Abstract
Historically, the notion of materiality has been used to represent the connection between our bodies and the physical world. However, in the recent years, with the emergence of the digital realm, the mere physicality of our connections ceases to capture the multifaceted reality in which we exist, thus acknowledging actual materiality to be ever more volatile and immaterial. In the space where the physical and the digital bleed into each other and in the time when the simulated image overlaps reality, materiality is, therefore, re-conceptualised; rather than being bound to the physical or the digital, materiality is construed to be extended towards a virtual co-existence between subjects, objects and environments that occupy both -and at once- the physical and the digital domain. This paper investigates the dynamics of materiality's emergence in the hybrid space between actuality and virtuality and it, further, envisions contact zones between the tangible and intangible forces that act upon space. The paper adapts an energetic approach towards materiality. Through three speculative scenarios,it advocates for a transformative materiality which embodies unexpected intimacies and is able to fabricate new material narratives. By focusing on the concepts of affect, resistance and effect, the paper will demonstrate that, in the space of hybrid interaction, matter is not only active but also alive and adaptive. Through the assembling and disassembling of matter, we will follow the movement from virtuality towards actuality -and vice versa- and we will explore the space of possibilities that this passage opens up. In this process, we aim to challenge our understanding of the “other” and question our relation to reality.
Keywords
Materiality; actual; virtual; affect; resistance; effect
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2017.121
Citation
Koutla, V.(2017) Synthetic. Reflective. Mnemonic speculations on the materiality of the hybrid real, in Elvin Karana, Elisa Giaccardi, Nithikul Nimkulrat, Kristina Niedderer, Serena Camere (eds.), Alive. Active. Adaptive. International Conference on Experiential Knowledge and Emerging Materials, 19-20 June 2017, Delft and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2017.121
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Synthetic. Reflective. Mnemonic speculations on the materiality of the hybrid real
Historically, the notion of materiality has been used to represent the connection between our bodies and the physical world. However, in the recent years, with the emergence of the digital realm, the mere physicality of our connections ceases to capture the multifaceted reality in which we exist, thus acknowledging actual materiality to be ever more volatile and immaterial. In the space where the physical and the digital bleed into each other and in the time when the simulated image overlaps reality, materiality is, therefore, re-conceptualised; rather than being bound to the physical or the digital, materiality is construed to be extended towards a virtual co-existence between subjects, objects and environments that occupy both -and at once- the physical and the digital domain. This paper investigates the dynamics of materiality's emergence in the hybrid space between actuality and virtuality and it, further, envisions contact zones between the tangible and intangible forces that act upon space. The paper adapts an energetic approach towards materiality. Through three speculative scenarios,it advocates for a transformative materiality which embodies unexpected intimacies and is able to fabricate new material narratives. By focusing on the concepts of affect, resistance and effect, the paper will demonstrate that, in the space of hybrid interaction, matter is not only active but also alive and adaptive. Through the assembling and disassembling of matter, we will follow the movement from virtuality towards actuality -and vice versa- and we will explore the space of possibilities that this passage opens up. In this process, we aim to challenge our understanding of the “other” and question our relation to reality.