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 by the need for sustainability in times of climate change, energy crisis, conflict, migration, and the lingering coronavirus pandemic. Cover 1 Half title 2 Authors 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Preface 12 Introduction: Materials Matter 14 Toward a Materials‐Based Perspective 15 Materials of Culture 19 Materials in Cultural Studies 21 Material Vocabularies and Methodologies 25 The Content of This Book 28 Works Cited 32 Part I: Materials of Art 36 1. Stitched into Material: On the Makeability of Shells 38 Works Cited 44 2. Celluloid 46 Works Cited 52 Part II: Materials of Empire 54 3. Roman Concrete 56 Works Cited 59 4. Postclassical Marble: Reclaiming Flux in the Reception of Marble in Contemporary Art 62 Classicizing Marble 62 Revisioning Marble 63 Marble’s Luminosity 66 Marble’s Luxury 68 Postclassical Marble 69 Works Cited 71 Part III: Extractivism and Toxic Colonialism 74 5. Asbestos: The Fallout of Shipbreaking in the Global South 76 Ships That Matter 77 The Slow Violence of Toxic Colonialism 78 Toward an Ethics of Intra‐Action 79 Acknowledgment 81 Works Cited 81 6. Copper’s Suppressed History Unearthed in Otobong Nkanga’s Sensual and Embodied Art Practice 84 Works Cited 92 7. The Coloniality of Materiality: Brazilwood, or Unlearning, with Anton de Kom in the Mauritshuis 94 Delinking from the Coloniality of Materiality 95 A European Story of Brazilwood 97 The Colonial Difference 99 Works Cited 100 Part IV: Energyscapes of the Future 102 8. Lithium for the Metaverse: Myths of Nuclear and Digital Fusion 104 Batteries 105 Lithium‐6 106 Magic 107 Resistance 108 Nirvana, or the Metaverse as Lithium 109 Works Cited 110 9. Harnessing the Sun in Tech‐on‐Climate Discourse 114 The Materiality of the Sun 114 Digital Culture and the Climate Crisis 115 The Energy Imaginary as Naive Fantasy 117 Beyond the Myth of Energy without Mediation 119 Works Cited 120 Part V: Materials of the Nation 122 10. Dutch Peat 124 “Unland” 124 Choreographing Peat 125 Art‐in‐Nature 126 Peat Art 128 The Liveness of Peat 130 Acknowledgment 131 Works Cited 131 11. Milk: Material Entwinements and the Making and Unmaking of Healthy Bodies 134 Cultivating the National Body with Milk 135 Making the Milkable Body 139 Conclusion 141 Works Cited 141 12. Wool 144 Understanding the Material Characteristics of Wool 145 Understanding Materials to Understand Culture 147 Works Cited 149 Part VI: Affordances of Edible Matter 150 13. Yes, There Are No Bananas 152 Works Cited 156 14. Coca(ine) 158 Acknowledgment 164 Works Cited 164 Part VII: Material Practices in Digital Culture 168 15. The Ephemeral Materiality of Sound 170 Works Cited 173 16. Tracing the Voice’s Digital Materiality 174 DVAs and the Voice as a Material Affordance 175 Input: From Recording to Speech Processing 176 Output: From Ventriloquism to Voice Synthetization 177 Dehumanizing the Voice 178 Works Cited 179 17. Interface 182 Works Cited 186 Part VIII: Enfolding the Body 188 18. Becoming‐with: On Textile Companions and Fungi Friends 190 Introduction 190 Wearable Companions and the Caress of a Jacket 191 Growing‐with Fungi Friends 194 A Matter of Care 195 Works Cited 196 19. Clothing For/Against Walking 198 Experiments and Stories 201 What Matter Reveals 203 Works Cited 205 20. Mylar Foil: Blankets of Silver and Gold 208 Works Cited 212 Part IX: Touching Texts 214 21. An Archive of the Future: Wood in Thomas Pitfield’s The Poetry of Trees 216 Acknowledgments 221 Works Cited 221 22. Soft Leather, Wounded Buttons, and a Silk Ribbon: Clothing a Birgittine Rule Manuscript 224 The Manuscript and Its Contents 224 Binding and Embellishment 226 A Broader Context 231 Acknowledgments 233 Works Cited 233 Part X: Materials of Scholarly Performance 236 23. The Arts Classroom 238 Introduction 238 Post‐Qualitative Inquiry 239 The Arts Classroom 240 Coda 243 Works Cited 243 24. Ink on Paper 246 Introduction 246 Material Properties of Ink 247 Thinking From the Materials 248 Tangibilia 250 Final Thoughts 251 Acknowledgments 252 Works Cited 253 25. The Scholar’s Coffee 256 The Scholar as Thing 256 The Scholar’s Coffee Break 258 Telling the Materials’ Histories 259 Works Cited 260 List of Contributors 264 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.