Dear friends of Matters of Activity,

In the past few weeks, we have met at many events of the ＿matter Festival 2025 and are extremely pleased with the great interest shown in the Cluster's research by the press and numerous participants. This is also some consolation after the disappointing news from the DFG that the follow-up proposal will not receive funding, as well as a great incentive to present many more results of our work to a larger audience this year and to celebrate what we have achieved together.

For those who were unable to attend the last openings, you will find some valuable insights in this issue. Next up, we look forward to the opening of »Symbiotic Wood« on June 27th at the Kunstgewerbemuseum and to numerous contributions from Cluster members at the Long Night of Science on June 28th.

Happy reading!
Antje Nestler & Carolin Ott

Object Space Agency | Artificial Intelligence | Science Communication Bereits im Januar wurde ein Interview mit MoA Postdoc Christian Stein in der t3n veröffentlicht. Darin spricht er über Gamification und was intrinsische Motivation und der Magic Circle des Spiels damit zu tun haben. Die Zeitschrift hat ihn nun für das KI Expert:innengremium für Mark Zuckerberg vorgeschlagen, aber lest selbst!  → more

On May 13th, we celebrated the opening of the »Vegetal Companions. Arts, Sciences and Temporalities of Co-Existence« exhibition and event series, curated by Robert Stock and Rahel Kesselring, at Späth-Arboretum as part of ＿matter Festival 2025. Focusing on the agency of plant and tree collectives and their ability to shape entire ecologies, »Vegetal Companions« aims to critically reposition conventional human-centered concepts that highlight control and mastery over nature. As part of the opening event, Rahel Kesselring and Maja Avnat introduced their site specific work »Planted Archives«. Also, Maja Avnat, launched an audio walk on specific tree histories of the garden. The event program with additional contributions by Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten, Emma Sicher and others runs until 28 June 2025 and will be part of Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2025. more

Weaving | ＿matter Festival 2025 | Bacteria | Biofilm | More-Than-Human | Science Communication | Yarns/Fibers | Textiles Im Interview spricht die Mikrobiologin Regine Hengge über die besondere Sichtweise des Exzellenzclusters »Matters of Activity« auf Materialien und was ihre Expertise auf dem Gebiet von Bakterien und Biofilmen damit zu tun hat. Die am 16. Mai 2025 eröffnete Ausstellung »Fermenting Textiles« im Art Laboratory Berlin, die die Ergebnisse ihrer Forschung zu traditionellen Färbetechniken in Afrika zeigt, ist der Anlass mit ihr über das Konzept aktiver Materialien und ihrem Nutzen zu sprechen sowie darüber, was naturwissenschaftliche Forschung von künstlerischen Herangehensweisen lernen kann. → more

As part of the ＿matter festival 2025, Regine Hengge and Laurence Douny, together with José I. Hernández Lobato, Adama Séré, and Salif Sawadogo opened their »Fermenting Textiles« exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin. The group show explores the fermentation of textiles in mud and plant material. The exhibition, curated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz, connects anthropology, microbiology, and art through the engagement of artisans, anthropologists, scientists, and artists and mirrors the multi-species collaborations that are integral to the mud dyeing process.  → more

Weaving | ＿matter Festival 2025 | Bacteria | Biofilm | More-Than-Human | Science Communication | Textiles | Wild Silk | Yarns/Fibers At the center of the exhibition »Fermenting Textiles« is a greenish-brown shirt made of coarse fabric used for hunting. It was treated with vouwo, a dyeing method practiced in the Marka-Dafing community in Burkina Faso for generations. An interdisciplinary team from »Matters of Activity« has systematically researched the dyeing technique for the first time, together with a master dyer from the West African community of Safané. You can read about their findings and how they relate to today's fast fashion in a profound Tagesspiegel article by Martin Ballaschk. The exhibition can be seen at the Art Laboratory Berlin until July 6. → more

Material Form Function | Publications | Wax | Biodesign Biogenic materials like beeswax have potential for sustainable manufacturing by reducing environmental impact. An interdisciplinary team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Ajou University in Korea, the Cluster »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin and the Department of Biomaterials of Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm introduces »Beeswax Luminaires«, a sustainable lighting solution made from natural beeswax and water via ice-casting. Their findings are now published in the latest Issue of »Materials & Design«. We congratulate the first authors Junpyo Kwon and Pelin Asa as well as Mourad Jaffar-Bandjee, Shahrouz Amini, Peter Fratzl, and Karola Dierichs. → more

Material Form Function | Science Communication | ＿matter Festival 2025 Die Zahl der benötigten Spenderorgane wächst – doch es gibt zu wenige. Könnte die Zukunft der Transplantationsmedizin im Labor liegen? Die Doku wirft einen faszinierenden Blick auf die neuesten Entwicklungen rund um künstlich erzeugte Organe, an denen zum Beispiel im Experimental Surgery Lab an der Charité Berlin unter der Leitung von Clustermitglied Igor Sauer geforscht wird. Aus dezellularisierten Rattenlebern werden zukünftig hoffentlich funktionierende Bauchspeicheldrüsen.  → more

On June 4th, the »Vessels: Infrastructures of Life« group show opened the Berlin Medical History Museum at the Charité. As part of the ＿matter festival 2025, this temporary exhibition, curated by Igor M. Sauer and Navena Widulin, offers exciting insights into these often-hidden structures. It shows how these vessels function and how they can be visualized, used and reproduced. The exhibits correspond with those in Virchow’s collection of specimens. The exhibition features a live demonstration of research into tissue engineering by Igor Sauer and his colleagues at the Department of Experimental Surgery at Charité. → more

Science Communication The future of the construction of architecture and cities needs to be radically rethought. The exhibition »Making Differently. Women Rethinking Architecture« highlights visions and rigorous investigations in pursuit of new materiality, aiming to gather contributions that inspire a promising future, one that addresses environmental, social, and economic sustainability as well as well-being for humans and other species with whom we co-exist. The exhibition mainly shows the work of 10 pioneering women who are currently paving the way for producing architecture and cities differently. The selection covers a wide range of aspects from architectural technologies to city-making processes. We are pleased to announce that one of the portrayed women is our Cluster's Co-Director, Claudia Mareis, and that the exhibition features works by MoA members Pelin Asa, Natalija Miodragović, and Maxie Schneider. → more

Filtering | Robotics | Teaching In May 2025, Ars Electronica and ShanghaiTech University co-curated a series of artist-led student workshops together with four different research labs of the university. These workshops aimed to introduce ArtScience as a research and production practice that nurtures innovation by bridging the worlds of art, science, and technology. For a week, students were invited to explore ArtScience as a research and production practice. We're delighted that Cluster member Anna Schaeffner was part of this great program with the workshop »Embracing Collision« at the CASE Lab, encouraging participants to rethink the design of objects and devices by embracing collision rather than avoiding it.  → more

Join Sámi reindeer herder Oula A. Valkeapää and artist Leena Valkeapää for a special tour through the exhibition »Johtingeaidnu – The Path Within« with Emilia Tikka at Schering Stiftung from 3:00 to 6:00 pm! Together, we will take a speculative look at migration, change, and collective memory through the lens of nomadic herding traditions and artistic research. In conversation with them, new connections emerge between stories, landscapes, and possible futures. The event is hosted by CollActive Materials. → more

We warmly invite you to the sixth XR ART & NETWORKING on Wednesday, June 25th, 2025, at HTW Berlin – this year as a joint event with the new Immersive Technologies Hub (ITH)!

This public exchange is all about Playful Practices of Knowledge, i.e., new playful ways to impart and apply knowledge through creative XR experiences. Special attention will be paid to mixed and virtual reality. 

Look forward to:

• Inspiring short talks by Lisa Kaschubat, transdisciplinary artist and current Artistic Fellow of the AURORA XR School, and Dr. Christian Stein, head of gamelab.berlin and founder of PlayersJourney GmbH, and Martin Steinicke, researcher and game design expert at HTW Berlin
• An open fishbowl discussion with the experts Lisa Kaschubat, Jens Isensee, Christian Stein and Pablo Dornhege with the audience
• Two workshops on learnings and best practices from XR projects developed in collaboration between artists and HTW Berlin
• Innovative-creative XR experiences at the intersection of art, XR development, game design, and this year, for the first time, also journalism!
• Interdisciplinary exchange and new contacts, served with coffee and catering, directly on the Spree.

The talks will be held in English. Click here for ↗ the program and ↗ to register. Thanks to ERDF funding in the INP-III program, this event is, as always, free of charge.

Material Form Function | ＿matter Festival 2025 | Wood | More-Than-Human | Biodesign | Science Communication Climate change and monocultures have left forests vulnerable to insects and fungi. Beetle-infested wood is deemed less valuable from a traditional human-centric perspective. The group show »Symbiotic Wood« at Kunstgewerbemuseum focuses on this ›more-than-human‹ material that is co-owned with other species. It features contributions by artists, designers, architects, and cultural historians. Exhibition extended until 23 November 2025! → more

Science Communication Auch in diesem Jahr können interessierte Besucherinnen und Besucher bei der Langen Nacht der Wissenschaften am 28. Juni wieder spannende Einblicke in die Forschung an Berliner Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen gewinnen - und auch in diesem Jahr sind Mitglieder von »Matters of Activity« an verschiedenen Standorten mit dabei. Als MoA-PR-Team freuen wir uns außerdem, gemeinsam mit den Wissenschaftskommunikator:innen der anderen Berliner Exzellenzcluster wieder ein Kneipenquiz zu veranstalten.  → more

Material Form Function | ＿matter Festival 2025 | More-Than-Human | Wood | Forest The symposium »Symbiotic Futures 2.0« is an open invitation for public discourse as the central event of the exhibition »Symbiotic Wood«. It is an open platform for exchange between disciplines and across individual perceptions. Topical themes will be »Symbiosis as Cognition«, »Symbiosis as Perception« and »Symbiosis as Creation«. These will be introduced in an interdisciplinary panel of lectures and a round table discussion by invited experts from the disciplines of materials science, cultural theory and design. The lectures are complemented by a series of smaller hands-on workshops in which participants can gather first-hand information on the symbiotic interaction with materials, such as earth, resin and wood. → more

Material Form Function | ＿matter Festival 2025 | More-Than-Human | Water | Science Communication »Swamp Things!« invites peatland ecologies to the BHROX pavilion – haunting echoes of Berlin’s watery past as fenland formed from glacial meltwaters. The exhibition explores the lively potential of peatland plants through basketry, open-source coiling machines, and multimodal workshops. → more

Tempelhofer Feld sits at the intersection of its multifaceted past, present, and future. How can its material, spatial, and residual histories materialize into textures and traces? This workshop, conducted by Alice Jarry in collaboration with Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin, invites participants to explore and experiment with accessible biocomposites to create a living archive and a collective imprint of the site. Drawing on a counter-mapping approach — a collaborative, sensitive, critical, and participatory cartography that challenges human and more-than-human relations — the activity proposes accessible ways to engage with the site's tangible and intangible dimensions using biomaterials. No prior technical knowledge is required; the workshop is free, materials kits will be supplied, and everyone is welcome. Register now! → more

Heritage is shaped by complex global dynamics, from environmental crises and decolonial movements to technological advancements and shifting geopolitical landscapes. These forces challenge conventional understandings of heritage-making, raising fundamental questions about what is preserved, who decides its value, and how heritage is reimagined for the future. What then are the most urgent challenges facing heritage – and heritage studies – today? How do these challenges stem from and/or contribute to decentring the west, decentring the human, and reshaping value systems? In what ways can they forge new scholarly and creative practices? Inherit‘s directors Sharon Macdonald, also Principal Investigator at Matters of Activity, and Eva Ehninger kindly invite you to a roundtable debate with international scholars taking place on July 16th at Festsaal Luisenstraße.  → more

Material Form Function | ＿matter Festival 2025 | More-Than-Human | Science Communication »Blazing Heath/Heideglühen« explores the complex history and contested afterlife of former military training sites in Brandenburg. The exhibition examines how the toxic legacies of military occupation are made (in)visible and repurposed within scientific knowledge production. By integrating data-driven, visual, and sonic monitoring, a multi-channel video installation encourages you to engage with these uncanny landscapes. → more