How Materials Matter : : Design, Innovation and Materiality in the Pacific / / Graeme Were.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2019
• VerfasserIn: Were, Graeme,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (212 p.)

How does design and innovation shape people’s lives in the Pacific? Focusing on plant materials from the region, How Materials Matter reveals ways in which a variety of people – from craftswomen and scientists to architects and politicians – work with materials to transform worlds. Recognizing the fragile and ephemeral nature of plant fibres, this work delves into how the biophysical properties of certain leaves and their aesthetic appearance are utilized to communicate information and manage different forms of relations. It breaks new ground by situating plant materials at the centre of innovation in a region.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Materials and Design -- PART I Materials under the Microscope -- 1 On the Materials of Mats: Thinking through Design in a Melanesian Society -- 2 Materials on the Move: Exploring the Shifting Material Identities of Barkcloth -- 3 What’s in a Plant Leaf? A Case Study of Materials Innovation in New Zealand -- PART II Materials, Design, Transformation -- 4 Of Canoes and Troughs: Materials Computation and the Nature of Social Relations -- 5 Enclosures and Disclosures: Materials and Difference -- PART III Material Futures -- 6 Returning Cultural Knowledge in a Digital Design Context: Collecting Legacies and Archival Futures -- 7 Material Histories and the Changing Nature of Museum Collections -- Conclusion: Towards a New Understanding of Materiality -- References -- Index