Conversing with Matter

With its acknowledgement of agential matter, neo-materialism questions the anthropocentric narrative that has underpinned our view of humans-­in-the-world since the Enlightenment, a view that posits humans as makers of the world and the world as a resource for human endeavors. The new materialist discourse derives its urgency from the ethical, ecological and political imperatives that loom as a consequence of this view of the world.
— Barbara Bolt, Carnal Knowledge: Towards a ‘New Materialism’ through the Arts

Ethics is not simply about responsible actions in relation to human experiences of the world ; rather, it is a question of material entanglements and how each intra-action matters in the reconfiguring of these entanglements, that is, it is a matter of the ethical call that is embodied in the very worlding of the world.
— Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning

The importance of representation that has long charac- terized a work of art has made us give form and meaning to matter, sometimes to the detriment of its intrinsic materiality. Yet if we allow matter to assert itself over and above the metaphors that we impose on it, we realize that it has a life beyond our gaze and interpretation and even a capacity to act autonomously. The gradual oxidation of bronze statues tells us in another way about the alloys concealed in historical figures. Gold work expresses itself as much through the socially-constructed meaning of gold (wealth, power, prestige) and its material qualities (shine, hardness, thermal conductivity) as through the historical, environmental, and colonialist weight of mining processes. What do cobalt, lithium, indium, and other rare metals tell us if we follow their journeys from subterranean China to our smart devices and their accumulation in landfills? Simultaneously hidden by layers of soil and sustainable development strategies, how do biogas and leachate express themselves?