M&M summer2020

Material & Materiality, summer semester 2020

Based on the concepts (facts, fictions, definitions...) of material, this summer is a continuation of collecting and discussing information and reflections on the topic material & materiality in artistic practices and processes. And an invitation to all those interested to participate with their research and experiences, be it in artistic, theoretical or technical approaches.

The scope includes the documentation and collection of concepts such as discourses, as well as the intellectual and practical experimentation with materials of physical and digital nature, in material and immaterial composition, as algorithms or material agents.

As a primary tool the cloud will be used to collect images and data, interlinked with the exMediaWiki.

Other possibilities of media and tools for the presentation or distribution of information can and should be used and are part of developing specific forms of research, in exchange with others.

In the course of researching the topic in its diversity and its differenciation, the idea is to develop a sort of topology and cartography.

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the following page is presented as an open-ended process, with ongoing dialogues/discussions/examples, and is under construction

Starting the summer semester with a group (Myrto, Hye, Josh, Maja, Karin) to discuss our current projects and topics, relating them to the topic of material & materiality. Trying to find out how to work with the restrictions and different formats of communication due to corona-circumstances. Questioning how to work on topics in general, how to research and how to find the appropriate tools to do this.

April 2020
First questions, for the group, for each one of us.

What are our starting points and point of interests?

How do we approach material and materiality in our topics?

How could we categorize, structurize, construct and deconstruct these? What kind of materiality do we speak of and what kind of materials are represented?

Are methods like preparing lists of categories and establish a sort of taxonomy applicable and useful? What kind of methods could be manageable and reasonable for my working process?

How could we find out overlappings and contradictions in our different topics? Would it be possible to create a sort of cartography in the next weeks?

Starting from a point of reference of materiality inbetween and beyond the digital and the physical. Trying to find out where our respective issues are situated and where they could be discussed properly. Looking at texts and examples of artists over the course of the semester, from which angles materiality (of a material or thinking about material) is approached and treated.

May 2020
"the language trap"
"prioritisation of material experience over language"
"sound material: constituted by immaterial process"

"creating blobs: abject material?"

"examining the void in the package. what kind of materials are created just for filling this void?"

June 2020
"the other, non-human cameras"

"light as a defining force"

"leakages of things, feminist thinking"
"how is text perceived, presented, transferred"

July 2020
"sound of hostile architectures"

"who does public space belong to?"

criteria for choosing examples of artistic positions in respect to material & materiality

what is the artists' perspective on material and materiality?

what is the stance of used/approached/tangled (...) material? is there a sense for the materiality of something and what does it refer to?

how is the perspective transported to the artist him/herself, an audience, recipients in general? also in terms of language, reflection level and abstraction of a project or abstraction of the term materiality.

what kind of aspects become apparent by describing the appointed material?

the following is soon to be linked, commented, referenced

examples

1. dan graham, foam / comment
2. heinz mack, sahara project / aluminum
3. elizabeth price, boulder / tape
4. maryanne amacher, bsp. sound structures/adjacencies
   

text, quotes

1. Tim Ingold, concerning the medium, the surface, the substance
   
2. Les Immatériaux, Jean-François Lyotard/Thierry Chaput, Centre Pompidou/Paris, 1985

other references

Basic seminar, summer term Material und Prozess
Research group Material & Materiality, summer 2020

Research project: Materiathek – Material archive. Material perception in artistic processes