Abstract
Each material production entails an ecosystem of interrelations linking geopolitical, economic, technological, cultural, social and sanitary dimensions, sometimes on a global scale. As designers, we are rarely conscious of these realities, and limit our actions to material selection at the scale of the artefact in constrained industrial and cultural settings. However, at a time of ecological crisis, tracking, revealing and understanding these complex systems is becoming an imperative if we are to transition towards resilient futures rooted in socio-economic realities. This article will present a pedagogical approach developed with Design Research MA students, where investigation and speculation stem from a given material. The authors discuss the types of issues encountered, such as the study of "proprietary materials", "promising materials" and "information materials", as well as ways to extend and deploy this approach in other educational or research contexts.
Keywords
material research, complex ecosystems, transitions, resilient futures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2020
Citation
De Visscher, E., and Auger, J. (2026) Deep Materialities - investigating the complex socio-technical entanglements of materials towards the designing of resilient futures, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2020
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Deep Materialities - investigating the complex socio-technical entanglements of materials towards the designing of resilient futures
Each material production entails an ecosystem of interrelations linking geopolitical, economic, technological, cultural, social and sanitary dimensions, sometimes on a global scale. As designers, we are rarely conscious of these realities, and limit our actions to material selection at the scale of the artefact in constrained industrial and cultural settings. However, at a time of ecological crisis, tracking, revealing and understanding these complex systems is becoming an imperative if we are to transition towards resilient futures rooted in socio-economic realities. This article will present a pedagogical approach developed with Design Research MA students, where investigation and speculation stem from a given material. The authors discuss the types of issues encountered, such as the study of "proprietary materials", "promising materials" and "information materials", as well as ways to extend and deploy this approach in other educational or research contexts.