Material philosophy and the adaptability of materials

Abstract

This reflection on Erik Rietveld’s The Affordances of Art for Making Technologies addresses, first, what it is to engage in material philosophy and make material propositions and then, second, what different materialities, or rather different ways of handling materialities, allow material philosophers to say. It notes that solidity is not an intrinsic property of any stuff. If only they are handled with care, and loved enough, even wood, concrete and metal turn out to be adaptable.