Power of Material/Politics of Materiality

Materiality has emerged as a new focus for art, design, and architecture. Where there was once the belief that the form of a work offered more capacity to bestow meaning, “New Materialism” asserts the agency of material within the artistic process, enmeshed as it is within a web of relationships.

For Power of Material—Politics of Materiality, editors Susanne Witzgall and Kerstin Stakemeier have brought together a diverse and interdisciplinary team of contributors to deepen the current discourse surrounding materiality. The contributors were participants at a lecture series held at the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and, the book presents the resultant discussions and experimental practices.

Susanne Witzgall is a lecturer in art theory and founder of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. She is the editor of New Mobilities Regimes in Art and Social Sciences and (Re)Designing Nature. Kerstin Stakemeier is professor of art theory and interpretation at the Academy of Visual Arts in Nuremberg. She is coauthor of Painting: The Implicit Horizon and Reproducing Autonomy.