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.