The Material Point
The Material Point is a platform for knowledge sharing with the aim to make cutting-edge material research accessible to a wider audience and support application in different disciplines. Material research dissolves all categories we have grown accustomed to such as; tree, steel, glass, etc. This is an enormous challenge and a necessary opportunity.
With the new material research centers in Sweden we can take a global position for translating scientific know-how about the inner makings of matter to other fields of competence: www.europeanspallationsource.se, www.maxlab.lu.se
It will start with a series of workshops for specially invited professionals from different disciplines: researchers, architects, designers and artists. They will discuss how to transform scientific data into a vision in the form of an object or storytelling. These activities will identify creative connection points between the disciplines.
The initial draft of a model has the following main features:
– Recontextualization – the context is of mayor importance for the interpretation.
– Objects of Fiction – confronted by an object, such as demonstrator, prototype, sample, etc, we have to construct a relationship to it.
– The Design Process – there are a number of different models for this. The task here is to formulate one model (a language) for our specific purpose. ´Where word breaks off no thing may be´, Stefan George
Interventions in unexpected places or situations will be a tool for giving a body of scientific data (Big Data) new interpretations and meanings in social environments familiar to a given target group.
Things come into being when we make use of them.
Events:
http://bioinspiredforum.com/laboratory-to-concept/
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Some background:
Finis origine pendet
May 11th, 2007
The beginning shapes the end. The motto comes from Phillips Academy and it occasionally haunts me. Am I ever really ready to jump off the cliff? I try to overcome that hurdle by saying to myself: To manage a project is to constantly rewrite the beginning.
I came up with the idea to create a platform for cross disciplinary interaction within the scope of materials research about two years ago. I’ve been handing out grants to young artists and scientists since 1997 and in the beginning of this millennium there was an increase in applications that one way or another dealt with materials research. Materials are something visual culture and scientists have in common. You can’t escape creating or inventing a relation to matter whatever you do.
So, my idea is to set up a platform for interaction between materials researchers, architects, designers, artists, entrepreneurs, business developers, product developers, etc. They, together with venturesome consumers, make up the foundation for this community.
Why doing all this? In order to open up the potential of this rapidly emerging research field we need an arena for knowledge transfer between researchers and visual culture. Biomimetics R&D is nature by nature, thus has a friendly approach to climate and environmental issues. If nature isn’t sustainable, who is? Working within this field of research you will deepen your insight that all life forms are resevoirs of knowledge.
A key factor for success is to engage all you people out there that is sometimes referred to as venturesome consumers. You are the major driving force for innovation processes – the tipping point.