Event

Oct 17-18, 2024
Fabricated Natures: Stories from the Bio-Material Archive

black nylon stockings as seen through a micriscope, looks like a repearting pattern of knots

Nylon stockings under a microscope, 2021. Nylon, a polymer created in 1939, had widespread use, particularly and gradually replaced natural materials like silk, catgut, fur, and leather (Quye 2014: 214). Source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Potd/2023-03-27_(pt)  

This workshop delves into the concepts and practices of fabrication. Rooted in the Latin fabricationem, meaning skilled craftsmanship, fabrication involves the intentional creation of objects from disparate parts. Acts of fabrication span various cultural and creative domains, from art and literature to manufacturing and biomedicine, reflecting human ingenuity across history and sources such as objects, texts, and oral traditions. This interdisciplinary workshop invites participants to explore fabrication as a method for studying the history of bio-material technologies, starting with textiles. Through discussions of precirculated manuscripts, we aim to critically analyze and reinterpret the long-term epistemic significance of human efforts to produce bio-based or bio-inspired materials. The double aim of this workshop is an edited volume or special issue, and to build a network of scholars interested in methodologically reflexive scholarship in fabrication studies that bridges the humanities, arts, and sciences.

Event Schedule

Address
Harnack House, Conference Venue of the Max Planck Society, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Contact and Registration

To register contact event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de.

Additional in-person observers allowed after pre-registration.

Organizer contact: Isabela Dornelas

2024-10-17T10:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2024-10-17 10:00:00 2024-10-18 14:00:00 Fabricated Natures: Stories from the Bio-Material Archive i Nylon stockings under a microscope, 2021. Nylon, a polymer created in 1939, had widespread use, particularly and gradually replaced natural materials like silk, catgut, fur, and leather (Quye 2014: 214). Source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Potd/2023-03-27_(pt)   This workshop delves into the concepts and practices of fabrication. Rooted in the Latin fabricationem, meaning skilled craftsmanship, fabrication involves the intentional creation of objects from disparate parts. Acts of fabrication span various cultural and creative domains, from art and literature to manufacturing and biomedicine, reflecting human ingenuity across history and sources such as objects, texts, and oral traditions. This interdisciplinary workshop invites participants to explore fabrication as a method for studying the history of bio-material technologies, starting with textiles. Through discussions of precirculated manuscripts, we aim to critically analyze and reinterpret the long-term epistemic significance of human efforts to produce bio-based or bio-inspired materials. The double aim of this workshop is an edited volume or special issue, and to build a network of scholars interested in methodologically reflexive scholarship in fabrication studies that bridges the humanities, arts, and sciences. Event Schedule TBC       Harnack House, Conference Venue of the Max Planck Society, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany Lisa OnagaIsabela de Oliveira Dornelas Lisa OnagaIsabela de Oliveira Dornelas Europe/Berlin public