Editorial Dear friends of »Matters of Activity«,

We wish you a happy and healthy new year and are looking forward to many exciting events and projects that we want to realize in 2022! We would like to invite you once again to visit the exhibition »Stretching Materialities« at the Tieranatomisches Theater, which has been extended until March 4th. Individual tours can be booked in advance. Furthermore, we are welcoming many new Members into our rows, that we are very happy to work with. Finally, we would like to refer you to the many great publications that have been released in the past weeks.

Happy reading,
Antje, Carolin & Franziska

Weaving | Symbolic Material | Publications What are active materials? This book aims to introduce and redefine conceptions of matter by considering materials as entities that ›sense‹ and respond to their environment. By examining the modeling of, the experiments on, and the construction of these materials, and by developing a theory of their structure, their collective activity, and their functionality, this volume identifies and develops a novel scientific approach to active materials. Moreover, essays on the history and philosophy of metallurgy, chemistry, biology, and materials science provide these various approaches to active materials with a historical and cultural context. The Open Access anthology was published on December 20th, 2021. → more

Weaving | Symbolic Material | Prototype / Model | Publications At the end of December 2021, the anthology »Modell Hütte. Von emergenten Strukturen, schützender Haut und gebauter Umwelt« (translated: »Model Hut. Of emergent structures, protective skin and built environment«) was published by diaphanes Verlag. In it, the editors, MoA member Karin Krauthausen and Rebecca Ladewig, bring together multidisciplinary contributions that approach the hut as a model in many different ways. The German volume goes back to two conferences on the »Typology of the Hut« (in 2016 and 2017) of the Cluster of Excellence »Image Knowledge Gestaltung«, but was also expanded afterwards with additional contributions. → more

Cutting | Science Communication | Brain In episode 15 of the podcast »Optimal neuro|spine«, Cluster Professor for Digital Neurosurgery Thomas Picht was interviewed by US-American colleague Max Boakye. Together they take a deep dive into everything that digital neurosurgery entails, exciting technological advancements in the field, and the future ramifications of the digitalization of medicine. → more

Cutting | Filtering | Science Communication Detecting diseases faster, simplifying operations or facilitating communication with patients: medical informatics specialists develop methods and tools to support and improve our healthcare system. The episode of »MINT auf Mission» (STEM on a mission) with Cluster Members Mario Cypko and Julia Blumenthal shows what their day-to-day work looks like in the process. You also learn how lifelike models of organs are produced with the 3D printer and robots assist in the operating room. → more

Event | Weaving How does a Jesus film become a political campaign and a new distribution system for tomatoes and art? How do unlikely solidarities emerge between continents, between artists and activists, between genres and forms of production? What is a symbolic institution and how can we change the world through art? On Thursday, January 13th, 2022, director and author Milo Rau and MoA member Karin Krauthausen talked about »Performance and Politics«. The ↗ recording can be seen on the Mosse Lecture YouTube channel. → more

Filtering | Teaching | MoA Design Research Studio After an unavoidable pause due to the pandemic situation last year, the practice project »Coding IxD« (Informatik x Design) took place for the sixth time at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« – this year covering the topic on »Digital:Sovereignty«. The course offer is a cooperation of the working group Human-Centered Computing headed by Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn (FU Berlin) and the Embodied Interaction Group by Prof. Carola Zwick, Prof. Judith Glaser and Prof. Thomas Ness (weißensee school of art and design berlin). → more

Exhibition | Object Space Agency Matter is dead? Objects are lifeless? Think again! In the exhibition »Stretching Materialities,« which was opened on September 16th 2021, the liveliness and activity of matter can be experienced in a completely new way. The Tieranatomisches Theater becomes an interactive playground: a real cloud levitates in the middle of the room, reacting to body heat and movement and hovering around visitors like a strange creature. Stones reveal their weathering as a dynamic process of change. Large willow structures carefully co-crafted by humans and computers entwine into inhabitable space. Traditional Korean Hanbok Clothing, filled with moving elements, vibrates on the visitor's skin depending on their movement. Walking through the room with virtual reality glasses, visitors can enter the glass elevator in the center. With one touch of a button, the journey goes straight into the material, or more precisely into the CT scan of a stone. Or high into the clouds to interact with air molecules.

The exhibition is curated by multidisciplinary researchers and designers of the project → Object Space Agency of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin under the direction of → Prof. Dr. Claudia Blümle and → Clemens Winkler.

You can register for an individual on-site tour, a public tour, or book a tour for a larger group at the following email address: stretching-mediation-tat [​at​] hu-berlin.de

The next dates for a public tour are:
04.02.2022 4-5 pm
11.02.2022 4-5 pm
25.02.2022 4-5 pm

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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

Object Space Agency | Water Water is a unique element also in conservation. It is a universal element that occurs on earth in all states of aggregation at the same time. Its properties, which may seem unremarkable at first sight, allow this element to be used and modified in a number of ways. In addition to established measures, new scientific discoveries are constantly finding their way into conservation. The two workshops »The Power of Water« on June 14th and 15th will offer some insights into the application of water in conservation treatments – with practical examples and experiments, you are welcome to explore conservation methods and techniques.  → more