ISCH COST ACTION IS1307

New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on ‘How Matter Comes to Matter’

Scholars presently exploring ‘how matter comes to matter’ call themselves new or neo-materialists. They do radically interdisciplinary research based on the conviction that the current economic, ecological and political crises as well as technological advances and everyday practices do not allow a conception of ‘matter’ as (an) object(s) that could be captured along traditional disciplinary lines. Stock market crashes, earthquakes and the increasing complexity of political and social systems (and their breakdowns) demonstrate active interventions of materials previously regarded mute or socially constructed. Meaning-making ‘to matter’) does not occur only in the linguistic frameworks academic research applies to phenomena and crises in a retrograde move. The current European new materialist scene is vibrant but remains largely dispersed compared to the U.S.A., which dominates discussions at the moment. This COST Action networks European new materialisms: how do they look, and what can they innovate?

Chair of the Action:

Iris van der Tuin (Utrecht University)

MC members (Norway):

Aud Sissel Hoel (NTNU) and Liv Hausken (University of Oslo).

MC substitutes (Norway):

Nina Lager Vestberg (NTNU) and Trine Krigsvoll Haagensen (University of Bergen).

Collaborators:

• Ingvild Folkvord, NTNU
• Jon Raundalen, NTNU
• Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory, Humboldt-Universität
• Linneaus University Centre for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies
• Engaging Conflicts in a Digital Era (ENCODE) - Interdisciplinary Research Hub for Projects on 'New' Media Technologies, Participatory Culture, Computer Games, and Conflict.
• Centre for Creative Industries, Norwegian Business School (BI)
• National Library of Norway
• University of Copenhagen