The Meaning of Manifest Age: Material Temporality as Sculptural Medium

The research aims to develop an understanding of how material time, the physical manifestation of ‘age’ through natural growth/degradation or human periodization, operates as a medium for artistic expression. The cornerstone research questions are:

-How does Time acquire materiality?

-How do we perceive and assimilate such ‘material-time’?

-How does the context of our own Being influence the significance and meaning attributed to physical manifestations of temporality?

-How does meaning derived through material-temporality find expression in works of Sculpture?

(Very) Short Summary

In a world characterised by change and fleeting opportunity, the need to read and chronologise the traces left upon the entities around us by the procession of time is clear; our involvement with other entities through our technicity, makes this even more pressing for our own species.

Our technicity, and the technology which stems from it, is a fundamental component of what it is to be human.  Bernhard Stiegler proposes that the “sedimented [layers of] technical artefacts” constitute an externalised ‘memory’ which transcends biological generations and creates “the possibility of heritage”. The perceptual framework which allows us to assimilate natural change and material temporality similarly contributes to our reading of (and the meaning we attribute to) this heritage and, consequently, has fundamental affect in our experience of it.

There are three component strands to the project; (1) a theoretical investigation of ‘material-time’ through relevant literature, (2) the appraisal of ‘established’ artwork examples and (3) the reflexive art practice of the researcher.

Through this research, we will gain a greater understanding of how material-temporality impacts our experience of material culture. Whilst the project gives particular attention to works of sculpture, its output will be applicable across all fields of art and design.