Filtering can be characterized as a functional separating process. When placed into a certain medium or environment, filters like charcoal or cell membranes ‘automatically’ produce differences, gradients, balances, selections, organizations, etc. Thus, filter processes – especially when implemented materially – result in systems that to a certain degree can be described as self-acting. In this respect, filters emerge as complex operative systems rather than mere objects, comprising different elements like barriers, channels, surfaces, pressure or temperature gradients, flows, frequencies, thresholds, etc. Taking this generic concept into account, not only obvious filters like livers, or kitchen sieves but also insect antennas, human ears, and architectural buildings can be considered as chemical, physical, or informational filters.

We invite scholars from the humanities and natural sciences to address filter operations, materials, or systems within biology, architecture, physics, engineering, design, etc. Invited talks are organized to be in short 15 min format and to serve as inputs for subsequent full-length discussions, which can evolve alongside questions like: What would material or operative codes for filtering systems be? How do factors like scale, complexity, medium, or mode of separation influence filter processes? To what extent can the efficiency (tolerance for error) and side effects (unwanted consequences) of a filtering process influence a desired function? Are modes of description possible that extend beyond mechanistic or vitalistic approaches? In what way can filtering systems be framed by research that is currently evolving around the notion of active matter?

Poster 

Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin 
Main Building, Room 3031

Programm

10.00 am – 10.20 am

Opening

Susanne Jany / Khashayar Razghandi

10.20 am – 11.00 am

Biomembranes: Filters which Keep Us Alive

Roland Knorr

11.00 am – 11.10 am

Coffee Break

11.10 am – 11.50 am

Making Sense of Vibration: A Spider’s High Pass Filter for Substrate Vibrations

Yael Politi

11.50 am – 12.30 pm

Filtering: Material Structure and Functionality of Acoustic Transmission Systems

Sebastian Schwesinger / Christoph Böhm

12.30 pm – 1.30 pm

Lunch Break

1.30 pm – 2.10 pm

Appendicularia House: A Temporary Filter Machine

Khashayar Razghandi

2.10 pm – 2.50 pm

Filtering Through Architecture

Susanne Jany

2.50 pm – 3.10 pm

Coffee Break

3.10 pm – 3.50 pm

NoFilter: Flitering, Transforming, and Cleaning Data

Ziawasch Abedjan

3.50 pm – 4.30 pm

Filter and Active Matter: A Response to the Lectures

Michael Friedman / Karin Krauthausen

4.30 pm – 5.00 pm

Summary

Moderated by Susanne Jany / Khashayar Razghandi