Materiathek - Dialogues

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Collection of raw thoughts formerly: pad-notes materiathek_startsequenz

16.12.2019 - Pad conference with karin, johannes, lilian

welcome to our workshop about (L) Materials as processes, material processes, materials in process within artistic practices (K) meshworks and its intrications (L)

• MESHWORK

are we speaking about materials in and as a meshwork, or us in a meshwork? (K) I think we are speaking about materials, things, elements in and as a meshwork (L)

and about the meshwork as a principle, how to look at things, materials, elements (K)

what are the properties of the meshwork? (the elements it is consisting of) strain, tissue, strands? (J)
how do the loose ends of the meshwork connect/disconnect (J)

• TRANSLATION

can the meshwork be translated - to eg. (moving) image? (J)
Hm, interesting question. Is the meshwork transferable to virtual procedures? (L)

are we not in a constant "moment" of translating: we use different languages to describe something and to transfer it to another understanding. and is the meshwork itself not our translation point, also as "transfer" (K)

to understand and to make things graspable translation is necessary, but I am not sure if within the meshwork translation processes are happening, more direct interactions and wirkmächtigkeit between these different knots (L)

a flow? (J) yes (L)

but what you asked is if the meshwork procedure can be applied or transfered (as a model) to (analogue or digital images, what effect would the meshwork idea have there? (L)

if I think about virtual images or better digital images: is it about the confluences of images, the different layers/ superpositions of layers (L) a little bit like this? https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/4D#/media/Datei:8-cell-simple.gif - maybe a bit cheesy... (J)

yes, it is something like this, also as a movement only possible in the digital. (K)
finde ich auch, allerdings ist es hier ein bild , not a structure, as it is in the concept (L)

Ah, I understand what you mean. The meshwork as an image for this 4D simulation. (L)
I was thinking about the problem/chance of reducing a complex situation to a less dimensional representation (J)

what we have here is also the abstraction of a term and its visual representation, no? isn't this the whole idea behind choosing meshwork as a title for our workshop? and also the difficulty? (K)

for me it is hard to grasp the dimension(spatial) of the meshwork, as tim ingold describes the connections between things having a materiality (J)

that is what you wrote before: about the elements of the meshwork itself. the materiality of the inbetween is what makes it actually interesting as a point for our discussion: what are we looking at? what properties do we speak about? (K)

are we too abstract? (K)

For me it is more the problem or question or vagueness coming from the overlapping of practical and theoretical approaches. (K)
yes, maybe the question is about that. i meant the property in two different ways: one would be the practical: the size, (J)
the materiality, (K)
the connection (J)

and the other one i meant it like: "Eigenschaften" or elements, (J)
features (K)
? yes - if the smallest element is the strand, many strands form a tissue, may tissue form ... ? or is this too easy? (J) hm. (K) I try to formulate it in other words to see where it leads us:

   Properties of a meshwork could be the inner workings as in: the connections, the size, the parameters of the whole construct, the nodes as singular elements of confluence and meeting. (K)

   the second aspect would be: the characteristica, by which these connections and single elements are defined and are defining the meshwork (K)

   ??

analogy? gedankenexperiment: if the meshwork was a brain, would we rather be biologists or psychologists? or neuroscientists (J)

perhaps neuroscientists: working with the material to understand the system, in connection with its processes influencing the shape and the dependencies inside the mesh. ....my definition.... ;) (K)

it is also about the single element as a substitute for the whole, as a principle of the smallest element as emblematic for the whole system. (K)

• ARCHIVE

will there be a focus on archiving materials and their properties? (J)
this would be important it is also a question of how to differentiate between material as material and their properties(??) if we look at "material" as a meshwork (?) the material is not fixed within the meshwork but in constant flux and becoming, so we look only at a state. yes:

   how to find the correlations between material, materiality and its constant being in process
   

what happens to material when it is is the state of being archived? it depends if it remains in the state in which it was archived or if it is still changing... the question of time and decay becomes another aspect. although it is in a state of preservation, a fixated moment, it is still subject to change.

• POINTS OF CONTACT / NODES

what are our points of contact (anknüpfungspunkte/connecting factors) inside the meshwork of artistic practices and material processes? Do artistic practices create their own meshwork or are junctions within it?

what are our own personal starting points? - thinking and working with the term meshwork could also mean thinking and acting with the various levels of engagement with material, in a concrete / practical manner, in an abstract way or/and with a technological approach what are our examples? in my case/starting point: the work inside an institution on one hand, with other people, different technologies and thinking structures, with certain constraints and situations, on the other hand an artistic and also research-oriented approach as an artist