CollActive Materials: Woraus wird Zukunft gemacht? • Berlin University Alliance

What Is the Future Made Of?

CollActive Materials is an experimental laboratory in the Berlin Clusters of Excellence »Matters of Activity« (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and »Science of Intelligence« (Technische Universität Berlin). The project, which is funded by the Berlin University Alliance, aims to develop speculative design as a new approach to knowledge exchanges between researchers, designers and society at large. As an experimental transdisciplinary project, CollActive Materials establishes an open conversation between everyday material practices in diverse social contexts and various approaches in research.

We Need a Different Approach to Materials

The materials that surround us are oftentimes given little thought. We are accustomed to their seamless operation and seemingly inexhaustible availability. There are, however, good reasons to think about materials in a fundamentally different way: Our use of natural resources and materials consumes a huge amount of energy and is exacerbating global social injustices and inequality. Already today, it is also making parts of the world unlivable. »Carrying on as before« threatens our coexistence and the foundations of our existence.

Envisioning Futures in Co-Speculation Workshops

In public co-design workshops, CollActive Materials invites participants to question how we use materials as individuals and as a society, and to envision new material futures together with researchers. Current debates about future ecological and geopolitical challenges are just as much a part of these encounters as are new developments in robotics.

Drawing on current research topics, workshop participants develop speculative future scenarios for everyday material practices. In the workshops, they produce stories, sketches, and prototypes, which, following the concept of design for debate, provide tangible stimuli for further discussion: What kind of future do we want to live in?

The workshop methodology applied by CollActive Materials is based on speculative design, and a team of science communicators, researchers, and designers continuously works on its further development. The project has found opportunities to test its workshop formats at numerous non-university venues and events, including the »Mall Anders« Open Learning Lab in a Berlin shopping center and through several contributions to Berlin Science Week.

Exhibition »AIRBOUND. Sensing Collective Futures«

One of the project’s high points was the exhibition »AIRBOUND. Sensing Collective Futures«, which was presented at Aufbau Haus in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district from October 20th to November 9th, 2023. The exhibition focused on speculative scenarios that explored air as a critical social and ecological material. »AIRBOUND« presented snapshots from the cultural history of air, as well as site-specific experimental arrangements and speculative future scenarios that were developed by workshop participants and designers in an extensive co-design process.

»Visiting Material Futures« Workshop Series and Pop-Up Exhibition at Futurium

From March to August 2024, CollActive Materials explored possible material futures with visitors to Berlin’s Futurium. In a four-part workshop series, research insights from the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« came together with the speculators’ individual knowledge. Working collaboratively, participants produced prototypes of possible futures in which active materials have become an established part of architecture, design, robotics, medicine, and everyday life. The public was able to experience and interact with the outcomes from the workshops and their transdisciplinary process in a pop-up exhibition staged at the Futurium Lab.