Material Data Provocations Project

Materialization (or to materialize) is defined as “to invest or become invested with a physical shape or form”. Materialization is a process of transmutation: more alchemy than construction, with the results uncertain and in flux. I draw my inspiration from the Tangible Bits Group’s “painted bits” as graphical user interfaces: graspable objects, ambient media, and augmented surfaces; MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, an interdisciplinary initiative, and its studies of how to turn data into things, and things into data; and Chris Jordan’s attempts at creating deeper emotional engagement with statistical data by constructing super-sized images depicting, for example, the number of people currently in the US prison system, or the number of paper cups used each day on American flights.