First notes on “Vibrant Matter” by Jane Bennet
“Vibrant Matter, A Political Ecology of Things” outlines the importance of recognising agency outside of the human. Bennet uses a history of vitalism and object oriented ontologies to deconstruct a fundamental belief of Western thought, the binary between life and matter. Bennet points out by looking beyond this binary we can begin to recognise an assembly or assemblage of agencies that occur with any event or organisation, or a collaboration between different bodies, sometimes human and often not. Bennet claims that by thinking more horizontally about the agency of things, we can step away from the god/man/matter hierarchy that inevitably leads to inequality between humans, and a lack of awareness of our ecosystems that we are within that leads to the environmental destruction of today.
… Can we feel joy, weirdness and love for all the minerals that compose us and those worlds we rub up against?
… The cosmic flow is a vibrating intensity of matter in which we generally reduce to patterns or tendencies in order to act and survive.
… Can we imagine practices and mediums that attune to this flow as political and constructive?
This research inspires my installation piece for our Gallery 46 exhibition. I want my piece to inspire independent thought on the value of objects and materials that surround us. Beside my sculpture of a wind-chimes, containing objects from the class, I will have a textual list of those objects and their origins. I imagine that stating the personal histories of these objects could stimulate a recognition of their value and activeness, as they move between a personal life or landscape, the gallery and the auditory perception of the listener waking through.