Moving Matters of Contemporary Art: Three New Materialist Propositions

Authors

  • Katve-Kaisa Kontturi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i5.60

Keywords:

contemporary art, new materialism, materiality, process ontology, methodology, concept-making, ethics, politics, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari

Abstract

Fashioning a new materialist agenda, this essay calls for sensitivity to subtly moving matters present in the processes of making and encountering art. Otherwise, it claims, we will end up with seriously restricted understandings of art’s capabilities. Indeed, we might even miss art’s most inventive and moving offering: how it can change our thinking-feeling. In this essay, I suggest methods of relating to art in more bodily and material terms, and propose concepts that help to point out the materiality of encountering and making art. To make sense of how a new materialist approach might work in the case of contemporary art, I will offer three propositions that revolve around ontology, ethics and politics. These propositions arise from participation with art and are probed and provoked by a close relation to art.

References

Ahmed, Sara. “Open Forum. Imaginary Prohibitions: Some Preliminary Remarks on the Founding Gestures of the ‘New Materialism’.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 15, 23 (2008): 23–39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506807084854

Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822391623

Bolt, Barbara. Art beyond Representation: The Power of the Image. London, New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755604876

Bolt, Barbara, and Estelle Barrett ed. Carnal Knowledge: Towards A New Materialism through the Arts. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755603435.0007

Braidotti, Rosi. Metamorphosis: Towards A Materialist Theory of Becoming. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002.

Braidotti, Rosi. Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006.

Braidotti, Rosi. “Posthuman, All Too Human: Towards a New Process Ontology.” Theory, Culture & Society 23, 7–8 (2006): 197–208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276406069232

Coole, Diana, and Samantha Frost ed. New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw2wk

Deleuze, Gilles. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. San Francisco: City Lights, 1988.

Deleuze, Gilles. Difference and Repetition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Deleuze, Gilles. “Le froid et la chaud.” In Gérard Fromanger: La Peinture Photogénique. London: Black Dog Publishing, 1999, 61–80.

Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. London, New York: Continuum, 2003.

Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.

Deleuze, Gilles, & Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.

Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. What is Philosophy?. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Gregg, Melissa. Work’s Intimacy. Cambridge: Polity, 2011.

Grosz, Elizabeth. Time Travels: Feminism, Nature, Power. Sydney: Allen and Unwin 2005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv125jkvq

Holland, Eugene, “Karl Marx,” In Deleuze’s Philosophical

Lineage, edited by Graham Jones, and Jon Roffe, 147–166. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.

Irigaray, Luce. Between East and West: From Singularity to Community. translated by Stephen Pluháček. New York, Ithaca, London: Columbia University Press, Cornell University Press, 2002.

Kontturi, Katve-Kaisa. Following the Flows of Process: A New Materialist Account of Contemporary Art, Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, ser. B, tom. 349. Humaniora, Turku: University of Turku, 2012.

Kontturi, Katve-Kaisa. “Double Navel as Particle-Sign: Towards the A-Signifying Work of Painting.” In Carnal Knowledge: Towards a New Materialism through the Arts. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013, 17–27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755603435.ch-001

Manning, Erin. Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, Sovereignty. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2007.

Manning, Erin. “Creative Propositions for Thought in Motion.” Inflexions: A Journal for Research-Creation, 2008, No. 1. http://www.inflexions.org/n1_manninghtml.html

Manning, Erin. Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy. Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262134903.001.0001

Massumi, Brian. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822383574

Massumi, Brian. Event and Semblance: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts. Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 2011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7681.001.0001

O’Sullivan, Simon. Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari: Thinking Beyond Representation. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230512436

O’Sullivan, Simon. “Pragmatics for the Production of Subjectivity: Time for Probeheads.” Journal for Cultural Research 10, 4 (2006): 309–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14797580601014409

Pollock, Griselda. Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Social Histories of Art. London, New York: Routledge, 1988.

Parikka, Jussi. Insect Media: An Archaeology of Animals and Technology. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816667390.001.0001

Tiainen, Milla. Becoming-Singer: Cartographies of Singing, Music-Making and Opera. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, forthcoming.

Van der Tuin. Iris and Rick Dolphijn, New Materialism: Cartographies and Interviews. London: Open Humanities Press, 2012.

Downloads

Published

15.04.2014

How to Cite

Kontturi, K.-K. (2014). Moving Matters of Contemporary Art: Three New Materialist Propositions. AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, (5), 42–54. https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i5.60