Editorial Dear Friends of »Matters of Activity«,

after very eventful weeks, we may spread some merits and happy news of our members today and also would like to point out again the inaugural lectures of our new Cluster professors Claudia Mareis and Robert Stock in the coming week.

We are very happy to continue our »Talking Matters« lecture series with a summer edition tomorrow, July 12th as on-site event in the Cluster. With our guest Achim Menges we expect inspiring insights into and discussions about »Computational Material Culture in Architecture«.

Last but not least do not miss the call for MoA's interdisciplinary autumn school »Frictioned Functionality. Un/Designing Un/Sustainable Matter« You or interested colleagues can apply until August 8th.

We wish everyone a restful vacation season and look forward to seeing you again soon!

Happy reading,
Antje, Carolin & Franziska

Material Form Function | Publications Architecture stands as a paradigm for the development of structural entities, which define functionality from the nanoscale to entire buildings. However, the distinction between structure and material becomes totally blurred in biological systems where it is impossible to distinguish between material and device or organ. A tree stem, as a prototypical example, is both material and plant organ with specific biological functions. Partially inspired by this, there are recent parallel movements—in materials development as well as in architectural design—towards the merging of materiality, structure and function into one integral construction system. → more

Filtering | Science Communication Can the entire knowledge of physics be represented in the »Cube of Physics« metamodel? Does it perhaps even contain the key to the world formula? The exhibition project »Cube of Physics«, which opened on the Science Campus in Adlershof during this year's Berlin Long Night of Sciences on July 2nd, 2022, dealed with these and other questions. MoA Member Matthias Staudacher explained the latest developments and findings of the interdisciplinary project group that led to the relaunch of the sculpture and media station. → more

Biodesign A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPICI) and McGill University in Canada discovered strong adhesive properties of white-berry mistletoe. The mistletoe berry's flexible fibers adhere to both skin and cartilage as well as to various synthetic materials and could find application in many fields, such as wound sealant in biomedicine, through ease of processing.

Symbolic Material | Achievements On July 2nd, 2022, Matters of Activity's Co-Director Horst Bredekamp was awarded the XXI Premio Internazionale Flaiano di Italianistica for the best non-fiction book of the year in non-Italian language in Pescara. We congratulate Professor Bredekamp very warmly for this prize, one of the highest awards given in Italy. → more

Four months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the event »Berlin4Ukraine: Meet & Learn – A networking event for exile researchers» took place on June 30th, 2022 at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW). It was organized by Berlin Research 50, the Berlin University Alliance, the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Clusters of Excellence SCRIPTS, NeuroCure, UniSysCat, Science of Intelligence and Temporal Communities, the Dahlem Humanities Center as well as the German-Ukrainian Academic Society. At »Matters of Activity«, funds were reallocated to create four fellowships for displaced scholars from and in Ukraine, including students from Egypt and Namibia, at both junior and senior levels, covering a range of disciplines, including theoretical and practical computer sciences and environmental technology studies. → more

Filtering | Achievements We congratulate Cluster Member Konrad Polthier on the honoring of his outstanding achievements. The John A. Gregory Award is the highest award in the field of Geometric Design. It is presented to one or more individuals for ›Fundamental Contributions to the Field of Geometric Modelling‹. Konrad Polthier receives the price for his lifetime impact on the field. → more

News | Exzellent erklärt In the new episodes of the German science podcast ↗ Exzellent erklärt (»Excellent Explained«) on current science topics reflects the research diversity of Germany’s leading research institutions and Clusters of Excellence listeners can learn about the future of our hearing and our way to the hearing system of tomorrow as well as insights into computer simulations in optics. The researchers of the Clusters of Excellence, funded by ↗ DFG talk to podcaster Larissa Vassilian about how they want to find scientifically sound answers to relevant topics of our time – for the society of tomorrow. Plug in your headphones during your lunch break and have a listen! more

Master Open Design | Teaching After two semesters of online interactions, 27 students came together in Berlin for their third semester of the international interdisciplinary Master’s program »Open Design« While having focused in the themes Elements and Experiments during previous semesters, Projects has been the key word guiding the student’s work during these weeks. Their focus has been on analyzing specific interdisciplinary design processes and applying design strategies for the development of innovative projects, bringing together the various elements of Gestaltung and empirical methods. → more

Material Form Function | Prototype / Model | Tangling On May 27th, the FriBriX team (Lorenzo Guiducci, Christiane Sauer, Maxie Schneider, Jojo Shone) organised the Structural Paper workshop @ Bauwende Festival. Here participants have explored playfully the potential of paper as building material for constructing interwoven structures, simply holding together through friction. We understand paper as a contemporary urban resource and use waste paper to design a bottom up building process. Aftre two intense days of collective work a large pergola has been erected. The structure can still be freely visited at the premises of the Atelier Gardens, BUFA. → more

Material Form Function | Prototype / Model | Computational Design We were very happy to continue our »Talking Matters« lecture series with a summer edition on July 12th as on-site event in the Sophienstraße 22a in Berlin-Mitte. Our guest Achim Menges, architect and professor for architecture at the University of Stuttgart and director of the Cluster of Excellence »Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture«, was giving inspiring insights into and discussions about »Computational Material Culture in Architecture«. → more

Event Cluster Professors → Claudia Mareis (Design and History of Knowledge) and → Robert Stock (Cultures of Knowledge) kindly invite all Cluster Members to their inaugural lectors at the Institute of Cultural History on Tuesday, July 19th, 2022, 6:00 pm c.t. Claudia Mareis' lecture will be about »Im Entwurf: Perspektiven einer dritten Kultur des Wissens« (In Draft: Perspectives of a Third Culture of Knowledge) while Robert Stock's lecture is entitled »Hörweisen situieren: Sinne und Kulturen des Wissens« (Situating Modes of Listening: Senses and Cultures of Knowledge). Please RSVP by July 12th to christiane.gaedicke@hu-berlin.de.

Master Open Design | Science Communication | Teaching Our ever-so-evolving world presents us with numerous dilemmas and challenges when it comes to designing a better tomorrow. A new sensibility is required, gathering and collaborating with intelligences within nature, and thus fundamentally shifting away from obsolete and destructive routines. The students of the Open Design Master Program are facing those challenges by radical unlearning, creating new strategies focused on the necessity of »growing sensescapes«. We are happy to invite you to a day full of the growth of sensescapes on July 25th at Humboldt Lab. → more

Material Form Function | Teaching | More-Than-Human Against a background of ecologies in crisis, the interdisciplinary Autumn School »Frictioned Functionality: Un/Designing Un/Sustainable Matter« invited Post-Docs, PhDs and MA students from the humanities, natural sciences and design to work through the conflicted entanglement of materiality, design and un/sustainability, using frictioned functionality as the guiding principle. In the context of this Autumn School, frictioned functionality has been understood as a working concept to reopen other narrative and performative spaces of imagination in and beyond unruly times. The autumn school took place from October 17th–22nd, 2022. → more

Event In September 2022 Gottfried Boehm will celebrate his 80th birthday. To mark the occasion, MoA Member → Claudia Blümle, Professor of History and Theory of Form at the Institute of Art and Visual History of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is organizing a conference in his honor at the Institute for the History of Art and Images. The titles of the lectures should remain a surprise for him on his birthday. Registration by email is requested by September 10th, 2022 to ehrentagung-ikb@hu-berlin.de. ↗ more

CALL Do you work in the fields of design, textile design, architecture, visual art, literature, performing arts or on transdisciplinary projects and have a strong interest in textile production and its context? Then the innovative Artist in Residence Programme TaDA offers you a unique opportunity to work together with renowned textile companies in Eastern Switzerland.

TaDA is looking for creative personalities from different disciplines and regions of the world to open up new opportunities of collaboration with the textile industries in Eastern Switzerland. TaDA's aim is to harness creativity and innovation, resulting in valuable input and stimulus for both residents and the companies involved. Particularly welcome are cultural practitioners who want to engage with questions related to the future of the textile industry and its sustainability. To take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the companies, basic technical knowledge of textile production is preferred. Applications are welcome until October 3rd, 2022. ↗ more