Nina Nowak
Cloudy is the Stuff of Stones. Life/Non-Life of Lithic Matter in Multidimensions
New technologies allow radical ways of zooming in and out of matter, from galaxies to gut bacteria. The motif of magnifying/minimising views resonates also in contemporary thinking, where the agency of matter is questioned in more-than-human scales and temporalities. Stone is an archetype of inert matter in Western culture, and conventionally seen as a resource. Contemporary philosophy has revisited the lithic, attesting to the agency of stone from the perspective of its transitioning stages (from magma to fossil matter to dust, etc.), as well as a potent climate change factor (in terms of burnt minerals). Contemporary art situates stone within animism, extraction, colonialism, and climate change concepts.
The project addresses a significant gap in this regard: while spatiality, dimensionality and materiality are the base of artistic practice of sculpture/installation art, the question of how scalar systems inform Eurocentric binaries of life/nonlife in matter and impact visualising techniques has not been addressed yet. In this context, I introduce the concept of Multidimensions (MDs). MDs is the multi-sensory, embodied “zoom” inherent to stone carving: MDs emerge in a dialogue between the sculptor and the material in intra-action (Barad), involving visual, tactile and other sensory experiences. Stone is an active part in the process of carving, reacting to humidity and temperature. Body/mind binaries are transgressed in the knowledge of the hands accumulated by MDs over time. By merging sculptural strategies of MDs, installation and animation with geo-scientific technology the doctoral project aims to challenge Eurocentric scalar systems in sciences and their underlying power regimes. Feminist multiperspectivism and new materialist theory of assemblages, situated knowledges (Haraway), and geontopower (Povinelli) provide the theoretical framework of a reframing of stone as a matter of agency in new lithic imaginaries.
Illustration: Nina Nowak sketch, 2021.
