While the so-called material turn in the humanities and the social sciences has inspired a vibrant discourse on objects, things, and the concept of materiality in general, less attention has been paid to materials, particularly in cultural studies scholarship. With each of its chapters taking a particular material as its point of departure, this volume offers a palette of fresh approaches to materials within the realm of cultural studies. The contributors call for a materials-based perspective on culture, which has become all the more pertinent in times of climate change, energy crisis, conflict, migration, and the lingering coronavirus pandemic.
Author(s): Liedeke Plate, László. Munteán, Airin Farahmand
Series: Culture & Theory | 285
Edition: 1
Publisher: Transcript Verlag
Year: 2023
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 271
Tags: Materials, Cultural Studies, Material Culture, Media, Art, Culture, Society, Cultural Theory, Cultural History
Cover
Half title
Authors
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Materials Matter
Toward a Materials‐Based Perspective
Materials of Culture
Materials in Cultural Studies
Material Vocabularies and Methodologies
The Content of This Book
Works Cited
Part I: Materials of Art
1. Stitched into Material: On the Makeability of Shells
Works Cited
2. Celluloid
Works Cited
Part II: Materials of Empire
3. Roman Concrete
Works Cited
4. Postclassical Marble: Reclaiming Flux in the Reception of Marble in Contemporary Art
Classicizing Marble
Revisioning Marble
Marble’s Luminosity
Marble’s Luxury
Postclassical Marble
Works Cited
Part III: Extractivism and Toxic Colonialism
5. Asbestos: The Fallout of Shipbreaking in the Global South
Ships That Matter
The Slow Violence of Toxic Colonialism
Toward an Ethics of Intra‐Action
Acknowledgment
Works Cited
6. Copper’s Suppressed History Unearthed in Otobong Nkanga’s Sensual and Embodied Art Practice
Works Cited
7. The Coloniality of Materiality: Brazilwood, or Unlearning, with Anton de Kom in the Mauritshuis
Delinking from the Coloniality of Materiality
A European Story of Brazilwood
The Colonial Difference
Works Cited
Part IV: Energyscapes of the Future
8. Lithium for the Metaverse: Myths of Nuclear and Digital Fusion
Batteries
Lithium‑6
Magic
Resistance
Nirvana, or the Metaverse as Lithium
Works Cited
9. Harnessing the Sun in Tech‐on‐Climate Discourse
The Materiality of the Sun
Digital Culture and the Climate Crisis
The Energy Imaginary as Naive Fantasy
Beyond the Myth of Energy without Mediation
Works Cited
Part V: Materials of the Nation
10. Dutch Peat
“Unland”
Choreographing Peat
Art‐in‐Nature
Peat Art
The Liveness of Peat
Acknowledgment
Works Cited
11. Milk: Material Entwinements and the Making and Unmaking of Healthy Bodies
Cultivating the National Body with Milk
Making the Milkable Body
Conclusion
Works Cited
12. Wool
Understanding the Material Characteristics of Wool
Understanding Materials to Understand Culture
Works Cited
Part VI: Affordances of Edible Matter
13. Yes, There Are No Bananas
Works Cited
14. Coca(ine)
Acknowledgment
Works Cited
Part VII: Material Practices in Digital Culture
15. The Ephemeral Materiality of Sound
Works Cited
16. Tracing the Voice’s Digital Materiality
DVAs and the Voice as a Material Affordance
Input: From Recording to Speech Processing
Output: From Ventriloquism to Voice Synthetization
Dehumanizing the Voice
Works Cited
17. Interface
Works Cited
Part VIII: Enfolding the Body
18. Becoming‐with: On Textile Companions and Fungi Friends
Introduction
Wearable Companions and the Caress of a Jacket
Growing‐with Fungi Friends
A Matter of Care
Works Cited
19. Clothing For/Against Walking
Experiments and Stories
What Matter Reveals
Works Cited
20. Mylar Foil: Blankets of Silver and Gold
Works Cited
Part IX: Touching Texts
21. An Archive of the Future: Wood in Thomas Pitfield’s The Poetry of Trees
Acknowledgments
Works Cited
22. Soft Leather, Wounded Buttons, and a Silk Ribbon: Clothing a Birgittine Rule Manuscript
The Manuscript and Its Contents
Binding and Embellishment
A Broader Context
Acknowledgments
Works Cited
Part X: Materials of Scholarly Performance
23. The Arts Classroom
Introduction
Post‐Qualitative Inquiry
The Arts Classroom
Coda
Works Cited
24. Ink on Paper
Introduction
Material Properties of Ink
Thinking From the Materials
Tangibilia
Final Thoughts
Acknowledgments
Works Cited
25. The Scholar’s Coffee
The Scholar as Thing
The Scholar’s Coffee Break
Telling the Materials’ Histories
Works Cited
List of Contributors
