Materiality

»Es gibt keine Materialität außer der der Farbe.<< Friedemann Hahn I Traditionellerweise wird in der Kunstgeschichte zwischen dem Eigen­ wert und dem Darstellungswert einer Farbe unterschieden. Sie geht im Wesentlichen auf den Kunsthistoriker Hans Jantzen zurück, der diese Unterscheidung 1913 in seinem Buch über den gotischen Kirchenraum formulierte. 1 Jantzen unterscheidet den »Eigenwert« und den »Darstel­ lungswert« einer Farbe. Er spricht vom Eigenwert, wenn die Farbe weitgehend losgelöst von j edem Bildgegenstand verwendet wird, wie z.B. in der mittelalterlichen Glasmalerei. Sobald die Malerei aber »natur­ nachahmend« wird, schränkt sie den Eigenwert der Farbe ein und betont deren Darstellungswert. Farbe wird dann als Anweisung an die Farb­ materie verstanden. Sie wird in ihrer Gegenstandsreferenz gesehen und kennzeichnet ihre Stofflichkeit, Gegenständlichkeit und Lokalisation im Raum. Die Unterscheidung Hans Jantzens wird seither immer noch zur Charakterisierung farblicher Eigenschaften benutzt, obwohl diese Unterscheidung zwei große Probleme mit sich trägt. Zum ersten Problem kann man kurz anführen, daß man heute Eigenschaften als Resultate der Unterscheidung und Bezeichnung eines Beobachters auffaßt, sie also als eine Beobachterkategorie einführt. Wenn man dagegen Eigenwerte als obj ektiven Besitz von Gegenständen auf­ faßt, dann wird suggeriert, daß Farbe eine Eigenschaft hätte, die ihr auf irgendeine Art und Weise zu »eigen« wäre, unabhängig von jeglichem Vorgang der Beobachtung oder Erfahrung. 2 Damit verschenkt man aber die bereits längst gewonnenen, erkenntnistheoretischen Ausgangs­ punkte, wonach Farbeigenschaften Resultate der Beobachtung und Erfahrung sind. Vielmehr bietet es sich heute an, »Eigenwert« und »Darstellungswert« einer Farbe in den Begriffen Selbstreferenz und Fremdreferenz zu reformulieren. Dann wird nämlich deutlich, daß sog. »Eigenwerte << im Prinzip selbstreferentielle Operationsformen eines Zeichensystems sind und immer die Unterscheidung eines Beobachters bleiben. »Darstellungswerte« sind dann als fremdreferentielle Opera­ tionsformen des Systems zu reformulieren, die auf Zusammenhänge verweisen, die selbst nicht im System anwesend sind, auf die nur mit den Mitteln des Systems verwiesen werden kann. 3 Auch dies ist nur als Unterscheidung eines Beobachters zu haben. Der Beobachter konstruiert

Le développement dans l’art contemporain de pratiques artistiques qui se situent à la croisée de plusieurs médiums (intermedia, mixed media, multimedia) ou qui ont recours aux « nouveaux médias », tout comme dans le domaine du cinéma le passage de l’argentique au numérique et l’apparition de nouveaux dispositifs et de nouvelles formes de captation, de manipulation, de visionnement et d’archivage des images en mouvement, ont précipité la nécessité de repenser ce qu’est un médium. Face à un panorama artistique, cinématographique et technologique en constante transformation, ce colloque se propose de rouvrir la question de la définition du médium en interrogeant la distinction entre « médium » et « média(s) ». Suivant l’essor actuel d’un champ de recherche transdisciplinaire sur ces questions (Medienwissenschaft allemande, media studies anglophones, études médiatiques canadiennes, ou encore médiologie et travaux sur les appareils et la philosophie de la technique en France), il s’agit d’envisager l’ensemble des médiations se manifestant à l’intérieur d’un contexte culturel donné : les conditions de possibilités technico-matérielles de toute forme de perception et d’expérience, de représentation et de communication, d’enregistrement et de transmission.
Pour cela, il convient d’opérer un retour sur les différentes significations et connotations qui ont été attribuées au terme d’origine latine « médium » dans le cadre d’une longue généalogie qui a ses racines dans les notions aristotéliciennes de metaxu et de diaphanes et trouve ses points focaux au XXe siècle dans les écrits de László Moholy-Nagy et Walter Benjamin, Rudolf Arnheim et Clement Greenberg, Marshall McLuhan et Friedrich Kittler. Il s’agit ainsi de faire un état des lieux de la recherche actuelle sur ce thème en contribuant simultanément au décloisonnement entre les disciplines de l’histoire de l’art, des études cinématographiques et audiovisuelles et de l’histoire et de la théorie des médias.

Przysługujący widmom wywrotowy, niemalże rewolucyjny potencjał został odsunięty oraz zagubiony poprzez pozbycie się tej kontrowersyjnej kategorii z terytorium metafizyki i zbyt pośpieszne odesłanie jej do przestrzeni badań nad literaturą, sprowadzając ją jedynie do roli użytecznego, bezpiecznego narzędzia interpretacji.

Książka Andrzeja Marca odzyskuje niepokojący charakter widmontologii i ponownie wprowadza widma do myśli metafizycznej. Czym nawiedzona i przeniknięta jest tradycyjna metafizyka, co właściwie ją dręczy, nie daje spokoju oraz nieustannie podmywa jej stabilność?

Kategoria widma Derridy posłużyła Marcowi przede wszystkim do rozważań nad charakterem współczesności i przeobrażeń, jakie dokonały się w obrębie myśli ponowoczesnej. Współczesna kultura, zdaniem Marca, stała się miejscem powstawania widm, nieustannie powracających z przeszłości. Uznając, że nie jesteśmy już w stanie tworzyć utopijnych wizji przyszłości, autor stara się zdać sprawę z widmowego charakteru współczesnej kultury, analizując m. in. strategie vintage, retro, nurt no future w kulturze lat 70. czy nurt fantastyki naukowej w literaturze.

This thesis studies a specific relationship between matter and form which can no longer be related to stability, solidity and objectuality, as it has been traditionally interpreted. To this aim, it firstly explores the plurivocity in the concepts of 'matter' and 'artistic material'; and secondly it examines a case study about water as a material presence in contemporary art. Over the course of the study, certain issues arise, such as the problematic use of notions like form, information and memory in the specific context of the artwork .

The  methodological lines of this thesis are an alternative approach to the artwork technical and material system, this understood as a synergistic and complex structure of symbolic, technological and imaginative relations. This methodology focuses on the evolution of the technical and technological thinking in the 20th century, establishing the connection between past and current uses of media and materials. Based on the principle of transversality, this study contributes to the expansion of the Third Culture by visualizing the dialogical relationship between art, science, technology and aesthetics. Thus, its starting point is the states of water (solid, liquid, and gas) as well as the technical and conceptual operations associated with this specific material. A selection of 258 artists or working groups and more than 500 works have been gathered along diverse actional and conceptual tendencies of water in its three states.

Archeology, technological thinking, anthropology, and material imagination are the key epistemological elements used to reflect on the encounter between the so-called traditional art mediums and new media in the 20th century —or from a broader perspective, between both the deterministic-mechanistic and the systemic-cybernetic currents of thought. In this context, water provides a paradoxical and exemplary temporal connectivity.

Resumen
La presente investigación tiene por objeto definir una zona muy poco tratada dentro de la historia del arte, en la que la relación entre materia y forma deja de poder aprehenderse como un fenómeno vinculado a los sentidos de estabilidad, solidez y objetualidad tal como se ha interpretado tradicionalmente. Para ello explora la plurivocidad de los sentidos de `materia´ y `material artístico´, confrontando esta perspectiva con el estudio del agua como presencia material en el arte contemporáneo, de lo que se derivan una serie de problemáticas respecto a los conceptos de forma, información, y por extensión memoria de la obra de arte.

Paralelamente se dibujan las líneas metodológicas de la semántica material como alternativa de aproximación al sistema técnico-material de la obra de arte, entendiendo éste como una estructura sinérgica y compleja de relaciones simbólicas, tecnológicas e imaginativas. La metodología propuesta pretende incidir en la evolución del pensamiento técnico y tecnológico del siglo XX, estableciendo puntos de conexión entre el uso actual de los medios y materiales artísticos, y sus antecedentes. Partiendo de la transversalidad, esta investigación se propone en última instancia contribuir a la expansión de la tercera cultura visibilizando las relaciones dialógicas entre creación artística, ciencia, tecnología y estética. Su puesta en práctica toma como punto de partida el agua en todos sus estados y las operaciones técnico-conceptuales asociadas a este material concreto. Una selección constituida por 258 artistas o grupos de trabajo y más de quinientas obras han sido recogidas en torno a las tendencias accionales y conceptuales del agua en sus estados sólido, líquido y gaseoso.

En definitiva, arqueología y antropología del pensamiento tecnológico e imaginación material son los elementos epistemológicos clave utilizados para reflexionar acerca de las cuestiones que definen el encuentro en el siglo XX entre los medios artísticos llamados tradicionales y los new media −o en un plano más amplio entre el pensamiento determinista-mecanicista y el sistémico-cibernético−, vehiculizadas por la paradójica conectividad temporal que ofrece el agua.

[Catalogue blurb:] More-than-Human Sociology is a call for a bolder, more creative sociology. In the book, Olli Pyyhtinen argues that to make sociology responsive to life in the 21st century we need a new sociological imagination, one that addresses connectivity, understands the world in which we live as both a human and non-human world, and is sensitive to the multiple scales on which things exist. A fresh and innovative take on the promise of sociology, this book will appeal to scholars and students both within sociology and the social sciences more broadly.

La investigación en el campo de las técnicas y materiales en el arte contemporáneo requiere la aplicación de nuevas metodologías transdisciplinares que permitan obtener una perspectiva renovada sobre los contenidos que entraña la amplia experimentación artística desarrollada en esta dirección durante el siglo  XX. El cambio de paradigma de la física y el progreso tecnológico han dado lugar a un caudal de nuevas narrativas posibles en las que se ha visto alterado profundamente el sentido tradicional de nociones como las de
materia
o
memoria
en el arte. La presencia material del agua en el arte de la segunda mitad del siglo  XX como objeto de estudio, nos permite proponer una metodología que revisa dichos conceptos a través del análisis de los planos imaginativo y técnico-operativo, así como afrontar los problemas que plantea a nivel teórico una estética de lo fluido.

Referencia completa:
MOÑIVAS, Esther. “Narrativas fluidas. El agua como presencia material en las artes plásticas contemporáneas” en: Dept. Història de l'Art i CEHA-Comité Español de Historiadores del Arte (coords.). CEHA, XVII Congrés Nacional d´História de l´art. Art i Memóri. [Actas]. Granada: Editorial Atrio, 2012, pp. 249-263.

Domestic storage spaces are containers for the concealment of things whose value is inarticulable. Unlike the curation of collections, material accumulations grow of their own accord, accruing mass and animacy and inserting their affective hooks into the tissue of our sociality. Those who fail to contain accumulations are labelled hoarders.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the material nature of legacy technology makes its users passionately prefer it over its digital alternatives. Design/methodology/approachThis ethnographic study uses data from 26 in-depth interviews with vinyl collectors, augmented with longitudinal participant–observation of vinyl collecting and music store events. FindingsThe findings reveal how the physicality of vinyl facilitates the passionate relationships (with music, the vinyl as performative object and other people) that make vinyl so significant in vinyl users’ lives. Research limitations/implicationsAs this study examines a single research context (vinyl) from the perspective of participants from three developed, Anglophone nations, its key theoretical contributions should be examined in other technological contexts and other cultures. Practical implicationsThe findings imply that miniturisation and automation have lower limits for some products, material attributes shou...

Durante a história do pensamento geográfico, antagonismos mostraram-se poderosos o suficiente para estimular o surgimento de correntes do pensamento e métodos de análise geográfica bastante distintos: de um lado, a objetividade versus a subjetividade; de outro, a materialidade versus imaterialidade. Este artigo apresenta como estes antagonismos participam da análise geográfica, refletindo sobre as limitações de suas manifestações extremadas, como um caminho para o objetivo desta reflexão teórica: a sugestão de uma posição intermediária em meio a este imbróglio teórico, inspirados no pensamento de Augustin Berque acerca da mediação da materialidade e imaterialidade consagrada no neologismo geogramas. Como uma estratégia metodológica, o texto do artigo parte das grandes discussões que envolveram materialidades e imaterialidades no período da reação ao florescimento do neopositivismo da década de 1950. É abordado, também, as manifestações da objetividade e da subjetividade na pesquisa geográfica, que dão suporte para pensarmos na materialidade e imaterialidade dos elementos da paisagem e nos conceitos apropriados pela geografia. É utilizado como estratégia de reflexão a metáfora da paisagem como texto, que serviu como um instrumento de reflexão sobre os problemas advindos da utilização de formas extremadas de imaterialidade. Por fim, destaca os efeitos mais práticos do desacordo entre a materialidade e a imaterialidade, utilizando as categorias raça e cultura como instrumentos reflexivos.

Nutzungsbedingungen: Dieser Text wird unter dem &quot;PEER Licence Agreement zur Verfügung&quot; gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zum PEER-Projekt finden Sie hier: http://www.peerproject.eu Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses Dokuments. Dieses Dokument ist ausschließlich für den persönlichen, nicht-kommerziellen Gebrauch bestimmt. Auf sämtlichen Kopien dieses Dokuments müssen alle Urheberrechtshinweise und sonstigen Hinweise auf gesetzlichen Schutz beibehalten werden. Sie dürfen dieses Dokument nicht in irgendeiner Weise abändern, noch dürfen Sie dieses Dokument für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, aufführen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Mit der Verwendung dieses Dokuments erkennen Sie die Nutzungsbedingungen an. Terms of use: This document is made available under the &quot;PEER Licence Agreement &quot;. For more Information regarding the PEER-project see: http://w...

Resumen: El mundo de lo textil es parte integral de casi toda cultura humana y cumple en cada una de ellas distintas funciones sociales. En el ámbito de la épica griega la referencia a lo textil es constante. El poeta suele demorarse en las descripciones de vestuario o en las referencias a labores textiles que delata un conocimiento directo. En la Grecia antigua este mundo tiene una ligazón íntima con las mujeres porque constituye un trabajo casi exclusivamente femenino y porque, en tanto suplemento del cuerpo, ejerce un papel clave en la construcción de la propia identidad femenina. Los el-ementos textiles (como otros objetos del oîkos) sirven asimismo de medio de comunicación no verbal para las mujeres, lo que permite ampliar el escaso margen de acción y de expresión de unos personajes que, prescriptivamente, tienen una agencia limitada en la épica. Es nuestro objetivo en el presente artículo analizar los tejidos de Helena en el canto III y de Andrómaca en el XXII para establecer comparaciones y determinar similitudes y diferencias.

Le texte imprimé ne met jamais en suspens la matérialité de son support, c’est-à-dire qu’il ne permet jamais au lecteur de l’oublier. Le texte numérique, en revanche, dès qu’on le soustrait à ses dispositifs de lecture, met cette matérialité en suspens au point qu’on le qualifie souvent de « virtuel ». Les textes numériques possèdent pourtant une dimension matérielle qui entraîne des pratiques d’exploration inédites, qui ont un impact important sur nos habitudes culturelles et cognitives, car elles demandent un transfert de compétences de la culture des textes imprimés à la culture des textes numériques. En effet, alors que le concept de literacy identifie les compétences spécifiques demandées par le « savoir lire » et le « savoir écrire » ayant pour objet des textes manuscrits et/ou imprimés, le nouveau concept de digital literacy identifie les compétences spécifiques demandées par la culture des textes numériques. Et pour la plupart, ces compétences sont encore à explorer. Pour mener cette réflexion à son terme, il est donc indispensable de prendre en compte « la matérialité propre du numérique » (Doueihi, 2011) afin de comprendre son impact sur les nouvelles pratiques de production et d’interprétation des textes. Par exemple, la possibilité d’exploiter les textes à travers une analyse automatique des données dépend strictement de la nature particulière de la matière numérique : c’est ici que l’on peut constater l’impact que la matière peut avoir dans toute approche du texte. En outre, en considérant l’interaction entre la matière du support et les pratiques de l’exploitation, les textes numériques rendent visible l’ensemble des liens intra- et inter-textuels dont se compose un texte, c’est-à-dire leur propre textualité, ce qui permet de parler de textures numériques. Nos réflexions sur la matérialité des supports, ses transformations et ses enjeux lors du passage de la culture des textes imprimés à la culture des textes numériques, s’appuient sur l’article de Louis Hjelmslev intitulé La stratification du langage (1954). En proposant un modèle stratifié du texte issu de cette réflexion, et en l’appliquant à l’analyse des textes traditionnels et numériques, on pourra enfin replacer les pratiques dont les textes font l’objet et les matières dont ils sont constitués au sein même de l’objet textuel.

This study focuses on brand literacy in the emerging market of China. Results reveal Chinese consumer desire to express a deep resonance between Chinese values and aesthetics and a favored brand identity. Chinese brands such as Shanghai Tang and Shang Xia – developed in collaboration with leading European luxury brands – build upon Chinese culture, values, and aesthetics to create distinctive, culturally infused brand identities. At a basic level, culture, which includes aspects of particular histories of meaning, and moments of creative innovation, can be perceived as a resource upon which branding processes and practices can draw. Yet, brand culture refers not to a simple process of applying “culture” to a brand.
Under what conditions may we perceive the many ways in which branding – and brands themselves – go beyond cultural branding, and indeed, co-create culture in relation to consumer processes and practices? One way of thinking about how brands and culture interact draws upon the notion of brand literacy – how well consumers are able to “read,” understand, and engage brands and brand messages. We explore a growing brand literacy among Chinese consumers, and reveal how brand literacy is embedded in a cultural context and contributes to brand culture. This study highlights multidimensional aspects of brand literacy and represents an initial step toward a more developed framework in the context of brand culture.

It is perhaps regrettably so that one of the defining features of social work is its tendency to become embroiled in and mixed up with controversy. When social workers make the news, the news is usually bad. For publics outrage is often a dominant mode of engagement with social work. However, if controversy is prominent in perceptions of social work, it is nevertheless particular types of controversies. Cast in various guises as "crisis", "scandal", "moral panic", "failures" and "tragedy" social work is inevitably caught up in a complex set of inimical circumstances. It's a job that brings practitioners face-to-face with anger, abuse, cruelty and heartbreak. This  means social work is sometimes colloquially  referred to as "grunt work" or "dirty work" (Hughes, 1962; Flaherty, 2014).  In "A Profession Chasing its Own Tail-Again" (1990) Hartman warned that conflicts, controversy and rifts are a sad part of the professional history of social work. Alongside this emotive terms, phrases and concepts which invoke failure and controversy are often strategically deployed to manufacture doubt and suspicion about the credibility of social work as a profession. In the UK recently this has certainly been the case with the likes of parliamentarian Michael Gove and policy advisor Martin Narey casting doubt on the worthiness of social work education in preparing students for front-line practice.  Arguably, it only through a thorough investigation of controversy that we can come to understand what permits previously distant characters such as Grove and Narey access to the social work stage. For all the attention given to and preoccupation with these concerns there is no single analysis of the nature of controversy to be found in the social work literature.

Discipline, Desire, and Knowledge. The Colonial fight over Goavddis.
This article deals with goavddis (ceremonial Sami drums) as objects at the centre of colonial struggle between Swedish officials and the Sami in the decades around 1700. For the Sami, goavddis were a matter of cultural and religious identity, and of the relation between the profane and the sacred; they were aesthetic objects whose meaning and power was actualized in
ritual and musical performances. For the colonizers, the goavddis were caught up in ambivalent acts of discipline and desire. As instruments for heathen practice they were confiscated by Swedish officials and clergy in a
systematic, often brutal, effort to discipline the Sami population and conform it to the Orthodox Lutheran State church. At the very same time, however, they became desirable collectibles among the Swedish and European elites. The need to destroy and the desire to possess – so this article claims – were two sides of the same coin. It was about taking control of the goavddis, subordinating them to the gaze of the colonizer, and ranging them under a colonial system of knowledge.

This project aims to build a profile of Murdoch University's unique collection of science fiction fanzines. The project supports the notion that zines are defined not just by their content, but by their materiality and their networks – that is, their practices. Contemporary research on zines often look to publications from the 1990s to the present, and this project will highlight the importance of considering zines from the 1930s onwards, as represented in the Murdoch collections. The project will also map the correspondence networks of the Leigh Edmonds Fanzine Collection, recognising the importance of networks to how we understand and work with fanzines. The project will result in a number of publications on the collection and a seminar and online publication for Murdoch University. The project aims to showcase the collection and highlight its importance to scholars of Australian literature and cultural studies. 3. Project Description We can look to the literature of sub-or counter-cultures such as (fan)zines as primary texts and source material for new knowledges and teaching, but by their nature (fan)zines are difficult to define. This challenge opens up new ways of thinking about genres of literature as entities that can be identified through their practices. I propose to survey the material elements of Murdoch University's fanzine collections, and map a series of correspondence networks that reflect fanzine

"Earlier provisional title was "Archaeology, Tourism, Museum...."

"This chapter is divided into two distinct sections that are positioned in a point-counterpoint structure of dialogue. These two position statements invoke the etymological meanings of the word essay, to attempt, put to the test, trial, to act out, to explore, travel, and travail. The first is an historical analysis written in the third person by an anthropologist whose expertise includes the ethnography of archaeology and the anthropology of tourism. The second is a counterpoint commentary written in the first person by an anthropologist whose specializations include Pre-Columbian and historical archaeology. Both of us have significant research experience in same area of the Maya world in Yucatán, México. From these two differing vantage points, we chart our perspectives on the relationship between archaeology and tourism in terms of the problems of exploration, protection, and exploitation.
In the first section, Castañeda takes an historical approach to the emergence of archaeology in the institutional context of the modern museum. He essays an analytical and theoretical manifesto about the deep, intimate interconnections between tourism and archaeology as revealed through an understanding of the museum. In his historical analysis of the role of archaeological representation in the museum, he identifies the sociological creation of universal heritage. He theorizes a notion of the universal citizen-heir as the implied benefactor of this universal heritage. In the second section, Mathews elaborates a commentary on this historical analysis of archaeology, tourism, heritage and the museum. Specifically, she counter-argues and assesses Castañeda theoretical and analytical claims through the use of archaeology and tourism at sites that are not postcard worthy. Together these two “attempts” grapple with the historical and contemporary interconnections between archaeology and tourism. Together we put to the test our typical assumptions about the ethics of archaeologists, tourists, and tourism promoters in the contemporary contexts in which we are now beginning to ask how and why archaeology and tourism are interwoven phenomena in today’s world.""

The dance form contact improvisation (CI) emphasizes attention to sensation as a first step in sourcing physical movement. As a study of physics and materiality that is conducted expressly through the body as instrument and indicator, this proposition immediately alters a practitioner’s relationship with both his or her sensory system and the immediate environment, and demonstrates how touch, and sensation, might be seen as ‘a creative rather than purely functional interaction with one’s environment’ (Dey and Sarco-Thomas 2014).  Nita Little has discussed the ways in which the attentional practice of contact improvisation serves to challenge notions of identity and also illuminates emerging concepts in theoretical physics, noting how CI as touch-based movement training offers a means by which to bring ‘attention to attention’ (2014: 120), acknowledging intra-action (Barad 2012) in a way that challenges clear divisions between my body and yours when dancing.  Taking Little’s investigation further, CI practice that values ‘sensational facts’ (Paxton in Novack 1990: 82) can similarly be applied in observation practices that attend beyond other bodies to non-human forms. Drawing on Steve Paxton’s emphasis on momentum and gravity as common anchors for sensation in CI, this paper maps out some initial territory for using CI practice as a way of extending sensation through both attention and imagination to matter in many forms.  Drawing on additional examples from Body Weather practices of Min Tanaka, and the solo performance score of Twig Dances, this thesis also proposes ways in which CI’s work with sensation might be used to rethink human interactions with the nonhuman and so critique “the materializing effects of boundary making practices by which the ‘human’ and the ‘nonhuman’ are differentially constituted” (Barad 2012: 31-32). I propose that the imaginative and sensate nature of these performance practices and the affects they produce, offer new directions for how interdisciplinarity in performance might be theorized.

This article sheds new light on the material history of G. Chr. Lichtenberg’s proverbial wit and demonstrates how the note-taking technique that he called “sudeln” aided his inventiveness. The epistemic effect of the Sudelbücher, or waste-books, lies in the interaction between conflicting modes of knowledge production. While the waste-books stand in the tradition of reformed commonplace books—notebooks intended to be discovery devices that encouraged unlikely combinations of entries—they were at the same time modeled upon strictly codified early-modern methods of notation (e.g. “learned bookkeeping”). This tension increased the waste-books’ epistemological effectiveness, turning sudeln into an experimental procedure that reliably led to “sagacious combinations of thought” and thus the production of witty ideas. In this function, sudeln informed both Lichtenberg’s own research and his pedagogy as a physics instructor. The Sudelbücher should therefore be seen not as a collection of aphorisms, but as media with an epistemic impact and intellectual tools of writing.

Abstract (Deutsch)
Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet die Materialgeschichte von G. Chr. Lichtenbergs sprichwörtlichem Witz und zeigt, wie sudeln als Notationspraxis seinen Einfallsreichtum förderte. Die epistemische Wirkung der Sudelbücher basiert auf dem Zusammenspiel verschiedener Modi der Wissensproduktion. Während die Sudelbücher in der Tradition reformierter commonplace books stehen, d.h. Notizbücher, die durch überraschende Kombinationen von Einträgen als Findwerkzeuge dienten, folgen sie zugleich streng geregelten frühmodernen Notationsmodellen (wie z. B. „gelehrte Buchhalterey“). Genau diese Spannung ließ die Sudelbücher epistemologisch effektiv werden und machte aus sudeln ein experimentelles Verfahren, das zuverlässig in „scharfsinnigen Gedankenkombinationen“ und witzigen Einfällen resultierte. In dieser Funktion hatte sudeln sowohl für Lichtenbergs Forschung als auch seine Pädagogik als Physikprofessor große Relevanz. Die Sudelbücher sollten daher nicht als Aphorismensammlung aufgefasst werden, sondern als intellektuelle Schreibwerkzeuge und Medien mit epistemischer Durchschlagskraft.

Comment on Hodder, I. and Lucas, G. (2017) "The symmetries and asymmetries of human–thing relations. A dialogue"                                             

In this dialogue, Hodder and Lucas skilfully manoeuvre the winding trails of archaeological theory during the last decades and critically juxtapose the discussion of symmetry and asymmetry of relations between entities with that of entanglement. Their provocative dialogue compellingly leads to the conclusion that most entanglements are in fact asymmetrical. Whereas I mostly concur with the conclusions of the dialogue, addressing the authors’ closing statements I would like to highlight the need to equally (in some ways, symmetrically) consider disentanglement as the process opposite to entanglement, along with the consequences of such disentanglement. If we are to understand better the contexts and politics of entanglements – concerns that this dialogue brings to the fore – I furthermore suggest that we more closely scrutinize the density (quantity) and joining (quality) of entanglements, as well as pay closer attention to memory, emotion and affect in entanglements.

The immune system is built from our cells, organs, proteins and tissue, and it is the sum of the whole that defends the body against illness. In this paper, we introduce the immune system as a site to explore morethan-human design. Specifically, we address the effects of chronic stress on the immune system to explore a set of speculative wearable designs that combine the microbial basis of the human body with that of morethan-human. We reflect on the relationships within living materials and discuss symbiosis and mutualistic care when designing alternative wearable artifacts and trackers. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Interaction design.

Secular containers – caskets, boxes, etc. – dated to the late 12th to the mid-14 th century and of a northern alpine provenience, whose visual appearance is accentuated by carving techniques and workmanship, are constitutive for this projects' inquiries. Regarding most of these precious and/or skilfully worked objects, we still lack desirable parameters concerning place and time of origin, possible customers and donators, usage and function or their alterations over time, as well as essential information on the material composition and construction itself. The goal of my research is to (re-) introduce different groups of scarcely discussed containers and to furthermore conclude, from my analysis of these objects, conditions of production and material preferences or valuations in the middle ages.

The early ethnological works of Alfred Métraux are analysed bearing in mind his first fieldwork trip to the Chiriguano, in 1929. The paper discusses personal, academic and professional features of Métraux’s ethnological experience, the nature of the 1929 trip and his concrete relationships with the Chiriguano groups and individuals. Next, we analyse his ideas on material culture as a privileged means of understanding the synthesis of Andean, Chaco and Amazonian cultural influences. Finally, the dilemmas and limitations of his analytical approach regarding Créole cultural influence and social and cultural change are discussed. [Key words: Alfred Métraux, Chané, Chiriguano, material culture, change.]
Se analiza la etnología temprana de Alfred Métraux a la luz de su primer viaje de campo a los chiriguanos, en 1929. Se discute el perfil personal, académico y profesional de Métraux, las peculiaridades de su trabajo de campo en 1929 y sus relaciones concretas con los indígenas chiriguanos en el terreno. Se examinan luego sus ideas sobre la cultura material como campo experimental privilegiado para rastrear procesos de síntesis de influencias culturales andinas, chaqueñas y amazónicas, así también sus dilemas y límites a la hora de interpretar el factor de la influencia criolla y el proceso de cambio social y cultural en un sentido amplio. [Palabras clave: Alfred Métraux, Chané, Chiriguano, cultura material, cambio.]

This article explores how notions of loss and absence are constituted through Indonesian
eksil (exile) life narratives including their development of private collections of leftist literature,
personal diaries, obituaries and personal documents, in order to explore the interrelational
aspects of materiality, acts of mourning and their place in the memorialisation of
the left in diaspora. I suggest that both the acts of collecting and the individual narratives of
failure, loss and absence have unifying effects and act as different agentic modalities that
work towards redemptive hope for the future.

Following the thread of the Feminist New Materialists, in “I Live in this Dress” the author, a visual art performer, examines the workings of materiality and identity within her own practice. The process of three recent works, Point Out, Touch On and Red We (all 2017) includes the design and construction of a sculptural wearable and techniques of traditional garment making—fabric draping, sewing and embroidery—to reveal a co-embodiment and shared authorship between artist and garment, woman and dress. This deep commitment to the material underpins a shift in selfness toward a collective identity, or alterself. Insomuch as the making makes the performance, the author suggests, the making makes the performer.

In an era when many businesses have come under scrutiny for their environmental impact, the film industry has for the most part escaped criticism and regulation. Its practices are more diffuse; its final product, less tangible; and Hollywood has adopted public-relations strategies that portray it as environmentally conscious. In Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret, Hunter Vaughan offers a new history of the movies from an environmental perspective, arguing that how we make and consume films has serious ecological consequences.

Bringing together environmental humanities, science communication, and social ethics, Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret is a pathbreaking consideration of the film industry’s environmental impact that examines how our cultural prioritization of spectacle has distracted us from its material consequences and natural-resource use. Vaughan examines the environmental effects of filmmaking from Hollywood classics to the digital era, considering how popular screen media shapes and reflects our understanding of the natural world. He recounts the production histories of major blockbusters—Gone with the Wind, Singin’ in the Rain, Twister, and Avatar—situating them in the contexts of the development of the film industry, popular environmentalism, and the proliferation of digital technologies. Emphasizing the materiality of media, Vaughan interweaves details of the hidden environmental consequences of specific filmmaking practices, from water use to server farms, within a larger critical portrait of social perceptions and valuations of the natural world.

The Introduction to this book is available here: https://www.academia.edu/34095644/Introduction_to_Materiality_and_the_Study_of_Religion_The_Body_of_St_Cuthbert.pdf

Material culture has emerged in recent decades as a significant theoretical concern for the study of religion. This book contributes to and evaluates this material turn, presenting thirteen chapters of new empirical research and theoretical reflection from some of the leading international scholars of material religion. Following a model for material analysis proposed in the first chapter by David Morgan, the contributors trace the life cycle of religious materiality through three phases: the production of religious objects, their classification as religious (or non-religious), and their circulation and use in material culture.

The chapters in this volume consider how objects become and cease to be sacred, how materiality can be used to contest access to public space and resources, and how religion is embodied and performed by individuals in their everyday lives. Contributors discuss the significance of the materiality of religion across different religious traditions and diverse geographical regions, paying close attention to gender, age, ethnicity, memory and politics. The volume closes with an afterword by Manuel Vásquez.

The digitalisation of photography has often been interpreted as a process of dematerialization. However, empirical studies show that the material dimension is still fundamental to digital photographic practices. By accepting the argument that digitalisation prompted a reconfiguration of photography's materiality, rather than its disappearance, this article examines a phenomenon that has developed on the periphery of, but relating to, digital photography: the reappropriation of analogue technology in the context of " serious " amateurism. By using data collected during a study on the reappropriation of Polaroid technology, this contribution traces some patterns in the reintegration of materiality within amateur practice, showing how photographers have redefined the role of objects as a reaction to the spread of digital photography.

This is an introductory course centred around the concept of practice. It aims to offer a general overview of the so-called practice turn in the social sciences, compare and contrast the most important theories of practice in sociology, and examine a series of case studies in practice research informed by recent developments in cultural anthropology, ethnomethodology, discourse analysis, and science and technology studies.

The histories of technology and culture are filled with innovations that emerged and took root by being shared widely, only to be succeeded by eras of growth framed by intellectual property. The Internet is a modern example. The football, also known as the pelota, ballon, bola, balón, and soccer ball, is another, older, and broader one. The football lies at the core of football. Intersections between the football and intellectual property law are relatively few in number, but the football supplies a focal object through which the great themes of intellectual property have shaped the game: origins; innovation and standardization; and relationships among law and rules, on the one hand, and the organization of society, culture, and the economy, on the other.

The following article discusses the relationship between materiality and sociality, and more precisely that of an item of clothing–the hoop skirt–and a polite gesture–holding doors for others–applying a historical procedural perspective. After some introductory remarks on holding doors for others as a polite behavior, the history of the hoop skirt is reconstructed as a sequence on the basis of a methodology of processual explanation and is described as a process using Georg Simmel’s fashion theory. Subsequently, a history of politeness is reconstructed as a sequence and explained as a process using Norbert Elias’s theory of civilization. The hypothesis that the gesture emerged due to the exorbitant size of the hoop skirt, which made it necessary to hold doors for women wearing them, will then be plausibilized by a complex reconstruction that parallelizes both sequences in a temporal and social dimension. In addition to the temporal presumption that the gesture appeared in conduct books after the emergence of the hoop skirt, both fashion and politeness present similar reference problems in terms of differentiation in society, inclusion and authenticity. Furthermore, this argument serves as a possible example of a symmetry between materiality and sociality.

Following Emily Keightley and Anna Reading in their conceptualization of ‘mediated mobilities’, I illuminate useful connections between media ecology and mobilities research and make the case for a combined modal medium theory. Both fields align clearly in their interest in technology and technique, media and modes, and messages and moods. A fruitful starting point in the suggested transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework is the exploration of the specific medium along with its materialities. In the second step, different kinds of environments and possible choreographies the medium affords ask to be considered. In a broader conceptualization, the term ‘medium’ refers not only to technological entities but also to subjects (tourists), practices (dancing), and places (cities), which likewise prompt different messages and moods. Ideally, research occurs on a synchronous level by following the routes of media and modes across space, and on a diachronous level by exploring the roots of media and modes across time. The objective is to promote a material medium literacy that questions capacities and agencies of forms and materials in their respective contexts.