Material things matter. Without them we would not have the means to reify our abstract thoughts and experiences — to ‘anchor’ them in the physical world. But, in recent years, the ubiquitous presence of material things in our lives (but not their role or value) has come under fire. For many, the legacy of industrial manufacture and marketing has left us with a consumer culture that exploits the resources of our natural world in order to produce disposal goods of little value that soon end up in landfill. Perhaps, in response to this, a new generation of digital natives has sought to democratise the means by which virtual surrogates are produced and distributed—and, in the process, reduce toxic waste and damage to the environment. This presentation will consider the space between these two extremes and the intrinsic value of material things as essential elements in the fabric of our individual and collective lives.
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