Matters of Activity Rethinking Materiality, Rethinking Knowledge

At the book’s core lies a quiet but radical idea: matter does not merely serve human thought; it participates in how we think, build, and understand our environments. Fibers, surfaces, and tools from tree bark, fungi, and wool to digital data and clouds become active partners in perception and design processes, co-producing knowledge across laboratories, workshops, studios, and archives, and opening new pathways for human–material interaction. Emerging from the Berlin-based Matters of Activity Cluster of Excellence, this volume assembles case studies, essays, and material experiments conducted across the natural sciences, humanities, and design. The underlying collaborative research rethinks materiality as relational, historically situated, and actively shaping the world we inhabit.

• Final publication of the Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
• Featuring international, interdisciplinary contributions from design, humanities, and natural sciences
• Showcasing numerous projects bridging material research and practice

Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis, Professor of Design and History of Knowledge, Department of Cultural History and Theory, HU Berlin

Dr. Carolin Ott, art historian; Science Communications Officer at Matters of Activity, HU Berlin

Babette Werner, art and visual historian, curator; research associate at Matters of Activity, HU Berlin