Microbial Matters

You are cordially invited to “Microbial Matters”—an interdisciplinary exchange that addresses the shifting conceptions of microbial activity in the built environment, design, and material culture. By questioning the modernist impulse to control and exclude microbial life, they open a dialogue about the active role of bacteria in past and future design practices.

“Microbial Matters” features a lecture by renowned architectural historians

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, in which they will present their latest book *We the Bacteria*, followed by a panel discussion with microbiologist Regine Hengge, architects Iva Rešetar and Bastian Beyer, and design and cultural historian Claudia Mareis, co-director of the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material.”

In their research on biotic architecture, Colomina and Wigley explore the close interconnections between microbes, bodies, and buildings and draft an urgent manifesto for an alternative architectural philosophy—one that acknowledges the coexistence of different species. The “Co-Weaving Biofilms” project, conceived as part of the experimental practices at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material” (MoA) at Humboldt University in Berlin, reimagines human and bacterial weaving through the activity of microorganisms. It combines architecture and design with microbiology and materials science. The installation “Co-Weaving Biofilms,” grown from bacterial cellulose, is on view as part of the program and brings MoA research into the TA T exhibition space.

Collaborations / Supported by

The event takes place in collaboration with the Center for Cultural Technology, as part of the strategic partnership between Humboldt University of Berlin and Princeton University, supported by the Flexible Funds of Humboldt University of Berlin.

IN ENGLISH