“The Future Lies in a New Kind of Analog”

The Matters of Activity excellence cluster investigates the inner structures of materials with a view to making them usable.

While the challenges of digitisation are discussed elsewhere, scientists in the cluster of excellence have moved on. “We say that the future lies in a new kind of analog,” says Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schäffner, Director of the Hermann von Helmholtz Centre for Cultural Techniques and spokesman for the cluster of excellence. Over 40 different disciplines at the Humboldt-Universität are working together on a “new culture of the material,” meaning that they are investigating the properties of active materials with a view to making them usable. Active materials have a life of their own; they change and develop.

In manufacturing technology as it has developed over the past 200 years materials of this kind have not been particularly popular, Schäffner says. High on the popularity list were, in contrast, stable, passive materials like steel or concrete, materials with controllable behaviour. Changes were seen as problematic. „When iron rusts it is seen as a malfunction,” says the professor of the history of knowledge and culture. A good example of active material is wood, which “works” and adapts to external conditions. What happens if you don’t try to make wood amenable but leave it to get on with its activity? Matters of Activity aims to get to the bottom of this question.

Climate-Friendly Materials Are a Topic for Matters of Activity

This ecological approach is a good match for the exhibition concept of focusing mainly on the interaction and crisis of natural and social systems. “Using energy-efficient materials may help achieve the climate objectives of the Paris UN climate conference, an issue with which we deal in detail in the exhibition,” Gorch Pieken says. The space devoted to Matters of Activity will be correspondingly large.

Work by and results of the cluster of excellence will be presented on 25 square metres of the theatre curtain in the main hall. The image at the entrance, a gigantic shoal of fish projected onto the curtain, is inspired by the cluster’s research. “The shoal reminds Matters of Activity scientists of cell components or organic elements that behave in much the same way as flocks of animals,” Pieken explains.

The concept of active matter was originally used in physics to denote the formations of flocks of birds in flight, Wolfgang Schäffner says. Animals behave toward each other in accordance with certain rules – just like material particles. The shoal of fish illustrates on a large scale what happens on a small scale in wood.

“Exchange with Society as Important as Research and Teaching”

Scientists are researching on a wide range of materials how fibres or fabric are made up. They look at traditional textile weaving practices in, say, Latin America and Africa. Matters of Activity even regard the human brain as matter with a geometrical basic structure. “Our brain is a gigantic flock of birds consisting of neuronal cells interwoven with fibres,” Schäffner explains. Research is also under way on microbial structures that are spun like bacteria. Biofilms – communities of microbes in Petri dishes – will be on show in the exhibition “in the form of incredibly beautiful microscopic images in maximum magnification and time lapse”. The structures of these microbial communities are similar, when enlarged, to human weaving, Pieken says.

Wolfgang Schäffner stresses that the cluster of excellence attaches great importance to being able in the Humboldt Forum to enter into a dialogue with exhibition visitors. “Our idea is that exchange with society must be as important as research and teaching.”

‘Exchange with society as important as research and teaching’

The researchers use a wide variety of materials to investigate how fibres are composed or fabrics are constructed. They look at traditional practices of textile weaving – for example in Latin America and Africa. Even the human brain is viewed as matter with a basic geometric structure in ‘Matters of Activity’. ‘Our brain is a huge flock of neuronal cells that are also interwoven by fibres,’ explains Wolfgang Schäffner. Microbial structures spun by bacteria are also being researched. Biofilms, communities of microbes in petri dishes, will also be on display in the exhibition. ‘In the form of incredibly beautiful microscope images recorded at maximum magnification and in fast motion.’ Gorch Pieken explains that the structures of these microbial communities resemble human weavings when magnified.

It is important to the Cluster of Excellence to be able to enter into dialogue with visitors through the exhibition in the Humboldt Forum, emphasises Wolfgang Schäffner. ‘We believe that dialogue with society should be as important as research and teaching.’