The Mater Podcast

• Conservation, Craft & Art at West Dean (notes from a Research Residency)

  Hello! This is Maddie Rose Hills, host of The Mater Podcast. This week's episode is a little different, and a lot shorter! I have just got back from a week-long Research Residency at West Dean School of Arts, Craft, Design and Conservation. What is a research residency? Well it can really be anything - but for me it meant wandering around the school, meeting people from lots of different departments, and talking with them about what attracted them to the craft and materials that they were studying or teaching. I wrote a diary while down there and have put together a selection of the thoughts here. This text can be read on the Mater website: https://mater.digital/stories/a-research-residency-at-west-dean/Or listened to here on the podcast platformI will also share more images on the Mater Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=enFind out more about West Dean: https://www.westdean.ac.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westdeancollege/?hl=enWest Dean Fine Art on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westdeanfineart/?hl=enMore about West Dean: 'Our schools of arts, design and conservation offer a uniquely broad range of world-leading courses. At the heart of all we do, is our belief that 'making' makes our lives better. We celebrate the intrinsic value of work that has been hand-made by artists and artisans, and challenge the assumption that mass-produced must be the only way because, across the world, the maker movement is growing.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  8:50
• Relationships with Colour, with Barbara Collé & Lucila Kenny

  Today I am chatting with Lucila Kenny and Barbara Collé about COLOURLucila Kenny is an Argentinean textile designer as well as a researcher focused on Natural Dyeing and the colourants produced by a range of plant species. As a natural dyer and educator she has worked with universities, art academies, fashion designers, biologists and artists exploring, preparing and producing plant colorants for dyeing, inks and paints.Barbara Colle is a Dutch visual artist and philosopher, investigating our experience of colour. She publishes her findings through essays, artist books and visual essays. On the subject of colour she guest lectures at universities, contributes to publications and curates. The two have bonded over colour and perception through many conversations and collaborations, so it was very moving to be able to be a fly on the wall for one of their chats. We discuss how colour is changing all the time, and letting go of a desire to control colour when natural dying and while growing pigments. Lucila describes is as seeing that the plants are 'gifting' us, instead of what we want to take. They discuss the language we use to describe colour, and how it says so much about our relationship with it. LinksLucilla's website: https://www.lucilakenny.com/ | On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucila.kenny/?hl=en-gbBarbara's website: https://www.barbaracolle.nl/ | On Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/barbara___colle_/Indigo website: www.growingblue.infoflower, fruit, leaf, husk and root (book): https://www.lucilakenny.com/shop/bookBraiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall KimmererElmer, by David Mckee (the children's book about colourful elephants)The Color Kittens, Margaret Wise Brown (Barbara's children's book)Eleanor Irwin, Colour Terms In Greek Poetry (1974) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  48:22
• Humans & Sheep with Formafantasma

  This week I’m joined by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma. Formafantasma are a design studio who investigate the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. Their extensive client list includes Prada, Hermes, Vitra Design Museum, Fendi, The Venice Bienale, Rijksmuseum, and the National Museum of Norway.This conversation was recorded at The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in the middle of feb 2025 just before the opening of Studio Formafantasma’s exhibition Oltre Terra. Oltre Terra is is an ongoing investigation of the history, ecology, and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool. The show will run until July 13th so make sure to check it out..Oltre Terra at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam - https://www.stedelijk.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/formafantasmaFormafantasma website - https://formafantasma.com/studioFormafantasma on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/formafantasma/Cambio - https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/formafantasma-cambio/Geo-Design at Design Academy Eindhoven: https://www.designacademy.nl/page/5809/geo%E2%80%94designInterview with Tim White - Exlana sheep breeder https://vimeo.com/780306084Artek x Formafantasma collaboration: https://www.artek.fi/en/company/designers/formafantasma Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  46:45
• Plastic with Heather Davis & Shahar Livne

  A conversation about Plastic with designer Shahar Livne and environmental humanities scholar Heather Davis.Shahar Livne is an award winning conceptual material designer. Livne's lifelong fascinations in nature, biology, science, and philosophy developed into an intuitive material experimentation way of work during her degree studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Shahar brings life to unique stories through objects and installations centered around materials as carriers of narratives. Some of Livne's projects deal with obscure materials such as blood, man-made fossils, crystallization and more, today we are going to be focussing on plastic, and Shahar has put me in touch with Heather Davis who I am thrilled to have here as our second guest todayHeather Davis is Assistant Professor and Director of Culture and Media at The New School in New York City. As an interdisciplinary scholar working in environmental humanities, media studies, and visual culture, she is interested in how the saturation of fossil fuels has shaped contemporary culture. Davis is the author of over 80 articles, book chapters, reviews, and catalogue essays. Her most recent book, Plastic Matter (Duke University Press, 2022) traces plastic’s relations to geology, media, biology, and race to show how matter itself has come to be understood as pliable, disposable, and consumable.LINKSShahar Livne: https://www.instagram.com/_shaharlivnedesignstudio_/https://www.shaharlivnedesign.com/Shahar Livne, Metamorphism: https://www.shaharlivnedesign.com/metamorphismHeather Davis: https://heathermdavis.com/Heather Davis, Plastic Matter: https://www.dukeupress.edu/plastic-matterBernadette Bensaude-Vincent, French philosopher and historian - Heather spoke about her writing on the endless possibilities of matter and material. Plastic as a material is deeply connected to wanting to manipulate matter at the most fundamental levelsZakiyyah Iman Jackson: https://scholars.duke.edu/person/zakiyyah.jackson#:~:text=Her%20research%20investigates%20the%20fundamental,and%20rhetoric%20of%20Western%20science Thinking about the emergence of the category of the human, and the way it emerges through the hierarchy of humanity. The forced plasticity of the human body in various forms of black suppression. Various humans as abject other that carries the weight of plasticity.Pollution Is Colonialism - book by Max LiboironHeterotopia: https://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en/Geo Design, https://www.designacademy.nl/page/5809/geo%E2%80%94designPinar Yoldas, Ecosystem of Excess.Crimes of the FutureThe podcast Heather referenced at the end about adaptive capabilities: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/garbage-patch-kids/id1554578197?i=1000641946004Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=enGet in touch: [email protected] Mater website: https://mater.digital/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  1:01:55
• Material Innovation & Ecology with Claire Baily & Sarah King

  Claire Baily is a London-based artist, researcher, and educator whose work navigates the intersections of art, sustainability, and material innovation. I had been following Claire’s research on Instagram, after knowing her as an artist working with an array of materials, with amazing technical casting ability.. And then seeing her document a shift away from Petrochemicals, resins etc, looking at what a sustainable making practice might look like in the context of the climate emergency, documenting her experimentations with new materials for casting. I enjoyed the way she was sharing the research, the tests and the trials online - developing more sustainable art production systems with regenerative resources at their core, she is focusing on developing bio-based materials and processes that can be viable alternatives to existing making methodologies dominated by petrochemicals.Claire suggested Sarah King as our second guest for the conversation.. Sarah is a circular economy researcher, sustainability and innovation consultant with experience in project management, design led research, and systems change. For the last eight years she has worked closely with businesses and academic institutions to educate and identify innovation opportunities in response to current environmental challenges, supporting the development of new technologies, products, and services. Her areas of scope include the built environment and construction, plastics and packaging, textiles and apparel, and sociocultural behaviour change. Recent projects include the culturing of pure Bacterial Cellulose for use in the apparel industry, food waste composite materials for interior panelling, and natural pigments for utilisation with digital processing techniques.LinksClaire: https://www.clairebaily.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZNJHTKnISc_3qDtrvlDlsbt0S0pMjc86KwWqx9wbRp9MWsV78-i3k6dao_aem_FlxJwHA1EmzgFcSs0WhekgClaire on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairebaily/Sarah: https://www.earthliprojects.com/Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_earthli_projects/Materials Club: https://steamhouse.org.uk/news/materials-club-biomaterials-101/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/materials_club/?hl=enSteamhouse Birmingham: https://steamhouse.org.uk/More on the HS2 project in collaboration with British Ceramics Bienial: https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/news/from-waste-to-resource/Centre for Ecology and Art Goldsmiths: https://www.gold.ac.uk/research/centres-units/research-centre/centre-for-art-and-ecology/about-us/Olivia Aspinall: https://www.instagram.com/do_not_go_gentle_/Material Futures at CSM https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/textiles-and-materials/postgraduate/ma-material-futures-csmFollow Mater on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/Original writing commissions by Mater: https://mater.digital/Get in touch with any thoughts, questions, or even suggestions for future episodes: [email protected] make sure to follow, subscribe and rate if you are enjoying the podcast, it means the world! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  1:07:10

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