Matters of Activity
The Cluster »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« aims to create a basis for a new culture of materials. The central vision of the Cluster is to rediscover the analog in the activity of images, spaces and materials in the age of the digital. Biology and technology, mind and material, nature and culture intertwine in a new way. In this context, the interdisciplinary research and development of sustainable practices and structures is a central concern in areas such as architecture and soft robotics, textiles, materials and digital filters, and surgical cutting techniques.
In six projects, more than 40 disciplines systematically investigate design strategies for active materials and structures that adapt to specific requirements and environments. The Cluster focuses on a new role of design, which is emerging in the context of growing diversity and the continuous development of materials and visualization forms in all disciplines.
Practices
Practices serve our fundamental strategic purpose of unifying theory and practice. Our goal is to transform practices with a long cultural tradition into innovative processes, resulting in a fundamental change in our culture. Combining material processes and cultural practices is an essential research strategy for »Matters of Activity« enabling a highly concrete and ›tangible‹, but also epistemological and experimental analysis of the activity of images, spaces, and materials.
Structures
An essential second layer in our research are active structures generated through the materials’ practices and activities. As we regard natural materials as an enormous repository of challenging geometric structures with unknown functions, a central goal here is to reveal the intrinsic relationship between the materials’ form and functional dimensions. It is equally important to analyze the consequences of active structures and materials on the level of objects, individuals, and architectural spaces on daily basis. This approach will enable us to analyze how our own research activities will be transformed by recognizing the activity of materials, images, objects, and even buildings.
Codes
The research unit Codes addresses the methodological challenge of developing the idea of material code. Our focus on material practices is the merging of the symbolic and physical dimensions. We no longer conceive the material’s inner activity as dysfunctional failures, but positively as an essential operative coded structure and a re-invention of the analog.