Matters of Activity

Aerial captures of °ever-permeable boundaries° at our opening @pov_berlin during @sellerie_weekend earlier this month – where @katherina.gorodynska shared a generous reading of her work ~Open to Winds~ in dialogue with the encapsulating atmosphere, the moving vehicles, the curious entities, the becoming voices. You have another chance to visit the exhibition today, 17th of May (2-6pm) before it closes on the 24th of May (2-6pm) with a soft finissage, featuring special readings and performances by our dear and talented guests @epifanio_caray @odarkazyrko and Raphael Koranda between 4-5pm! I am excited to place my words in dissonant unison between these warm voices. Many thanks to everyone who came to visit so far, stayed and helped making the opening day so memorable ~ for Ewa and Dominik from POV for welcoming us so warmly in the space, and for @mattersofactivity for kindly lending us these comfortably manufactured silver cushions ♡ and @flotte_berlin for providing a free cargo bicycle to transport them from Mitte to Tempelhofer Feld 🚵‍♀️ Images/videos by @akinoritao0326 and myself ♡

“More-than-Human Audio Worlds” workshop con Maja Avnat al Bosco Colto Campus 2026 “Thinking with animals”. Maja Avnat è una ricercatrice e artista che esplora paesaggi più-che-umani e intrecci materiali attraverso un lavoro che attraversa studi culturali, ricerca progettuale e pratiche artistiche sonore e installative. È membro associato del Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity come junior researcher ed è stata docente presso il Dipartimento di Textile and Material Design della Weißensee School of Art di Berlino. Ha conseguito una laurea triennale in product design presso la Berlin University of the Arts e una laurea magistrale in storia e teoria della cultura presso la Humboldt University. Il suo audio walk “Verwilderte Lianen, pflanzliche Arbeit und Gehölze, die sich anlehnen” è esposto presso l’orto botanico della Humboldt University di Berlino. La nozione di thinking with animals mette in discussione le culture della produzione della conoscenza e le capacità sensoriali umane di percezione. Durante il workshop sperimenteremo registrazioni sonore e lavori audio come strumenti di accesso a differenti modi di conoscere. Il gruppo realizzerà un’opera audio per la foresta, pensata per essere resa disponibile ai visitatori tramite streaming. I lavori audio rifletteranno e documenteranno gli apprendimenti e le creazioni del BCC 26. Ogni gruppo elaborerà una struttura per catturare in forma sonora un processo di apprendimento all’interno del campus. Attraverso registrazioni sul campo delle attività più-che-umane presenti nel sito — come uccelli, esseri umani, vento e altri elementi — e brevi testi parlati, saranno prodotti brevi brani audio per specifici luoghi della foresta. Bosco Colto Campus “Thinking with Animals” 30 luglio - 9 agosto 2026 Boschi di Santo Pietro, Caltagirone CT

The updated line-up of tutors for Bosco Colto Campus 2026: Thinking with Animals. Welcome to Maja Avnat (@mattersofactivity ) and Nicolas Depoutot + Arthur Poiret / @toutterrain_ (@ecolearchinancy ) Apply now on boscocolto.org July 30 - August 9, 2026 Boschi di Santo Pietro, Caltagirone (Sicily, Italy)

Join us for a transdisciplinary exchange with architect Susanne Brorson and material scientist Lorenzo Guiducci on Tuesday, 12 May 2026, 5–7 pm at »Matters of Activity« (@mattersofactivity ), central laboratory (2. floor), Sophienstraße. 22 a Berlin-Mitte. Building on their talks »Making Architecture« and »From Plant to Material: Structure, Processes and Properties of Hemp,« we will discuss the structure, processing and material properties of plant fibres such as hemp, as well as their potential for architectural design. This transdisciplinary exchange across scales and disciplines is part of the Material Focus Studio: HEMP – Ancient Plant for New Design at the Department of Textile and Material Design (@tmd.weissensee ), led by Prof. Christiane Sauer (@christiane.sauer ) at weißensee school of art and design. Architect Susanne Brorson (STUDIO SUSANNE BRORSON, Rügen, @studio__susanne_brorson ) operates her practice as an experimental laboratory on building materials, local typologies and climatic conditions. Material scientist Lorenzo Guiducci (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam) works on material activity, shape-programmable structures and bioinspired design. #research #hemp #textiles #architecture #transdisciplinary @humboldt.uni @mpici_potsdam

°•Dissolving systems, inhaled, are molten into the very centre of our gazing attention. A polluted status quo, and chemical solastalgia, used to trigger and narrate your alienation. ~ Yet there is a new feeling that emerges, with the comprehension that we are not seeking to resurrect the past. Sometimes things are irreversible, and this very idea may be the most hopeful news that you will read today \ By implication of our ever-permeable boundaries, we compose for you a drifting topography of shedded skins, a non-linear, porous score, and a scent of dusty spring asphalt, that makes virtual timelines collapse. ~ ~ ~ ~ 'ever-permeable boundaries' is a multi-sensorial exhibition featuring a selection of works by Monika Gabriela Dorniak (in collaboration w/ Monty Callaghan), Sille Kima and Justina Moncevičiūtė. The opening as part of @sellerie_weekend on the 03.05. (2-7pm) features the 30-minute-long performance 'Open to Winds' by Katherina Gorodynska, exploring fragmented memory through multilingual voice, displacement and the body. The exhibition runs from 03.05. until 24.05 at POV gallery on Tempelhofer Feld and is open on Sundays (2–6 pm) or upon request. ~~~\\~ As part of the exhibition programme, the artistic works at POV will also act as a research ground within Monika Gabriela Dorniak’s collaboration with Dr. Léa Perraudin’s (@mattersofactivity ) seminar at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The main title of the seminar “Hazardous Hope”, borrowed from Ayushi Dhawan and Simone M. Müller (2024), explores potential ways of living within our contaminated environments without the nostalgic aim of retreating into a “pure” or “healed” condition. Together with the students, we will ask how to live in a post-anthropocentric state by approaching Tempelhofer Feld as a contaminated, historical material witness whose past may offer new inspirations for site-specific, practice-based responses. ♡ Image 1/6: Visual by @silleki Image 2: @przezwa - 'Stone heads/ pillow lips' @pov_berlin (2024) Image 3: (c) tempelhofer feld

Students from the Coop Design Research program recently visited Matters of Activity, where I guided the excursion and the discussion, opening up engaging perspectives on design and research. Across three exhibitions, we explored interdisciplinary, vernacular, bioregional, and symbiotic design approaches. Together, we reflected on how design operates beyond traditional disciplines, fostering new relationships between materials, environment, and society. Our visits included: Activarium at Matters of Activity, On Water at the Humboldt Forum, and Symbiotic Wood at the Kunstgewerbemuseum. #DesignResearch #MattersOfActivity #coopdesignresearch

🌌 How can we interlace Body—Matter—Machine ? Syntopia 1—Soma I Body is an investigation on situated architecture constructed by the human body. By blending architecture with material innovation, the project calls for a return to human handcraft, augmented by small-scale technological devices. The visual essay unfolds in three layers. First, the filament architecture reveals how matter, space, the observer, and the body converge in the act of making. Second, the digital layers expose the range of data gathered by the devices used during the weaving process. Finally, the circles map tacit and explicit knowledge across the disciplines and perspectives involved in the project. 🔗 Discover the full article on ablejournal.org. - Credits: Authors: Elaine Bonavia @helenedemalte , Jessica Farmer, Roland Halbe @rolandhalbe , Johanna Hehemeyer‑Cürten @johlemo , Nuri Kang, Mareike Stoll, Karola Dierichs @karoladierichs Institutions: Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« (MoA) @mattersofactivity , Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin (KHB) @kunsthochschuleberlin , Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPICI) @mpici_potsdam Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge the support of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy — EXC 2025.

We are very honoured & proud to be part of this publication! Images of our performances @tieranatomisches_theater Interview with @ClaudiaBl ümle & @PeterFratzl Our contribution was the kinetic sculpture ‘Well-Tempered Hygrometer’ reacting to humidity, which was first presented @silent.green and further developed for @drj__edition.rote.insel & @mattersofactivty with a sound performance and an audio-art-piece (last images) Thank you @mattersofactivity @ObjectSpaceAgency @adocpublishing clemens_winkler @christian.stein.de About: “Stretching Materialities is an experimental approach to rethinking exhibitions in terms of ‘active matter’: not as a presentation of material knowledge and practices per se, but as an interactive and participatory research approach to new forms of activity emerging from the poiesis of the material. The interdisciplinary exhibition at Tieranatomisches Theater (TA T) Berlin experimented with curatorial processes, the existing environment and its material-energetic resources, sound performances as well as the interweaving of physical and virtual matter.” 300 pages | EN | ISBN: 978-3-943253-87-0 | 26,00 € | Open Access #welltemperedhygrometer #soundperformance #art #artandscience #experiment

🎤Science On Stage🔬 Snapshots from the Science Slam of the Berlin Excellence Clusters — an evening full of bold ideas, sharp minds and great energy. Thank you to all slammers and everyone who joined us!🧡 (c) Kay Herschelmann

Thank you students at @zhdkcampus @zhdk_transdisciplinary @zhdk_designresearch for sharing insights into touching cosmic entanglements — moments where matter and words find their grounding in experience and knowledge. With a belief in training patience, exercising observation, and resisting the urge to form opinions or analogies too quickly, we explored how artistic and designerly practices might decelerate intrinsic urgency. By building structural modular systems and questioning categorical approaches, we became literally entangled in the room by our self-made glossary — caught in fabrics of relatedness that might reach far beyond the present moment. What we encountered was only a snapshot in time, intersected by particle relations millions of years old, briefly rendered visible. As we said: we are all leftovers of cosmic events — thankfully. Enjoy practicing research-oriented design within these shared cosmic energy commons. also special thanks to @mattersofactivity , as well as ZHdK members Bjoern Franke, @carolinambernard , @maike.thies , @frnkwz and Roman Kirschner.

Stretching Materialities.
 Negotiating Boundaries in Exhibition Research Object Space Agency: Claudia Blümle, Yoonha Kim, Maxime Le Calvé, Natalija Miodragović, Nina Samuel, Christian Stein, Clemens Winkler DE (EN in the comments) Stretching Materialities ist ein experimenteller Ansatz, um Ausstellungen im Sinne von „aktiver Materie“ neu zu denken. Ausstellungen sind demnach nicht als eine Präsentation von materiellem Wissen zu verstehen, sondern als eine interaktive Auseinandersetzung mit dem Format und dem Prozess der Ausstellung. Die Poiesis der Materialitäten rückt ins Zentrum und das Ausstellen selbst wird zu einem situierten Forschungswerkzeug. Die gleichnamige Ausstellung „Stretching Materialities“ im Tieranatomischen Theater (TA T) Berlin zeigte experimentelle Zugänge zur Umgebung und ihre Verflechtung von physischer und virtueller Materie, Performances und Interaktion. Die Gruppe der Experimentalforscher:innen, die sich aus Designer:innen, Architekt:innen, Kunsthistoriker:innen, Informatiker:innen und Anthropolog:innen zusammensetzt, dehnten die Materialität in zeitlich-räumliche Dimensionen und neue sinnliche Erfahrungen. Die Publikation reflektiert über die Ausstellung hinaus den Prozess der „Dehnungen“ dicht am Material selbst. Die daraus gewonnenen Erkenntnisse werden mit aktuellen Kontexten an den Schnittstellen künstlerischer, forschender und technologischer Wissenspraktiken verwoben. Die fünf eigenständigen Essays werden durch Interviews mit beteiligten Künstler*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen ergänzt. 300 Seiten | EN | ISBN: 978-3-943253-87-0 | 26,00 € | Open Access #ausstellungsforschung #experiment #interaktion #materialismus #poiesis

CO-WEAVING BIOFILMS at the BAUHAUS ECOLOGIES exhibition at Bauhaus Museum Dessau (9). The BAUHAUS ECOLOGIES exhibition exposed traces of ecological thinking in the history of the Bauhaus (Bauhaus Museum Dessau, until 2 Nov 2025). As a contemporary position, the large-scale installation CO-WEAVING BIOFILMS, which features bacterial cellulose as an organic and even self-growing material for design, was shown there as well (image 1). It was developed by Bastian Beyer @bastian_beyer_studio , Iva Resetar, @moritz.liedtke and @regine.hengge as a project within @mattersofactivity . The installation consists of approximately 750 circular pellicles of pure bacterial cellulose of different size that also reacts to environmental cues such as changes in humidity (affected by visitors), gravity or light. Besides demonstrating the practicability of growing cellulose from living bacteria into scaffolded forms of considerable size, the mobile-like large Co-Weaving Biofilms installation also is a unique work of art of a somewhat indeterminate, almost mysterious or meditative quality, which manifests as a strong agency acting upon and engaging any observer who contemplates it a bit longer than just a couple of minutes. Its gentle floating in the air generates a slight movement that makes it appear as a living being or swarm that brings nature into a cultural, i.e., built environment. This somewhat otherworldly and poetic impression becomes particularly apparent at night and can give you the feeling of being submerged in a huge aquarium (see last image and video). @bauhaus_dessau_foundation @bauhaus_archiv #bauhausdessau #bauhausdessaufoundation #bauhausmovement #bacterialcellulose #bacterialbiofilms #biodesign #biobaseddesign #materialecology #mattersofactivity #reginehengge