as well as abstracts of the talks and bios of this year's speakers at ↗ matters-of-activity.de/tippingpoints

The conference will be a hybrid event – for Cluster members on-site and everyone interested as a virtual conference in an exciting new format. If you want to join the virtual conference, please register via the website. We are looking forward to greeting you at the conference! ↗ more

Cutting | Material Form Function | Achievements On October 5th, 2021, the winners of the new edition of the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'intelligence de la main® (»the intelligence of the hand«)® 2021 were revealed and celebrated together with those of the year 2020 in a ceremony in Paris. MoA member Patricia Ribault was again part of the prestigious international jury chaired by Jean de Loisy, director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. The competition for professional craftspeople rewards expertise, creativity, and innovation in the crafts. Since its inception in 1999, the prize has become a label of excellence for French crafts, enhancing their reputation and recognizing the talent of nearly 90 individuals working in a number of different fields whose achievements demonstrate »the intelligence of the hand«. → more

Weaving | Filtering | Cutting | Material Form Function | Object Space Agency | Symbolic Material | Science Communication | Annual Conferences »Matters of Activity« has been expanding its activities in science communication and started the further development of its »Virtual Cluster Space« in October 2021. This aims to present and experience the research work of various MoA projects and topics in an innovative, interactive, fascinating and expandable way in order to make users inside and outside of our research community curious, excited and to engage them in exchange. Cluster Member Antje Nestler presented the »Virtual Cluster Space«, as a best-practice example of a virtual exhibition and conference format at this year's »Forum Wissenschaftskommunikation«, the largest symposium for science communication in Germany. → more

Exhibition | Object Space Agency | Stretching Materialities Matter is dead? Objects are lifeless? Think again! In the exhibition »Stretching Materialities,« which was opened on September 16th, the liveliness and activity of matter can be experienced in a completely new way. The Tieranatomisches Theater becomes an interactive playground. With knowledge from the research of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, an interactive laboratory space has been created that allows completely unexpected insights into thinking about matter – and makes it tangible how active the world around us really is.

The exhibition is curated by multidisciplinary researchers and designers of the project → Object Space Agency under the direction of → Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle and → Clemens Winkler. You can visit the exhibition until January 21st, 2022, Mon–Fri from 2–6 pm.

Don't miss your chance to register for an individual on-site tour, a public tour, or book a tour for a larger group via stretching-mediation-tat [​at​] hu-berlin.de.

We look forward to your visit! → more

Material Form Function | Teaching | Circular Economies Materials such as water, sand, coal or crude oil are essential resources for industrial production, technological and infrastructural development. Although they are omnipresent in everyday life, their genealogies, epistemologies and ontologies are rarely called into question. This lecture series, organized by Cluster Co-Director Claudia Mareis, focused on the ecological, sociopolitical and symbolic interrelations that unfold around the industrial utilization and commodification of materials. A critical historical perspective shows, among other things, that materials are often the result of and object to precarious geopolitics and biopolitics as well as unsustainable modes of production and consumption. As such the lecture series connected two discourses on material/political and power/knowledge relations. → more

Weaving | Science Communication In a special broadcast by the Austrian radio station Ö1 on the occasion of the 150th birthday of Paul Valéry on Tuesday, October 25th, 5:05 pm, MoA member Karin Krauthausen, together with other experts, provided insights into the rich oeuvre of the writer-philosopher. The science broadcast with the title »Ich denke mich, also bin ich.« (»I think me, therefore I am.«) edited by journalist Nikolaus Halmer was part of the series »Dimensions« and was in German. → more

Event This year's Open Access Week will take place from October 25th to 31st. Once again, institutions around the world are participating to raise awareness of free access to knowledge and information from science and research – including Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

With »Coffee Lectures«, Humboldt-Universität offers insights into various topics related to Open Access. In two workshops, researchers have the opportunity to gain deeper insights into two topics in an interactive and practical way. Open office hours will also offer space for further concerns and individual publication advice.
In addition, this year's Open Access Prize, which was established last year and awarded for the first time this summer, will be announced. Once again, prize money totaling 5.000€ will be awarded for outstanding achievements by Humboldt-Universität researchers in the field of Open Access.

The events are held online using the Zoom video conferencing software. The »Coffee Lectures« and talks can be attended spontaneously and at short notice; registration is not required. For the workshops on October 28th and 29th, prior registration is required. ↗ more

Cutting | Object Space Agency | Science Communication From November 1st to 10th 2021, Berlin once again hosted the Berlin Science Week, a 10-day international festival that brought together the world's most innovative scientific organizations in Berlin and online to celebrate science and facilitate an open and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and knowledge. The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« provided insights into its research at two locations: Firstly, at the Humboldt Lab in the Humboldt Forum, which opened its doors this summer, and secondly, at the Tieranatomisches Theater on the North Campus of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin withing the exhibition »Stretching Materialities«. → more

Filtering | Waste Filtering Technologies are at the center of many current processes of our transformational age as they can alleviate the impact of industrial societies in their planetary dimension. We understand the process of filtering as a scalable environing technique that differentiates and maintains symbolic and material environments alike. Filtering is a process that matters in a twofold way: It is a material process and a symbolic activity. Applying filters means negotiating between the wanted and the unwanted, between the polluted and the untouched environment, and between what is considered dangerous or safe. The workshop organized by Alwin Cubasch, Vanessa Engelmann, Ronja Quast, Heike Weber and Verena Winiwarter aimed for a better understanding of the ecologic economy of wastes, sinks and waste legacies which resulted from the hope to unmake the adverse byproducts of filtering activities. What have been the challenges and pitfalls of the past – and what can we learn for the future design and technology of filters? → more

Filtering | Toxics This »Talking Matters« contribution had a special feature: the talk by environmental historian Verena Winiwarter from Universität für Bodenkultur Wien was also the keynote of the »Filtering Legacies« workshop that »Matters of Activity« was co-hosting with Technische Universität Berlin on November 11th and 12th. Verena Winiwarter's talk focused on naturally occurring radioactive materials that are »technologically enhanced« (TENORMs) and play a role in numerous processes when people exploit natural resources, such as fracking. As long as the material was naturally occurring deep in the earth, it had little effect. But once concentrated and brought to the light of day it presents a borderline case. The talk aimed to use the borderline case of TENORMs as a lens through which to view the greater question of human interventions into natural systems and their consequences for society. → more

job The Project »Cutting | Sensing Knife« is looking for a student assistant who supports the project e.g. with experiments with scanning probe microscopy. Please consider applying if you would enjoy working in an interdisciplinary team and have an interest in experiments in biological and bio-medical research. → more