To be honest, I don't fully understand what new materialism is. I only got to know this at the beginning of my study in UoE, during the introduction and the first lecture of the course NEW MATERIALISM. In my own point of view, NEW MATERIALISM tells us to understand the world from the perspective of objects instead of human. We used to take time to understand each other, now we also need to understand objects seriously. We make things, we change things, meanwhile, things make us, things change us. It is a mutual relationship.
The projects in the picture above are all from GEOFFREY MANN Studio. The main idea, in brief, is that how human factors affect the objects. In reality we can't really see this, but when the object change their shape and visualize a simple breathe or a big quarrel, it makes me start to realize the agency of objects.
However, sometimes this may sounds ridiculous because we all know they have no life, not like an animal, let alone human. But it is the empathy that matters more. It does't mean that they don't exist because we can't see them, only with empathy can we understand more about other people, and things.
This kind of work are quite different from traditional craft artifacts because the story behind is more important than the object. Most of the project will be finished on the computer.
Do we call this craft anymore? I'm not sure. I am still trying hard to understand craft. But I think there must be a border of crafts, which is set up by old craftsman and experience. Crafts take years of time to be learnt, take boring and exhausting work, and that is why we call it craft. The introduction of new technologies may change the whole process but still have the same outcome. We can give it a new name like "Future Tech" or something, but crafts will still be crafts.
I don't know if it is an appropriate example. Pianist learn to play piano from key to key and after years they become masters. Even if now we have APPs like Garage Band, which has simplified so many instrument settings. It really get more people involved, but it still cannot replace the piano, that's what couldn't be changed, the "craft". In the movie THE LEGEND OF 1900, 1900 said: "Take a piano, hmm? The keys begin, the keys end. You know there are 88 of them. Nobody can tell you different. They are not infinite. You are infinite. And on those keys, the music that you can make is infinite."
I appreciate that very much.
