Materials of Culture: Approaches to Materials and Their Relevance for Cultural Studies

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. 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