alchemy, media + engineering

Hi Brenda, and everyone interested in a fresh practical, theoretical, artistic approaches to new materials, 

Thanks for taking the lead in a fresh take on materials research here at AME.   

Conventional electronics, robotics, microprocessors and media processing  are well covered at AME, so can we look beyond “physical computing” and present day “DIY” approaches to electronics, and start instead from a more sophisticated alchemical / poetic / critical approach to matter ?

I’m eager to hear what you, Byron, Jessica come up with.

For an idea of where international discourse and practice are at, look at


And for some of the places to beat — or to diverge from — see:

Neri Oxman

Hiroshi Ishii

Mediated Matter

Bio-art and bio-mimicry are red herrings, I think, for reasons well argued in Stepney’s “The neglected pillar of material computation,” Physica D 237 (2008) 1157–1164.  (attached)


There’s a whole world of theoretical discourse labelled “new materialism" which is worth exploring critically, perhaps when Adam’s back in the fall.  Plus there’s a related but naive art scene thing under the label “new materiality.”  Most of that has little access to emerging materials science, membrane chemistry, analog and “natural” computing, macro-quantum technologies (like room-temperature superconductors and cloaking), etc.   AME can be the place to bridge and put radical fusion work on the world scene.

Regards,
Xin Wei

cc.  Other faculty who have related expertise and interests.

____________________________________________________________________________________, 

On Jun 7, 2016, at 9:27 PM, Byron Lahey <byron.lahey@asu.edu> wrote:

Yes. Count me in on the materiality studio research!

Looking forward to discussing further.

Cheers,
Byron

On Jun 7, 2016, at 2:02 AM, Brenda McCaffrey <brendamc@asu.edu> wrote:

Hi Xin Wei,

Thank you for the quick response.  I see the Materiality Studio ramping up in the Fall so I think we have some time.  I wanted to put this out there for discussion now so we can get ahead curve.  I'll touch base with Byron also to exchange some ideas about early materials experiments.  I'm also talking with Jessica Rajko.

We have had some conversations about materiality research ideas and I'm looking forward to pulling these threads together.  

In the meantime, I'll generate a detailed specification for what I think will be needed as a first phase of the work.  I'm committed to being 100% engaged on the iStage throughout this work.

Thanks,
Brenda

-- 
Brenda McCaffrey, PhD