Introducing Matters of Activity

Claudia Mareis will introduce the research program of the new cluster of excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« at Humboldt-University Berlin where she is playing a leading role. This interdisciplinary research cluster is a collaboration of more than 40 disciplines and 8 institutions. It builds on the work of its predecessor, the »Interdisciplinary Laboratory. Image Knowledge Gestaltung«. The cluster will »explore materials’ own inner activity, which can be discovered as a new source of innovative strategies and mechanisms for rethinking the relationship between the analog and the digital and for designing more sustainable and energy-efficient technologies.« Please continue reading about its mission statement and research program in preparation of the session. Tim Ingold’s article »Materials against materiality« will complement and deepen our discussion of materiality, agency and Gestaltung in the context of current developments in research.