Léa Perraudin, Iva Rešetar
From March 20 to 23, Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s interdisciplinary research group Matters of Activity rearranged the holdings at the Sitterwerk within the framework of the series “My ABC is …” Their intervention in the collections of books and materials is guided by activity in materials and the mechanisms of control and cooperation in our handling of them, as well as beyond the area of human influence and perception.
The Cluster of Excellence »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.
They interrogate the way in which materials are connected to their contexts, how they reveal processes, and how they change over the course of time. They thus call into question in particular the generally prevailing understanding of materials as stable and standardized units. Material archives as a store of knowledge are often limited to the collecting of stable and isolated samples and concentrate on practices that ideally exclude or prevent changes. But indications of material flows and broader socio-ecological contexts are found specifically in this. During their research residency, Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin examined the way in which archives facilitate access to and experience of such activities in materials—such as phase transitions, growth, or weathering—and how the samples make reference to material processes outside of the collection.
The overview is the preliminary result of a search for traces and can be consulted point by point as well as be read from left to right or interactively. Narratives of materials and their use, processing, and legacies are interwoven between the tables, the floor, and the shelves situated behind them.
One focus is on questions of scale, which range from the biological growth of cellulose materials and the symbiotic and collaborative production of bacterial cellulose, to finishing techniques that control and functionalize material properties on a molecular basis. In addition, growth is dealt with as a central concept that includes both organic growth and inorganic accumulations (dust, condensation) and also socio-economic growth and its limits. Moreover, material-political relationships of tension with a global scope—infrastructures and processes of change in the Anthropocene—are addressed and a site-specific look is directed back at the Sitterwerk based on remnants and weathering as well as practices related to collecting and maintaining the collections.
Excerpts of the temporary display of books and material samples can be viewed via four digital collections in the Sitterwerk catalog They have been expanded with quotations from the public discussion evening:
Growth, Cooperation, and Control (Cellulose)
Energy and Phase Transitions (Wax, Water)
Weathering, transformation and decay (metal, earth)
Collection (accumulation) and maintenance (dirt, dust, air)
Léa Perraudin is a media theorist and speculative material scholar and works as postdoctoral research associate in the project Material Form Function at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Her research interests include media theory, environmental humanities, queer feminist technology studies, (media) infrastructures of the Anthropocene, experimental cultures in media, art and design as well as diffractive practices of knowing, writing and making. Léa currently works on a habilitation project, bringing forth a media theory of phase transitions by investigating the material ties of media infrastructures in contemporary technocapitalist environments through situated phenomena of transience, dispersal, abundance and solidification.
Iva Rešetar works as a research associate at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She is trained as Architect at Belgrade University and completed postgraduate studies in Advanced Architectural Design at Städelschule Frankfurt. After gaining professional experience in architectural practice, Iva held teaching positions and conducted research within institutions including Städelschule, Akademie Schloss Solitude, UdK Berlin and ArcInTexETN network. Her recent projects explored material-based systems for thermal regulation in architecture, combining computation, thermodynamics and novel, energy-exchanging materials. As a Research Associate at »Matters of Activity«, Iva will focus on environmentally driven design concepts and translation of formative principles from natural sciences to architectural design.
