Introductory description

Materials are foundational to our very existence, in how we exist, perceive ourselves and others, our environments, our histories and our futures. This module explores approaches to materials through a transdisciplinary lens and an international perspective. It combines theoretical and practical approaches that call on both the sciences and the humanities to consider and interact with materials. Students will be able to pursue a diverse series of routes assessing the lives of materials through their qualities and transformations, and will learn from a range of people who work professionally with materials in their academic and professional careers.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

This 15 CATS module will take place during the third term to allow for a more flexible timetable. The curriculum will cover: revisiting resources, theories of making, alchemical practices, transformations, new materials, old materials, future materials, rethinking subject and object, and a materials festival.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Recognise, identify and record the scope and complexity of material worlds.
• Describe and critically assess the interplay of materials with ourselves, our physical, social and psychological worlds.
• Critically analyse and interrogate the complexity of material worlds through multidisciplinary methods.
• Demonstrate awareness of the ethical consideration of materials.
• Develop methods of textual, visual, material and verbal communication about materials.
• Develop effective and diverse research methods appropriate to both the theoretical and practical investigation of materials.

Indicative reading list

Anusas, Mike, and Tim Ingold. “Designing Environmental Relations: From Opacity to Textility.” Design Issues, vol. 29, no. 4, 2013, pp. 58–69., https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00230. Accessed 5 Jan. 2023.
Anusas, Mike, and Tim Ingold. “The Charge against Electricity.” Cultural Anthropology, vol. 30, no. 4, 2015, pp. 540–554., https://doi.org/10.14506/ca30.4.03. Accessed 5 Jan. 2023.
Banham, Reyner, et al. Wood. Rethinking Material. Vol. 17, JOVIS Verlag GmbH, 2021.
Bergson, Henri, and Arthur Mitchell. Creative Evolution. Digireads.com Publishing, 2011.
Bonsiepe, Gui, et al. Flow of Forms / Forms of Flow: Design Histories between Africa and Europe. Vol. 37, Transcript Verlag, 2018, https://go.exlibris.link/sRrM7TXD, Accessed 4 Jan. 2023.
Canales, Jimena. The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Candlin, Fiona, and Raiford Guins. The Object Reader. Routledge, 2009.
Davis, Heather. Plastic Matter. Duke University Press, 2022.
Ghosh, Ranjan. The Plastic Turn. Cornell University Press, 2022.
Gibson, James J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Routledge, 2015.
Hallam, Elizabeth, and Tim Ingold. Making and Growing: Anthropological Studies of Organisms and Artefacts. Ashgate, 2014.
Ingold, Tim. Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.
Ingold, Tim. IMAGINING FOR REAL: Essays on Creation, Attention and Correspondence. Routledge, 2021.
Ingold, Tim. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. Routledge, 2013.
Ingold, Tim. The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. Routledge, 2021.
Ingold, Tim. “The Textility of Making.” Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 34, no. 1, 2009, pp. 91–102.
Ingold, Tim. “Toward an Ecology of Materials.” Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 41, no. 1, 2012, pp. 427–442.
Jaeger, C. Stephen. Enchantment: On Charisma and the Sublime in the Arts of the West. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
Janacek, Bruce. Alchemical Belief: Occultism in the Religious Culture of Early Modern England. Penn State University Press, 2021.
Karana, Elvin, et al. Materials Experience 2: Expanding Territories of Materials and Design. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2021.
Karana, Elvin, et al. Materials Experience: Fundamentals of Materials and Design. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2014.
Smith, Kurt. Matter Matters: Metaphysics and Methodology in the Early Modern Period. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Solanki, Seetal. Why Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World. Prestel, 2018.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Students will be considering diverse material qualities, relationships and transformations through a range of theoretical and practice research methods. Much of the practice will be experimental and investigative.

Interdisciplinary

Exploring materials comes from such diverse disciplinary positions as literary studies and chemistry. We will be using multidisciplinary tools, texts and methods to investigate materials.

International

We will be engaging with international contexts and materials and hope to work with people who are engaged with material development across the world.

Subject specific skills

Material manipulation skills.
Process mapping skills and vocabulary.
Material based vocabulary.

Transferable skills

The acquisition and assessment of diverse research methods.
Communication using textual, verbal, visual and material methods.
Group working skills.
Collaborative skills.
Curatorial skills.