Material Trajectories

Léa Perraudin is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her research is concerned with (media) infrastructures of the Anthropocene, experimental cultures in media, art and design, as well as practices of knowing, writing and making in the realm of environmental humanities and queer feminist technology studies. Léa is currently working on an extensive media theory of phase transitions, investigating the material ties of media infrastructures in contemporary technocapitalist environments through situated phenomena of transience, dispersal, abundance and solidification. Together with Martin Müller, Léa leads the experimental laboratory for knowledge exchange and speculative design “CollActive Materials,” funded by the Berlin University Alliance.

Clemens Winkler is a postdoctoral design researcher at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His work relates environmental concerns with social, scientific and technological development. By questioning atmospheric control with its epistemic foundations and institutional affiliations, he, for example, puts clouds into boxes to show what cannot be contained and therefore explores the human obsession with controlling the environment. Opening up participatory and playful frameworks through material transitions becoming intellectual and intimate markers led to his current position as visiting professor for the MA studio “Spiel und Objekt” at the University of Theatre Arts Ernst Busch Berlin.

Claudia Mareis is a design researcher and cultural historian. After initial training in Graphic Design, she studied Design, Art and Cultural Studies in Zurich, Berlin, and Linz. Since 2021, she has been professor of Design and History of Knowledge at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where she is also the co-director of the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material.” Besides, she is a lecturer at the Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel, where from 2013 to 2021 she has built up an interdisciplinary research group converging design, media arts, anthropology, historical studies, and technology. Her research interests include history, theory and methodology of design in the 20th century, knowledge cultures in design, experimental design and media practices, cultural history of creativity, design and material politics.

Matthias Held studied product design in Germany and in the US. After working as a design consultant for the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), including in Africa, he was a co-founder of the quintessence design studio in Stuttgart. In 2006, he was appointed professor at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd, heading research projects in the field of sustainability, regenerative energy and medical technology. He currently serves as prorector for research and transfer. Held is member of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF), of the Design Research Society UK and jury member of the Bundespreis Ecodesign.