Academic Research

Materiality in the Digital Age

Disclaimer: I thought this was a scholastic article, but eventually realized that this was actually a book, but because of its relevance I decided to continue with it.

As one of the aspects from which I am approaching my thesis project involves materiality, Christine Browaeys’s introduction to “Materiality in the Digital Age” immediately caught my attention with her claims to offer a new way to approach the subject. Throughout the text, she goes on to explain the lineage of matter and materiality from originally being about the composition of things or objects to its modern existence within the digital world. There were three statements she made that I absolutely agreed with, being the following:

  1. “Action (energeia) is the operation by means of which raw matter takes on the state of entelechy (entelekeia), or stuff becomes real being, in other words.” (p. 4)
    • This sentiment of “stuff becoming a real thing” or taking on entelechy, which means “the soul” is a general belief that I have about cultural artifacts. There are souls or energy of our ancestors in the past that exist within physical matter. Now granted, I do also believe that this energy that exists within the things is largely subjective and based on those who come into contact with those things and largely based on a spiritual connection, but nonetheless, this association exists.
  2. “The emergence of ecology has promoted an awareness of the social implications of objects” (p. 5)
    • In this part of the text Browaeys discusses the relationship between materiality and the environment from a sustainability perspective. With the rise of digital materiality, there’s an expectation that there will be significantly less consumption of matter, which allows people to further promote the diminishing of physical materiality. However, just as Christine questions whether digital material (dematerialized products) is really going to consume less, I too am curious about this. Take NFTs as a prime example. Evidence has shown that while although they may not use as many trees as paper does, they do require a comparable amount of energy to process their uploads. Yet, even with that comparison, the sustainability of tangible materiality is a concern of mine throughout my thesis projects.
  3. “Cultural life rests on material resources and is increasingly interwoven with them.” (p. 6)
    • This is extremely relevant to my project as I aim to explore how culture is told, preserved and passed on through material artifacts. Historically, people have relied on an array of materials to tell stories and ultimately just to live life. Just as Browaeys’s goes on to ask in a later paragraph, “What will it mean for a human being to be immersed in a world of objects with physical and virtual duality,” I also wonder how there can be a harmonious blend of the two realities for the sake of cultural preservation.

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Dream Review

It’s difficult to recall the last time I have engaged with something real that took me to a moment and a place that was so far away, yet right in front of me all at once. That is until I saw Erin Ashley Carr’s project (insert project title), which balances the spectrum of materiality by being both tangible and digital as it presents artifacts of Black culture & history. The best part of her project is the way she takes the general functionality of a museum and makes it more lively. In its simplest form, (insert project title) gives you a mere glimpse of a particular moment in history, and the more immersed you become in it, the greater the visualization becomes, so much so that it feels as if you are actually within it after a certain point. This feeling is akin to that which you feel when visiting one of the Disney Parks, when you get that sense of nostalgia as you approach the castle on Main Street & it takes you back to all of the different Disney movies you watched growing up.

Not only does Erin produce a random sensation of affection or longing for the past, but she makes you take a moment to question how we were led from traditions or ways of the past to where we are today. You are forced to question simple things like, “How did we move from listening to Chris Brown’s debut album on CD,” to thoughts more complex like, “How did the once overwhelmingly strong presence of the Black community get diminished in Washington D.C.?”

All in all, (insert project title) is a thought-provoking walk through history presented through a harmonious blend of physical and virtual reality. It is truly a must to experience!