Metal Matters

Designing a Planetary Relationship with Dynamic Metal

‘By ‘vitality’, I mean the capacity of things—edibles, commodities, storms, metals—not only to impede or block the will and designs of humans, but also to act as quasi agents or forces with trajectories, propensities, or tendencies of their own.’

- Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter

Metal Matters is a speculative design project with a multidisciplinary approach that draws from ecology, mineralogy and chemistry. The project explores the metal’s vitality and offers a symbiotic relationship with dynamic metal in the future. The design fiction and a series of objects present a speculative future (the year 2522) where metals and humans are prospering, entangling and evolving together.

To solve the ecological crisis, we need a shift from anthropocentrism to fluid thinking. We are accustomed to thinking of matter as static and of humans as superior subjects. This grows the delusion that we can exploit our shared Earth. Metal Matters disrupts the dichotomy between organic matter and inorganic matter. It invites us to the knotted world in which every matter is mutually entangled. Will the future of the Earth change once we acknowledge ‘the capacity of things’?

Final Work

Re-mine

Re-mine allows symbiosis between humans and macro-metal-species. Based on electronic waste recycling and bioaccumulation technology, this machine allows metals to grow from e-waste. This object not only raises awareness of e-waste issues but also ignites a discourse about the immense impact of industrial manipulation of earthy resources. It questions anthropocentric ways of extracting metal, opening a discussion around an ethical and ecological way of utilizing earthy materials.

Symbiocene 2522

This design fiction presents a speculative future, set in 2522, where metals and humans live in symbiotic relationships.

Hundreds of years ago, due to humans' anthropocentric exploitation of earth resources, human beings confronted the shortage of metal resources, e-waste crises, and ethical issues between humans and technology. In the 26th century, humans started to acknowledge the vitality and potential of metal species and explore them. The film shows three modes of symbiosis between metals and humans in this speculative future.