Surface as method: a new framework for materials, humans and technology

What is it about?

How do we make sense of a world where the boundaries between materials and technology, human and nonhuman, physical and digital are increasingly blurred? This introduction proposes that the surface is the key, and develops a new framework for thinking about surfaces as active, relational processes. Every time materials, tools, bodies and technologies come together, a surface emerges. And every surface, in turn, shapes what comes into contact with it. Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, design and media theory, the chapter builds a vocabulary for following surfaces as they are made. Central to this is the idea that surfaces are always 'becoming': they are never fixed, but constantly being made and remade through use, wear, growth, inscription and encounter. This challenges the common assumption that what matters lies beneath the surface. Instead, it argues that the surface itself is where knowledge and relation are produced.

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Photo by Hayk Badalyan on Unsplash

Photo by Hayk Badalyan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Across the arts, humanities and social sciences, there is growing interest in materials, making, and the relationship between humans and technology. But theoretical frameworks that can travel across these disciplines are rare. This chapter offers one. By bringing together Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy of the machine, surface ontology, and new materialist thinking, it develops a shared vocabulary that researchers in design, anthropology, media studies, architecture, and cultural theory can all draw on. The chapter is timely, as computation becomes embedded in everyday surfaces and the boundaries between the digital and the physical continue to blur, the need to think carefully about surfaces has never been greater.