Organised by Laura White
Wednesday 6 December, 2017 @ 14.00-17.00.
Prep sessions on:
Tuesday, 14 November @ 15.00-17.00
Tuesday, 21 November @ 15.00-17.00
Tuesday, 28 November @ 15.00-17.00
MARs Materiality is a project organized by Laura White, with prep sessions lead by PhD students Rowena Harris, Kate Pickering and Laura Burns, and guests Juliette Kristensen and Florian Roithmayr.
The aim of MARs Materiality is to open up new ways of thinking and talking about materiality – materiality as the subject rather than a vehicle for the non-material and theoretical.
Is it possible to talk about materiality in and of itself, without reference to other subject areas? How can we talk about materiality insightfully and intelligently without falling into a dated language of formalism? How does the digital environment affect/influence our material environment, and can we separate the physical from the virtual anymore?
Each session will begin with an observation of, and interaction with, things/objects/matter. Giving time and space to this specific material engagement and to the conversations and responses (linguistic, sonic, gestural) arising from it, we will work to become responsive to the things/stuff/objects/bodies in front of us. In doing so, we will reverse a more familiar use of materials/processes to describe an idea/concept, instead starting with materiality, its unique qualities and processes, to generate language and ideas.
Throughout the sessions we will also draw from a broad conversation involving material culture, design, anthropology, material science and physics in order to extend the language of materiality within art practice. In this way, MARs Materiality begins with a specific material engagement, whether physical or digital, and ends with a journey all its own!