EXC 2025:  Matters of Activity. Image Space Material

• Subject Area: Literary Studies ; Construction Engineering and Architecture ; Computer Science ; Art History, Music, Theatre and Media Studies ; Materials Science ; Mathematics ; Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390648296

A groundbreaking event of the 21st century is and will be the re-invention of the analog in the digital age. Its core is a new active materiality which is beginning to transform research and everyday life. In the future, techniques will no longer be based on the idea of passive tools and materials that need human- and machine-centered agency to make them move and work. Materials are now increasingly perceived as physical and symbolic agents. This challenges traditional concepts of image, space, and material, which are increasingly seen as interrelated, inseparable carriers and agents of information. The aim of the Cluster Matters of Activity is to provide the foundations for a new culture of active materiality, enabling the development of sustainable, energy-saving artifacts and techniques by focusing on their active spaces and symbolic forms. The inseparability of active images, spaces, and materials makes the endeavor inherently interdisciplinary, requiring historical analysis, experi-mental and design-oriented research, as well as the scrutiny of its practical and theoretical consequences. The humanities, natural sciences, engineering, and design disciplines will be equal partners. The Cluster also envisions a new role for Gestaltung in all disciplines as an integral part of materials development, given the increasing abundance of materials and visualization tools available. Through exemplary research projects, the Cluster will systematically explore design strategies for materials and structures that are capable of adapting to specified challenges, investigate traditional processes (such as filtering, weaving, and cutting), and interrogate the confluence of dynamic visual representations, geometry, and symbolic forms within matter.The Cluster will establish an integrative and flexible infrastructure that builds on the legacies of previous design institutions including the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm and the Black Mountain College by focusing on making, thinking, and experimenting. Combining the legacies of the 200-year history of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the 100-year history of the Bauhaus, the Cluster Matters of Activity will be a dynamic interdisciplinary laboratory. Advancing the existing Cluster Image Knowledge Gestaltung, where formats for interdisciplinary collaboration have already been established, it will be located in the Hermann von Helmholtz Center for Cultural Techniques, an interdisciplinary faculty of HU Berlin. The Cluster will also expand academic research and teaching by using the open Humboldt-Labor as a new platform for interacting with the public in the Humboldt Forum. As a thriving creative center with numerous research facilities, design academies, collections and museums, and an internationally acclaimed start-up and design scene, Berlin is an eminently suitable location for an endeavor of this kind.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Participating Institution: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Freie Universität Berlin; Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin; Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung; Wissenschaftspark Potsdam-Golm; Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Technische Universität Berlin; Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin
• Spokespersons: Professorin Dr. Claudia Mareis; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schäffner
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Claudia Bluemle; Professor Dr. Horst Bredekamp; Professor Dr. Matthias Bruhn; Professorin Dr. Myfanwy E. Evans; Professor Dr. Peter Fratzl; Professor Finn Geipel; Professorin Dr. Regine Hengge; Professor Dr. Christian Kassung; Professorin Dr. Sharon Macdonald; Professorin Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn; Professor Dr. Jörg Niewöhner; Professor Dr. John A. Nyakatura; Professor Dr. Thomas Picht; Professor Dr. Konrad Polthier; Professor Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller; Professor Dr. Jürgen P. Rabe; Professorin Patricia Ribault, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Christiane Sauer; Professor Dr. Jürgen Sieck; Professor Dr. Matthias Staudacher; Professorin Dr. Sabine Thümmler; Professor Dr. Joseph Vogl; Professorin Carola Zwick