Smart materials are materials with integrated functions that adapt to their environment, for example by changing their shape or electrical conductivity. Although smart materials are already included in various industrial products, they have hardly been recognised to date. The complex and mostly hidden functionality has not only prevented the general public from recognising the high innovative content of smart materials, but has also meant that even in specialist circles, only a minority recognise and take up the enormous economic, technological, design and socio-cultural potential of "intelligent materials".
In the joint project smart materials satellites, the Dresden Technology Collections, together with the Fraunhofer IWU, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee and the SYN-Stiftung are trialling new formats of science and technology communication using the example of a materials innovation. In the Perspectives Projector sub-project, an interactive exhibition and workshop space will be created in the Technology Collections in 2018, in which museum visitors and science camp participants can experiment with smart materials, discuss the future of materials with materials scientists and designers and encounter the perspectives of two resident artists on the hidden potential of smart materials.
The research project is part of the smart³ innovation network and is funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung as part of the Zwanzig20 – Partnerschaft für Innovation programme.
