EXC 1027:  Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory

• Subject Area: Art History, Music, Theatre and Media Studies ; Ancient Cultures ; Construction Engineering and Architecture ; History ; Basic Research in Biology and Medicine ; Computer Science ; Literary Studies ; Mathematics ; Medicine ; Condensed Matter Physics ; Psychology
• Term: from 2012 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 194453117

Science is "Gestaltung", including all aspects of research and communication from laboratory arrangements to chemical formulae, from the organisation of a study up to theory building. Knowledge has always been shaped by architectures, tools, models and the information media and images used. In the past half century, the significance of Gestaltung in the production and perception of knowledge has achieved a new quality due to the development of digital imaging processes. As a means of rendering visible and summarisation, modelling and communication, proof and archiving, images have fundamentally transformed the sciences, humanities, technology and medicine. Now it is possible to grasp what were once inconceivably vast amounts of data and complexities. Since images not only operate on an immaterial level, but also interweave digital information with the material, images become a comprehensive reservoir and representation of various forms of knowledge. Images explode disciplinary and local boundaries, and they transport styles and aesthetic strategies. Gestaltung, a paradigm of modern design and production procedures, thus advances from the periphery to the core of research itself. This Cluster of Excellence proceeds from this central tenet. Images and knowledge are analysed as a process of Gestaltung. It constructs an interdisciplinary laboratory as a new virtual and real architecture of knowledge in which humanities, sciences and technology studies as well as the design disciplines participate equally. In this context, Gestaltung becomes a model concept of research. For the first time in the 200-year history of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, an integrative scholarly platform is established with the participation of 22 disciplines from numerous university and non-university research institutions and museums. This implementation may decisively transform the university.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence
• Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Participating Institution: Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM); Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik; Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz ; Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin ; Kunstbibliothek; Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin ; Kunstgewerbemuseum; Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung; Wissenschaftspark Potsdam-Golm; Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (MPIWG); Museum für Naturkunde; Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung (MfN); Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau; Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Horst Bredekamp; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schäffner
• Participating Researchers: Privatdozent Dr. Harun Badakhshi; Professor Dr. Matthias Bruhn; Professor Dr. Jochen Brüning; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Coy; Professor Dr. Peter Fratzl; Professor Dr. Peter A. Frensch; Professor Finn Geipel; Professor Dr. Stefan Gradmann; Professorin Dr. Barbara Göbel; Professor Dr. Christian Kassung; Professorin Dr. Charlotte Klonk; Professor Dr. Norbert Koch; Professor Dr. Reinhold Leinfelder; Professor Dr. Thomas Macho; Professorin Dr. Susanne Muth; Professorin Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn; Professor Dr. Gerhard Scholtz; Dr. Robin Schuldenfrei; Professor Michael Seadle, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Sabine Thümmler; Professor Dr. Joseph Vogl; Professorin Dr. Sigrid Weigel; Professor Dr. Moritz Wullen; Professorin Carola Zwick